France – by Elise

When we arrived in Paris, the thing I was most excited to do was to see the Eiffel tower. I was waiting our whole trip to do that! I was so happy that we made it to Paris. We walked around the city and saw the Louvre, Notre Dam, and of course the Eiffel Tower and lots of museums. The one that I liked the most was the Picasso museum, it had some pritty cool paintings. OK, I said I really liked the Eiffel Tour but what is better is the baguettes with avocato, cheese, turkey and mustard. I LOVE BAGUETTES.

The most annoying part of the trip is the driving. The one that we did was seven hours!I hate those things. After the seven hour drive we were all so excited to meet our friends, especially because we were going to the World Cup women’s soccer game. We got our shirts that said Canada, a hat that said Canada, a bag that said Canada, a Canada tatoo and a Canada flag. We were so excited because we were playing against a team that was not as good as us.That team was called the netherlands, BUT we lost.

We arrived in Languedoc, wich is close to Provence. We stayed at a place that used to be a barn. It was buatiful and big but I got bitten by so many mosquitoes. It was so hot so we went to the river. We got to the river and I went cliff jumping. I’m going to tel you the things I engoyed, the river the ice cream the bike rides the kayaking the baguettes and seeing our friends. I REALLY LIKE LANGUEDOC.

Paris part 2 – by Anna

Amelie bogged about our first two days in Paris and I’m blogging about the rest. Day 3 was spent at the Louvre Museum. It was so huge! We started off our visit at the Mona Lisa. On our way, we saw plenty of paintings from the French Revolution in 1789 and many religious paintings. When we entered the room with the Mona Lisa, we were all shocked because it was so small! When I thought of the Mona Lisa, I thought of it as a big painting but it was much smaller than I expected. It wasn’t very busy so we managed to get a selfie with her. After that, we walked down a very long hallway full of furniture from Louis XlV’s room. Don’t get me started on his bed, it was so luxurious. I thought that the kings looked quite funny in the paintings because of their wigs. When we were done with the French kings, we moved towards the Egyptian exhibition. We were all disappointed when we found out that section was closed for the day. On our way out, we stopped by the Venus de Milo. That night, we had a good dinner on the Champs D’Elysée, the most famous street in Paris. The next morning, we went to the Palais de Versailles. The palace was ruled by the King Louis’. We visited the palace and learned about the French Revolution. We did not end up visiting the beautiful gardens because they were closed. That night we went back to the Champs D’Elysée to do some shopping and to go up the Arc de Triomphe for a panoramic view of Paris. It really was spectacular. On father’s day, we visited the Picasso Museum. Picasso drew and sculpted some amazing things and some that seemed too simple to be famous. After the museum, we went for a walk to the Sainte-Chapelle church. It is well known in Paris because of its beautiful stained glass windows. It was one of the most beautiful churches I’d ever seen. There wasn’t a single window without stained glass. In the late afternoon, we went for a walk around a quaint neighbourhood and enjoyed ice cream. The weather was so hot! The next morning, we drove down to………..Provence!

Paris part1-by Amelie

Paris was definitely something on my bucket list. It was great! We were there for six nights, so we saw a lot of the city. We stayed in a great location in the middle of the city. The first morning, we walked along the Seine river. We also saw the Notre Dam witch was beautiful. We walked past the Louvre, Le Grand Palais and a lot of different buildings, palaces and museums. In the afternoon, we went to the Eiffel Tower. We went up to top floor and it had a beautiful view of the big city. After the Eiffel Tower, we went to the Champs D’Elysee (which is the shopping road in Paris, one of the most famous roads in the world). The next day, my dad had to work so we went to the Musée d’Orsay. The museum was full of pretty paintings and sculptures.Later that day, we went to the Catacombs. The Catacombs are tunnels built underground for the bones of the graveyards, because there was no more room for the buildings of the city. We waited in a long, long line to get in. When we finally got to the front of the line, we went down a lot of stairs. We walked down a long underground tunnel and finally entered the room of bones. There were so many bones, which means there were so many people who died. Those first few days were amazing! Anna has blogged about the rest of the time in Paris.

Languedoc, France, part 1- by Anna

Languedoc was a nice break from travelling. One of the first things that we planned before starting our trip was our two weeks in Provence. At midnight, we arrived at La Grange, an old converted barn. The first two days were spent buying groceries and exploring the surrounding towns. We drove up to Reims on Friday to meet up with our friends, Mikaela,12, Emily,9, and their parents, Sara and Neils. We met up with them at the Canada vs Netherlands womens World Cup soccer game. We lost 1-2 but it was a really fun game. The next day, when we got back to our mini town called Vers Pont du Gard, we had a lovely dinner with our friends who were joining us for our time in Provence. Our town had less then 2000 people. There is a local bakery with delicious chocolate croissant that we would have for breakfast almost every day, a cute bar, a cafe, a magazine store, and a fresh produce market every two days. If we wanted something besides fruits and veggies, we would have to drive to the big supermarket 20 mins away. We were staying in a perfect location because we were about 45 min drive away from Avignon and 10 min drive away from Uzes. During our two weeks in Provence, it was record breaking hot! We spent lots of time cliff jumping in the river, surrounded by french teens toppless bathing. The frustrating thing about the river was that I got the swimmers itch. Now that sucked. While travelling, we eat out 90% of the time so it was nice to finally enjoy some homemade meals. We went on a bike ride one day but it was so hot that we decided not to do it again. Amelie is blogging about part 2.