... blogging before we leave Uzés ..

                    

Days 54 - 56 Uzés and surrounds

Photos

1.  The gang of smalls

2 and 3.  Donut day

4.  Roman temple Nîmes

5.  The arena Nîmes

6.  Pretty goat's cheese at the markets

7 and 8.   Icecream experts in action

For one of the hottest days ever we drove to a water fun park(more of a pool). We stayed there for 6 hours basically on a doughnut ride that went round part of the pool. Mum thinks we went on it 75 times! Another hot day was spent at an arena where they used to do bull fighting and animal fighting. One fact is that they fed the people that had been sentenced to death to the lions. Disgusting! On Tuesday (another really hot day) we went to a pool that Dad wasn't allowed to swim in. Apparently a lot of French pools only let people wear tight bathers and Dads weren't tight. It was fun

Lily  

For a nation known for its stylishness I'm not sure the French have got their pool rules sorted....budgie smugglers or tight boxers are not a look everyone can do well.  Or should.

And rashies are banned too... unless you are prepared to take on the whistle blowing life guards.  Although that's not surprising ... for a nation of hypochondriacs they smoke a lot, drink way too much coke and seem oblivious to the risk of UV.

While they did 75 rounds on the donuts ( I did manage about 15) we hired sun lounges (seriously - you have to pay extra to sit and watch your kids swim!) and read Harry #5 in its entirety (again) ...I'm not far behind Grace now who has almost finished The Half Blood Prince.  Simply can't get into Game of Thrones...any other recommendations??

We're all looking forward to Italy - more icecream, more pizza, more bolognaise....what's not to love?!!

We might even get Jack to try a gelati flavour other than citron.

A

On Monday we went to a water park.  FIrst we got changed in the change rooms.  Then we went on the donut ride.  I liked the donut ride because it had some slopes.  On the donut ride somtimes you span around on the first slope.  I fell off once but I didn't hurt myself.  I went on the donut ride about 70 times.  

Jack

This week it was so HOT.  We drove to a water park near Serviers. There was a donut ride.............. it was really fun.  Once when we were going round Jack and another boy we're trying to go down a little hill at the same time and at the bottom Jack's donut flipped over and scraped his ear................... it must have really hurt. 

 Grace

It is amazing how 35 degree heat slows you down...body and soul.
Jack ate his 100th plate of bolognese last night and we have not been to Italy yet.  

No run ins with toll roads this week only the French bather police.
You can only swim in French public swimming pools with budgie smugglers on! 
Not my best look!
Leaving France( again) for a month in Italy. Our holiday clock is ticking so much faster.
David

... summer in Provence ...

                            

Day 50-53  Engravies - -> Carcassonne --> Uzés

Photos

1.  A much older and cuter Citroen than the one we are driving 

2.  A breakfast to rival the best breakfast - at Domaine Thomson Engravies

3.  Too many good choices

4.  Mirepoix on market day

5.  Chateau Lastours

6.  Breakfast baskets at Carcasonne

7.  Carcassonne by evening light - we stayed within the walls

8.  Summery kids

9, 10, 11.  Pont du Gard

On Thursday  after a lovely breakfast of berries at Sarah's b&b we sadly said goodbye and started off for Carcassonne. We stopped at Mirepoix to have a last look. We didn't do very much but Mummy accidentally stepped in dog poo and her shoes smelt. 

On the way we stopped at a couple of ruins. Climbing up lots of stairs in the heat we finally made it to the top. One of the spiral staircases was pitch black so you had to feel your way around. There were four ruins in total and I don't know how we got through them all in the heat. 

After a long car ride and a few stops, we found ourselves at a sort of castle. But inside the castle it was like a mini town, with more than a couple of restaurants, shops, and apartments. The place we were staying was hard to find at first but we found it ok in the end. We set off looking for dinner after making ourselves feel at home in the apartment. There were a lot to choose from but in the end we found somewhere ok. We all shared a couple of things- they were average. Mummy said the most exciting thing about Carcassonne was the pigeon guts ( we saw a dead pigeon).  Jack wouldn't stop talking about guts after that. It was really quite disgusting. 

After bread and butter for breakfast we set off for Uzes, or as daddy pronounced it oozies. Today it was the hottest day of my life! We drove to Pont du Gard, to see what Grace calls an amazing roman bridge. It was quite amazing actually and because it was so hot we changed out of our clothes to bathers and slowly got used to the cold water. Grace and Daddy went out first while Jack and I splashed each other. Then when Jack got out Grace and I swam out quote far. We almost got to the other side but we didn't. After getting changed we had and ice cream. I had raspberry. 

Lily

Today we drove to Pont du Gard.  It was 33 degrees - the car said so.  Before we went down to the river we had an icecream.  In the river were loads of tiny fish and lots of slimy moss.  Lily and Grace had a competition to see who got the most slimy stuff and Grace won.

After we left Sarah's B&B we had a look round Mirepoix.  Then we went to some ruins.  We had to climb a mountain.  At the first ruin we climbed the tower.  It was really dark.

Jack.

Summer in Europe started officially on June 1 but everyone in the south of France know it started yesterday, June 7. Two days over 30 degrees and at least 5 more to come!

All adventures this week will involve at least some swimming in a river, pool or waterpark -  so if I can find a swimming pool (piscine) close by I hope to see Nimes' amphitheatre which is the best preserved in the world.

Pont du Gard today, the tallest Roman aqueduct ever made at 48 m and provided water for Nimes for 500 years. The Romans were impressive builders.

I have a major dilemma at moment as I am loving France but my family are trying to stop me uttering any words or sentences in French. They say I am committing some sort of crime against the language and if Mitterand was still President I would  be in gaol. I think they love me?

DK 4003km AT 0km

David

On Thursday we left Sarah's house (the B&B).  We stopped at Mirepoix to have a last look around because the market was on.  We bought some fruit and mummy went to the post office.  

Then we headed to Lastours.  There were four ruins on top of the hill.  My favourite one was the 4th one ... it had a lovely view.  Finally after a few more hours of driving we found Carcassonne.  From the outside it looked like we were staying in a huge castle.  When we actually got inside it was a small town.  It took us a few minutes to find our hotel.  We had two separate rooms... daddy, Lily, Jack and I slept in one and mummy slept in the other one.  

In the morning mummy collected baskets of bread and croissants from downstairs.  I had 1 1/2 croissants ... they were delicious (they weren't as good as Sarah's though).  Just before we left we saw a dead bird on the road, you could see its guts (I thought they were worms at first).

Friday was a really boring day in the car (except I got to play on my iPad mini a lot).

On Friday (in Uzes) we went out to dinner.  I had lots of different things.

Today we drove to Pont du Gard.  We were there to look at a great big bridge built by the romans.  We got to swim in the river under it.  In the river were little fish and green slime.  Lily and I had a competition to see who could get the most slime in their hands...I won.   Lily and I swam almost across to the other side of the river.  When we got back to shore my hands felt really weird and sore.  After that we got another icecream - I had mandarin for the 2nd time in a day!

Grace

... from Gaudi to the ice age ...

5.

Days 48- 50 ... Canet de Mar through the Pyrenees to Engravies and surrounds

Photos

1, 2 and 3. La Sagrada Familia (Gaudi's unfinished cathedral in Barcelona)

4.  For Maudy

5.  The pool...Engravies

6.  This morning's breakfast

7.  No photos allowed inside the caves...this was from the exhibition at the entrance to the caves

On Monday we caught a train to Barcelona .  Then we walked from the train station to a cathedral designed by Gaudi a famous architect (who died in a car crash ).  The windows were made of stained glass........they looked really cool.  One of the doors was full of religious words on it and one of the words in gold spelt Gracies.  So Mum got out her camera a took lots of photos of me next to it.  After we got a lift up the nativity tower up a few steps across a little bridge then down near the bottom we got to go down spiral stairs............ I felt like I was going to fall through the middle.  When we finished looking around the cathedral we went looking for lunch.  

Yesterday we drove from Canet de mar to Engravies.  We stopped at a little cafe on the side of the road.  We are staying in a B&B.  The lady who run the B&B's name is Sarah...........she's really nice.  

Today we drove up to the caves on the way we stoped at a little town called Mirepoix .........it was really pretty.  It took about an hour to get to the caves from Mirepoix. When we got there we all put our puffs on (and go to the toilet ).  We had to wait about half an hour for the tour to start. In the cave it was really slippery.  We got to see some of the drawings that the people in the ice age drew. The drawings were of animals like bison and horses.

Grace

Chased out of Spain with the abdicating King, Juan Carlos , due to the stick figure confusion. My only defence is that I had just seen Salvador Dali's art and that does make your mind do funny things.

The pleasure of the quick exit was the drive through The French Pyrenees back into France, with snow capped mountains, waterfalls and ski slopes covered with grass.

And some great tunnels;Europe does the tunnel perfectly!

The arrival back in France delivered two unexpected delights. Domaine Thompson , a B and B run by a entertaining Scottish lady, Sarah, who provided a prefect oasis . Great food, a log fire and a swimming pool. Sarah also recommended the second highlight, Grotte de Niaux, an unforgettable experience of ice age artwork.

It is great to be back in France( on the way to Italy).

David

Yesterday we drove from Barcelona to Mirepoix in France. The drive went through very tall mountains and on some of them there was snow.

Today we drove to The Grottes de Niaux and before we went in the caves we had to get the torches.Then we went into the cave with a big group and it was very dark. In the cave there was graffiti from hundreds of years ago. There was a black chamber where there drawings of animals that were from thousands and thousands of years ago.

I liked how they drew the bisons.

Jack

I like France better than Spain....it's prettier and neater (and we can put the children to bed earlier!)

Today's excursion was fabulous. The Grotte de Niaux are one of the few painted caves you can still visit ...I felt like I was with Ayla and Jondalar...who else remembers those books?

The paintings are about a kilometre inside the cave system...through slippery floors, narrow openings and muddy puddles. We had torches to guide us until we got to the main salon and there the guide darkened the space completely and illuminated small groups of paintings at a time - to oohs, aahs and gasps. 13900 years ago is not a number easily grasped by 3rd generation Australians. 

Tonight we are cosied up in a French farmhouse ... in front of the open fire in the room where the dairy cows used to be kept. We've had aperitifs, a 3 course home cooked dinner (all local produce and home grown fruit/veg) and I know there are croissants for breakfast ...really not sure I'm leaving tomorrow. 

On Monday we went to see the Gaudi cathedral. It was so amazing almost every window had stained glass on it. It looks funny, the new bits of the building against the old. There was a mini model near the entrance that showed what it was going to look like when it was finished. It looked quite impressive. Mum said that we had to do a quiz about the  cathedral to get an ice cream at the end of the day. All of us won a nice cream with a little bit of help from others. 

Yesterday we drove to back to France through the mountains. Jack said some of them had snow on them but Mum and Dad weren't so sure. We did get to see snow on the mountains in the end. I think Dad was a little bit scared of us being so high up. We stopped for lunch at a sandwich place that looked like it was closed but he let us have sandwiches. 

According to Dad's amazing French pronunciation we are now in Mirapoo (Mirepoix). We are staying at a nice B&b place with a pool! We had a swim in it, it was cold when you got in but nice afterwards. Today we drove to a cave. We went in with torches in a big group. The drawings and signs on the walls on the rock were amazing. We had to turn of the torches in the black chamber where all the drawings were because they were warm and the heat might damage the drawings. My favourite drawing was one of a horse.

Lily