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.