Jeudi 28 October

Today we drove to Nice, and I was reading in the car and I’m not supposed to read in a moving car but I did anyway and I got a headache. We have learned that one place with free internet access in France is McDonald’s, so for a few blog posts we had to go to McDonald’s to have wifi. My dad said that I should mark that on my calendar, the day he was looking for a McDonald's.  After the headache we went for a walk on the beach and picked up cool rocks, shells, and pieces of beach glass. 

Then we went to look for the Chagall and Matisse museums. There was a huge political protest march against retirement reform that lasted hours and we couldn’t get to either of the museums so we went to get our swim suits on and go swimming.

Then we went back to our flat with one last  stop at McDonalds so that I could post my blog. When we got to our flat I ate dinner and went out like a light.

Mercredi 27 October

Today we drove the Mediterranean coast from Cannes to Saint Tropez and found huge rocks that you can hop on in the water. 

Before that I went swimming at the beach in Cannes and that was one of the sandiest beaches I have ever seen. 

Then we went to get ice cream in St Tropez and along the beach and my mom found a painting that she liked and bought it. We used the Autoroute to return to Le Cannet, and in France the Autoroutes are like interstate highways in the USA, except they are toll roads. When we arrived at our exit my dad thought he only had a fifty Euro note, and the toll machine won’t accept anything larger than a twenty, but at the last minute he found the last coins he needed and we got away! Then we went back to our flat and ate dinner and went to bed.

Mardi 26 October

We stopped at Pont Du Gard, a famous aqueduct built by the Romans 2000 years ago.

It was used to carry water 70 miles to Nimes and surrounding towns.

The aqueduct was used so that you don’t have to go 70 miles to get a bucket of water and 70 miles back, so 140 miles all together.  This portion of the aqueduct crosses a canyon; they used tunnels and lead pipe to carry the water to many areas. The museum had a display that showed all of the possible routes that the aqueduct could take. We got to see how much it would cost in money and labor to take the shortest route, longest, and medium.

Can you guess which the Romans took? The shortest was the most expensive and hardest to build so the labor was really bad. The medium was a little bit easier but would still cost a lot. The longest was pretty expensive but they wouldn’t have to work as hard because the ground was flat. If you guessed the longest route you were right!  

Then we went to a wine museum that wasn’t very interesting to me. And we went to a chocolate museum and tasted chocolates and some wine. We visited some vineyards and wineries in Provence and tasted wine---- in France kids are allowed to taste, but not drink wine, so I tasted the wine as well.

Lundi 25 October

We are on the road and traveling to  Avignon. When we arrived there was a huge windstorm. Could it be any colder in Avignon? We went out for dinner and I almost froze my nose off! I don’t think it can get colder here in Avignon. We are staying in Hotel De Colbert. Not much happening today because we arrived at 8:00 at night. 

Dimanche 24 October

Today I went to Montmartre and one of the markets in the district. 

There was a whole square filled with artists.  The town has many painters that like to sell all their art. One artist offered to sketch my picture for one hundred Euros ($140). My dad was less than thrilled.  Montmartre has a chapel that two people had built for the town because the Germans didn’t invade Paris.

The chapel has many arches with keystones; in fact one window was made up of 4 arches. 

I have also become pretty good at eating chocolate eclairs

Samedi 23 October

Today I went to a lake called Lac des Minimes. It’s in a huge park called Bois de Vincennes. I saw an old fort that had a castle in it and it was very interesting to look at. 

 

The park was so huge that when my mom went running in it, she got a bit lost.

My dad left me at a snack stand to wait in case my mom came back, and he went around the lake to find her. Of course while he was gone my mom came back. Later, when we went shopping for groceries we had our first rain of the trip, a huge downpour and thunder storm when we were out and about. We stood in the rain awhile, but I had the umbrella and didn’t get as wet as my parents.

A black swan at Lac des Minimes

Vendredi 22 October

Today I went to The Palace Of Versailles.

King Louis the 14th built the palace in the year 1648 when he started to become King. Versailles replaced the Louvre as the king’s palace. He had 20,000 people stay in the palace. He called himself the Sun King because he lit up everyone’s future.

 King Louis XIV

The palace is the largest palace in Europe.

 The Hall of Mirrors

The Sun King's Chapel

The Apollo Fountain

He had his gardeners build the gardens like mazes. The grandson of King Louis the 14th was King Louis the 16th and he built his queen a chateau where she stayed when she got bored. King Louis the 16th was the king during the French Revolution and he and the queen were beheaded. The Queen of Louis he 14th’s bedroom is cooler than the King’s bedroom. King Louis the 14th’s son was called the Dauphine and he got a tiny bedroom until he left. The Palace was extremely fun and cool and I want to see it again sometime.

I also went to the Arc de Triomphe and took pictures of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. I climbed 273 stairs to get to the top of the Arc.

The Arc de Triomphe

 The Arc from below

The Arc de Triomphe has three huge arches, there are two on either side


From the top of the Arc De Triomphe you can see all of Paris. The Arc was built by Napoleon to honor his French soldiers and their military victorys. It is also used as the end of the Tour de France bicycle race.

Juedi 21 October

Today I went to the Louvre and Pompidou Center. The Pompidou is modern art from the 20th century. The Pompidou is offbeat wild and crazy 20th century. My favorite part about the Pompidou was the projected video on the floor that you could walk through. Everything had color and nothing was the same. At the Pompidou art was interactive and some were pretty much 3d. The Pompidou was really cool especially at night. The Louvre is a huge museum that has over 30,000 pieces of art that cover ancient history through the early 1800. My favorite part about the Louvre was the Mona Lisa. The Louvre is the most famous museum in Paris and The Mona Lisa is a really famous piece of art. Both the Louvre and Pompidou Center were very cool.

Mercredi 20 October

I visited the Eiffel Tower and climbed 43 stories of stairs.













The Eiffel Tower is built of all steel and rivets.

The steel girders are connected with crosses and star shapes and 2.5 million rivets to hold the tower together. 

 The Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world when it was built. 

 From the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower you can see all of Paris, including Invalides, a 400 year old domed church with the tomb of the former Emperor Napoleon. 

   I also saw a very famous sculpture by the artist Rodin-- La Penseur. 

Mardi 19 October

I saw the inside of the Notre Dame and Sainte Chapel and saw many bridges

 We found many bridges that all crossed The River Seine. There are 21 bridges that cross the river in the city. Many are hundreds of years old and made entirely out of cut stone. 

They have pedestrian only bridges that teeter precariously over the water and bridges for cars and people. All of the bridges are very beautiful and amazing. The keystone in one of the bridges is very faint but you can still see it-- can you find the keystone?

Then there was the Notre Dame cathedral that was started almost one thousand years ago and it took 200 years or more build. The buttresses that come off of the Notre Dame are keeping the huge building upright because with its stone only construction it can’t stand upright on its own.

There was a steel pedestrian bridge that had been made way earlier than the other steel bridges and the underside had tiny arches that support the big one.