Venice, Italy

Venice is a unique European city, and it would be considered so anywhere in the world. There isn't any room on the narrow streets for cars, so you have to leave them in a parking lot a little ways off. There are boats everywhere, and throughout the entire time that we were there, every time I saw two boats on the same canal I was afraid that they were going to crash. But they never did. Somehow, whoever was steering the boats always managed to avoid contact at the very last moment. We ended up not visiting many things, but what we did see was amazing. We toured the San Marco church. The walls were covered in beautiful gold mosaics that depicted various scenes from the Bible and phrases in Latin. At one time, the mosaics had all been silver because it was the most precious metal. But when gold became more valuable, they had everything redone. By far our favorite thing in Venice was the clock tower in the Piazza San Marco. It was a twenty-four hour clock, which was something Darcy had always fantasized about. At every hour, two mechanical men at the very top rang a bell. We only got to see it once, but at certain times of day more mechanical men come out from the middle. The clock had a sun on the hour hand and a moon on the minute hand. Around the edges there were all the signs of the Zodiac. Since we went during June, Gemini was at the top, which was cool because Darcy and I are Gemini.
It rained every day that we were there. As soon as the rain started, all of the street venders would suddenly conjure umbrellas from nowhere. The Piazza San Marco flooded, and there was  only a small strip of land that wasn't covered in water. Everybody who didn't want to get their shoes wet got stuck in a human traffic jam on this tiny strip. However, those who didn't care about getting wet (me included) took off their shoes and ran through the water. We got around much faster and had much more fun than those in the human traffic jam.
On the last day we visited the fish market. We saw all manner of strange and exotic fish (we even saw a swordfish head), when we realized that we were actually looking at fish that we had eaten in their raw form we got pretty grossed out. The day we left it was bright and sunny (of course). We took a water taxi to the mainland waved goodbye to the floating city of Venice.

The Cliffs of Moher

 If you have seen the movie The Princess Bride, then you will remember the Cliffs of Insanity, which were filmed at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. The outside part of the cave in Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince was filmed there too. The cliffs are tall and stretch a long way out into the ocean. From afar, you can see the waves crashing against them so hard that spray actually comes over the top to water the plants! There is a tower on top which you can climb and get a better view. It was extremely windy when we went. I don't know if that's how it always is, but it was so windy for us that you could lean into the wind completely and not fall over.  Inside there is an exhibition about sea life and geology.

Castles in Ireland

We visited two castles while in Ireland. One of them had been transformed into a hotel and the other was a restored, medieval castle. At Dromoland castle (the hotel) we wandered around the grounds and attempted to lose Bridget and throw Audrey off a tower. Bunratty Castle was rated number two on our list of awesome castles. It has been fully furnished to look like it did in the medieval times. It had numerous towers and Bridget and I almost got blown off the roof because it was so windy. It had a medieval village around the castle so we got to see what traditional cottages and shops looked like in Ireland several hundred years ago.

Carcassonne

Carcassonne was definitely one of the more amazing chateaux/castles that we've visited so far. It has been almost completely restored and looks kind of like one of the castles that you see in fairy tales, although it is probably a lot more defensible. Carcassonne got its name when the town and Chateau were under siege. The people of the town were starving and were just about ready to give themselves up to the French when one of the noble ladies of the chateau took their last pig and fed it with the last of their grain and then threw it over the battlements. When the French saw the pig they thought that the people of the town must have a lot more food if they were able to throw away their pigs and therefore they would not be able to starve them out. They lifted the siege and the noble lady became the lady of Carcassonne (carcass for pig carcass).

We checked into a hotel that had a view of the walls surrounding Carcassonne so that we could stare at them all night. The next morning we went into the town of Carcassonne and saw the chateau and went up on the battlements. The view was beautiful and had we not been on our way to Barcelona that day we might have stayed for a couple days to look around the city. As it was we took the chance to see it again on our way back.

Les Baux

Les Baux is an old town full of winding streets, and in it on top of a hill is an old fortress called Le Chateau Des Baux (inventive!). There was a lot of bauxite mined around it, which is how bauxite got its name. The fortress is really cool. It was ruined by the town voluntarily because it became a haven for rebels. Everything about it has a sort of feeling of time, of things destroyed. It would be the coolest thing if it was actually still whole because there are lots of floors and arches that are obvious, but there is no possible way to get to them. It's insanely huge, with absolutely magnificent views from the high watch towers. The place was virtually impregnable because of the height advantages. Just on the ground, you can see for miles and miles. The highest part was really windy, and the stairs were so worn that I was seriously afraid of falling. It's awesome to look down and see all the different patches of ground that belong to different people and are laid out so diversely. Occasionally they do exhibitions of the gigantic catapults on display outside. Unfortunately, we were not able to see them.There is a small church where they play a movie showing off the grounds from above. I stayed for the exciting part at the beginning when there were some of the catapults and fencing tournaments. The town is really cool and has lots of candy/touristy shops. It was the kind of town that made you want to go explore. Les Baux is a really cool place to visit, I'd say.

Andorra

Andorra, for those of you who don't know, is a small country between Spain and France. I had never heard of it, but it's there. We were driving back from Barcelona, and we decided to stop in Andorra just to see what it was like and to get a t-shirt. We were driving through a bunch of tunnels, and when we weren't in a tunnel, it was just grassy mountains and valleys on either side. Then suddenly we hit Andorra, and there were lots of security guards checking the cars. Because it's a part of the EU, you don't have to show your passport or change currency, which was nice. We ate lunch at a small place by an artificial duck pond. The menu was in four languages (Spanish, Catalan, French, and English) and our waiter appeared to be good with all of them. The ducks were free to come and go around the place, which was a little bit weird. Andorra has really low tax rates compared to Spain and France, so the entire place is filled with stores. As Mom put it, "It would be quicker and easier to buy a car than to find a place that sold touristy shirts. We did have a lot of trouble finding stuff, mostly because the Andorrans spend until three eating lunch. And I thought the Spanish and the French were slow. There wasn't much in the way of interesting historical sites, so we really didn't spend much time there. Everybody was pretty nice, but it didn't feel quite right. Every little bit reminded you of something from a place you'd already been, but it didn't really cohere. Nothing seemed to go together in a nice way. I suppose the ski lodges we saw on the way out wouldn't have been bad. It didn't make a very good impression on us, though. We had lunch and ice cream, bought shirts, and left pretty quickly. And that was that. Not even any pictures to help us remember how glorious it was.

Barcelona, Spain

We decided to go to Barcelona to get out of France for a while. It was nice although extremely confusing to hear spanish again. For awhile at the beginning we kept saying 'Merci' instead of 'Gracias'. The week before our lovely english teacher had us do research projects on the architecture of Barcelona, which, as much as I hate homework, made the trip more interesting. My project was on Antonio Gaudi, so we went and  visited some of his buildings, the most famous of which is the Sagrada Famillia, which is an incredible cathedral built with a lot of spires. It  looks like it should technically not be able to stay up. We also visited a couple of his apartment buildings which would be pretty cool to live in. We saw a housing complex he was going to build but never finished, which has been turned into a park and has a view of the whole of Barcelona.

I will remember:  having a good time eating lots of tapas and chorizo, going to the Barcelona beach, and trying to figure out how to tell a taxi driver where we wanted to go.

Avignon

  We ate lunch in Avignon, and then we walked to see the Palais des Papes. We never actually went in, but just the outside was intriguing. It was a very tall building made of white stone. We walked in a little alleyway that had the Palais on one side, and a rock face on the other. I couldn't help but want to climb both. The Palais was full of contours and corners where there shouldn't be, it seemed to me. We walked on to look at a bronze statue of an elephant on its head, and a gold statue of the Virgin Mary. Behind Mary, there was a large garden that we played in for a while. There was a telescope so you could look out at the Pont D'Avignon and observe the tourists. You could also see several other castles through it. I found my favorite castle of all in the garden. It was a castle carved straight from the rock and made for kids. Even though it wasn't that big, it had a pond, and a place at the top to look out at the view. The rock was so craggy that there were many places you could hide in or look down at the pond. It was awesome. Then we walked on to the Pont D'Avignon. There's a song about it in French that is entirely about dancing either on or under the Pont D'Avignon. So, of course, we just had to dance in front of all the tourists. The water was swirling under us, and the view was amazing. The bridge ended halfway because it broke off, so it wasn't much use to cars. I only provided for a better view, All in all, Avignon was a pretty fun trip.

Cité des Sciences et Industries

When we went to Paris for the second time, we saw a lot more things. My favorite was the Cité des Sciences et Industries. It was a science museum that covered everything from math to sounds to genes. All the exhibits were really interactive and most of them explained things in French and English, except the one concerning infinitesimal calculus, of course. We spent a lot of time in the math section. The exhibits explained the Pythagorean Theorem, regular polygons, fractals, and how Galileo figured out where some of the other planets were. The sound section explained sound modification for commercial purposes. Did you know that they actually modify cereal to try to make it sound more crunchy? There was also a place where you could take sounds and speed them up, slow them down, or play them backwards. My favorite was the bell going backwards. The light section was filled with illusions of all kinds. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend much time there. I could easily have spent a week there, and I hope that one day I get to go back. 

Versailles, Paris

The Palace of Versailles

My Crazy Cousins

The Hall of Mirrors

During our time in Paris with our cousins we decided to take the train to visit the palace of Versailles.  Although it had once been a hunting lodge for King Louis XIV I have to say either it was a very grand hunting lodge or they did some major construction, because even the word palace seemed to be an understatement. All this was our impression as we saw the front before we even saw the grounds which are miles of carefully structured and incredibly beautiful gardens. Oh and with their own private man made canal/lake  built to reflect the sunrise. Awesome, right? We spent most of the day wandering around the grounds, eating extremely sour lemon sorbet and watching musical fountain shows. We also visited the Petit Trianon which was Marie Antoinette's private  retreat.  I have to say it was not very petite. It was a lot bigger than most houses but was still dwarfed by the palace. It was sad to see that the king would rather spend France into ruin keeping his wife happy instead of just letting her go home to Austria to visit. At the end of the day Bridget, Dad and I stayed to see the inside of the palace. We saw the famous hall of mirrors and the king and queen's bedchambers which I don't think I would been able sleep in, because for one thing the bedcovers were embroidered with gold and were undoubtedly very heavy. Also the bed was the only piece of furniture in the room apparently to leave room for the thirty or so nobles and servants who came in to dress the king and queen every morning. Imagine having to wake up with that many people staring at you. Suffice it to say the kings and queens of france who lived at Versailles lived in unimaginable luxury right up to the beginning of the French Revolution.

Carvnival

The Carnival is a celebration in France that is most famous in Nice. It differs in each town, but there are some things that stay the same. For example, there is always a big parade with floats, confetti, streamers, and the like. This year, the theme for the Carnival in Aix was Tim Burton movies. He directed stuff like Edward Scissor-Hands and the new Alice in Wonderland, so as you can imagine, the costumes were amazing. Each float was decorated beautifully, and there were people playing music and dancing in the parade as well. It moved pretty slowly, but it was fun to watch. Some floats had made up a routine. Everybody had big bags of confetti that they threw at everyone. Even the bystanders had put on costumes. The Cours Mirabeau, which is the center street, was littered with streamers and venders selling cotton candy. Even the statue of Roi René was decorated in blue.
     The Carnival used to always be held before Lent, kind of like Mardi Gras. However, as France is a 'nonreligious' country, it can be held at any time. Ours was actually during Lent. I believe that the Carnival is held in most cities in France, at varying times of the year. It was fun to get covered in confetti and watch the happy people dance by in their hilarious costumes.

Pont du Gard, Nimes

We decided to go kayaking down the Gardon river under the Pont du Gard. We went for dad's birthday and we ate his birthday lunch sitting on a rock in the middle of the Gardon river with a beautiful view all around us. The Gardon river was much bigger than anyone coming from Santa Fe, or any other desert, would have anticipated. It was twice as wide as the "Rio Grande" in New Mexico and probably at least three times as deep. In fact it was deep enough for Bridget and I to jump off a small cliff into the river, something we would not have even considered as a possibility in New Mexico. Bridget and I paddled fast in ordered to beat our parents to the Pont du Gard, but we didn't have to worry because for one thing the river was doing most of the work for us and for another our parents were just drifting down the river enjoying the scenery. We passed a castle on the river's edge which was very picturesque and put us in mind of medieval times. Just as we were beginning to worry that we wouldn't reach the Pont du Gard in time we came around a bend and saw a three tiered aqueduct that Bridget and I figured must be the Pont du Gard because it was the only Roman aqueduct around. The day before our lovely english teacher gave us a history lesson about Agrippa who had ordered the construction of the aqueduct. He was also the founder of Nimes which we visited the day before. The aqueduct carried water to the town of Nimes and although it is no longer in use, it is still perfectly intact. After a break to go swimming and eat chocolate we kayaked under the Pont du Gard which gave us an up close view of this ancient monument.

First Post

4/5/11 Bridget

Bonjour. We are twins living in France. Our names are Darcy and Bridget. If you see a reference to a Weirdo, it means that I am mentioning Darcy. Darcy has not yet come up with my nickname. So far, the vocabulary is 'bonjour, merci, s'il vous plaît, and gezundeit,' the last one being German. As you can see, we know quite a lot of French. Just kidding. So anyway, this is for an English assignment assigned by our dear mother, who also happens to be our English teacher. So some things might sound slightly forced, or not entirely truthful. For the most part, though, the facts are right. Hope you like it.

4/5/11 Darcy

People who know me will know my family and I are living in France right now. It has been a great adventure (yeah right). As Bridget said this is being edited by our lovely english teacher. So although that last part wasn't entirely truthful you still get the point. Before we came here I was under the impression that we were here to learn French, but as we are all still struggling to comprehend the incredibly confusing language spoken by people living in France, Dad has amended that impression and we are now here for a "cultural experience". So my sister Bridget and I will try to give "an impression" of our cultural experience and I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did. 

The Camargue, Mediterranean

The Camargue is the vast marsh land in the south of France. It is populated by wild horses, flamingos (no joke) and sun tanned people. It contains salt dunes, which are exactly what they sound like. They are mounds of salt shaped by the wind to form dunes. Oh and did I mention that the town is completely white, making it blinding to look at.
The place we visited was Saint-Marie de la Mer, which has another claim to fame; it is where Mary Magdalene and her maidens washed up on the beach. They have a festival commemorating it every year and the town is named after her.

We were going to go on a bike ride around the Camargue but we got sidetracked and stayed on the beach instead. Mom visited the Church where the relics of Saint Sarah are kept. We sat at a restaurant and ate Paella while watching the waves lap up on the shore. The Camargue, from what I have seen of it, seems to be a very peaceful, empty place.

Cassis, Mediterranean

We visited Cassis twice. The first time was on one of our very first trips out of Aix. It was the middle of February, windy and the water was freezing cold but Bridget and I got in anyway. After weeks of not doing anything except go to school and sleep it was, as Bridget sarcastically put it, "very refreshing."
Watching the dark sea beneath the gray horizon one could imagine what it was like for the Greeks or Romans being washed up on the rocky shores of this strange land.


The second time we went it was with our relatives, the Kozelas. The sun was shining this time and we watched sail boats bobbing in the water as we ate our Boullibaise (a famous French fish stew, try saying that 5 times fast!) on the harbor. We lay on the beach soaking up the sun and Bridget and I braved the water again, although no one else would come in even though we told them how "warm" it was.

Chinese New Year

I remember that Chinese New Year was always a bit of a deal at my old school, but nothing special. Little did I know what I was in store for here. I didn't even realize that it was Chinese New Year until it came up in class and my French teacher told us how it was the start of the year of the rabbit. We had that class right before lunch, where they had done a lot. The whole cafeteria had been decorated with fans and decorations, the meal was something we thought might have been fried rice, and the servers had even dressed up a bit. So that was cool. My parents decided that we were going to go out to dinner to celebrate it, but they didn't want to catch all the crowds. So we decided to celebrate it the next night instead. We found a nice little restaurant with Chinese food, and we went there. There was some mention of a reservation later that night, so we were going to have to eat quickly. When we finally got out, there was a bit of a commotion in the street: some people were dressing up and putting decorations on the outside of the window. We stayed there for a while to see what was going to happen. Finally, we were rewarded. They had two Chinese dragon costumes, and a little man costume as well. There was some cymbals banging in the background, and they did a little dance. I must say, the dragons were a bit scary when they got near you. It was very cool.

King's Day

King's Day, a.k.a. L'Epiphany, took place on January 6th. This is another one of those celebrations that I never really paid much attention to until we arrived here. It was just a few days after we had arrived here, so we were still a bit disoriented. However, we decided to get the cake and celebrate the traditional way. According to the tradition, you buy a special cake called the Kings' Cake which has a small toy hidden in it that's supposed to bring good luck. In French, they call it La Galette Des Rois. Then, while someone cuts it, the youngest child gets under the table and says who each piece is for. It might seem a bit weird, but it's supposedly because it's such a great honor to get the toy that they want to make sure that nobody cheats. The youngest in our family is Audrey, and my mom was cutting the cake. She didn't realize that the cake was supposed to be cut into equal pieces, so she started out small, and then the pieces slowly got bigger and bigger. Mom had just cut a very small piece, and we were joking above-table that Darcy would get that piece when Audrey shouted out "That piece is for Darcy." The pieces were getting rather large to accommodate the size of the cake because we had to eat it all to find the toy. The last and biggest piece ended up being for Audrey. The cake was okay, nothing great. Audrey, having the best chance of all of us, actually did end up getting the toy. Funny how statistics sometimes work out. The toy was a small porcelain baby. Audrey got to put on the crown, too. All in all, I would say that King's Day was pretty fun.

Paris, France

Our first impression of France was Paris viewed through a thick pink fog in the very early morning. We drove in an overcrowded taxi to the Hotel de Louvre, which is right across the street from the Louvre. All we wanted to do was collapse, but Dad insisted on dragging us around to view Paris. Paris is populated mostly by pigeons and fashionable ladies with very small dogs. After lunch at a small cafe, we visited the Louvre, which is miles long. We saw 'Winged Victory' and the 'Mona Lisa' among many other things.