The happiest place on earth??

You bet it is! Disneyland Paris was totally amazingly awesome!!! We were there for 3 days and it was brilliant.

Pluto and I made up after the tail pulling incident when I was 4 years old. Apparently, I pulled Pluto's tail on the morning of the first day and for the rest of the trip I was scared/hated all the Disney characters. But I certainly made up for it this time.

I had my photo taken with Donald, Mickey, Minnie, Lilo, Tac and Tic (the Chipmunks) and Daisy.

We were there for the Halloween celebrations too which were really cool. The whole park was decked out with creepy decorations and music.

My oncle Steve also gave me money to buy a costume to wear around the park so I bought a pirate one, with I accessorised with two swords and a gun. I looked pretty handsome...

While my mum's favourite part was the Alice in Wonderland labyrinth, mine was Space Mountain which was a rollercoaster ride in Discoveryland. I made my mum go on it with me 4 times even though it made her want to throw up.

And we also went to the Disney Studio, which wasn't as good as the park. But they did have what they call the Tower of Terror, which is identical to the Giant Drop at Dreamworld. I wanted to go on it, but my mum wouldn't let me. I had convinced her to go with me on the Giant Drop at Dreamworld which turned out to be really horrible. When I got off it I must have looked scared because the assistant death stared my mum. Little did she know that I had been the one that nagged mum to take me on it and that she felt *much* worse than I did. So, no. She didn't take me on the Tower of Terror. But she did insist I pose with Mikey from Monsters Inc, one of her favourite movies.


The accommodation was first class too. We stayed at the New York hotel which was very fancy indeed. In fact, I had the whole pool to myself one day with my own personal life guard. The service was great and it was really close to the park.

Overall, I gave Disneyland Parc infinity out of 10!! The NY hotel 4.5/5 and the studio 4/5. Totally awesome and I totally want to go back really soon.

"I am a Robot"

We're on our way north and first stop was Futuroscope, a couple of hours south of Paris. Not having heard of it before we left Australia, we had seen exciting looking brochures for it absolutely everywhere and decided that it must be a must-see.


I'm glad we went but was a little disappointed that half the "attractions" were closed plus all but one of the rides. They only open in summer I guess.

The buildings looked really cool but basically only played movies that were over 20 years old and had nothing to do with the future. There was a kind of cool one on space and also one on dinosaurs but the worst being a really, really dodgy "4D" tourism flick on the Vienne region. The only "4th dimensional" part being a magical tree sneezing on the audience three times. Lame.

However, there were a few good things about Futuroscope.

1. The play equipment.

2. The ball room.

3. The volanco.

But the best of all was the laser show which was amazingly awesome.

So, overall, I give Futuroscope 3/5. I'd go again, but would definately go in summer.

Au Revoir Eymoutiers

We had a quiet last day in Eymoutiers.

I ate cake from my favourite patisserie in our favourite spot.


Then, I fell into La Vienne kind of on purpose.

Later we had cheese and fresh bread in the park again, without the litre of apple juice.

And I finally Googled why there are so many plane vapor trails in France. (I've been wondering about it the whole time I've been here.)

Two reasons; the first, like the other, rational, responders have pointed out is the density of air traffic over Europe compared to Australia. The vapor trails are also influenced by the amount of moisture in the air. The atmosphere over Europe has a much higher level of moisture and is therefore more likely to allow the formation of a vapor trail. (yahoo answers)

Mystery solved... Which is more I can say about our visit to the art gallery. The visiting artist's work was nice enough. None of the women wore shirts in any of the pieces, but at least they were colourful and happy.

Paul Rebeyrolle's work, on the other hand, wasn't as happy or colourful. Rebeyrolle is one of France's most famous artists and was born in Eymoutiers. (And this was one of his more tame pieces.)

Overall, I had enjoyed our stay in Eymoutiers and was a little sad to leave. On our last day, it seemed that everyone we had ever met was in town and greeting us with a happy "bonjour". French people definately aren't rude, at least the country folk aren't. I think I'll miss Eymoutiers.

The Normans peacefully invaded England for 400-odd years and introduced 10,000 French words into our vocabulary, 7,500 of which are still in use. The thing I found out though is that the Normans were actually Vikings who had settled in France (Normandy) 200 years before. Strangely, however, they took on the French language and culture and didn't leave a single Nordic word in northern France.

Look at that S-car go!

Obviously, I couldn't leave France without trying escargot. I was surprised to learn that although many of the snails come from snail farms (there are over 200 in France) many come from the wild. Indeed, many French people enjoy going snail hunting and cooking up their own gooey booty. (Turns out we even have snail farms in Australia.)

Anyway, enjoy the little movie my mum and I made of the whole ugsome experience. I feel sick just thinking about it again.... (Oh and sorry about the slides playing music - it's annoying, but I can't turn it off!)

But, I must hasten to add, that the service was 10/10 and the dessert 10,000/10!! I was even given a private tour of the kitchen and met the chef! Another really great restaurant in Eymoutiers with more really lovely French people.

And now for my two favourite snail jokes.

Joke 1

The old snail was at the pub when he said, "When I get a sporty race car, I'm going to paint a big 'S' on the side of it so when I go past everyone they'll all exclaim - Look at that S-car go!!"

Joke 2

A snail is at the police station. He's telling the officer on duty about how he was just mugged and robbed.

"It was two turtles!" the snail sobs. "They beat me up and took my money!"

The officer asks "Did you get a good look at them?"

The snail says, "No! It all happened so fast!"

A patron saint of crytoscopophilia?

Yesterday, I recognised the first symptoms of what I later found out was crytoscopophilia. And it all began when my mum and I were exploring Eymoutiers.

After a lazy morning, we headed out into town to go the markets. There was lots of cheese, fresh bread of all different shapes and sizes, lots of weird looking types of meat and, of course, boxes and boxes of fruit and vegetables. One store owner kindly gave me a red apple for free and, amazingly, it turned out to be the best apple I've ever tasted!!

There are actually apple trees everywhere around here. I was told that it's difficult to do a lot of things in France, but getting your apples pressed isn't one of them. You can just take your apples to the local presser, and they squish them down and give you the apple juice. And boy is it good! We had bought a litre of apple juice to have with our picnic of cheese and bread. Though, it turned out, drinking a litre of apple juice all in one go, isn't such a good idea...


We spent a large part of the day next to the river, just down the road from my school. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the river was louding burbling away next to us. Burbling? Bubbling? Gurgling? What does a river sound like?? It reminds me of the fact that people from different cultures hear animal noises differently too. While English speakers hear a dog say "woof-woof", here in France dogs say "ouâ-ouâ", in Italy they say "bu-bu" and somehow, in Korea, a dog barking sounds like "mung-mung". I'm not sure how that one works though. But then again, a dog really doesn't say "woof-woof" either.


We were also lucky to have dropped into the local pâtisserie to buy an ice-cream as we discovered that this week (du 21 au 29 septembre) pâtissiers celebrate their patron saint, Saint Michel.

This is a photo I took of my mum enjoying the last bit of the delicious tasting and magical-looking pastry which is briefly being sold all around the country in his honour. This is what the pastry looked like this year.

Outside was covered in soft icing dipped in red sugar and the inside had blackburry jam at the top, coconut mushy stuff in the middle and a cakey/biscuity/nutty base. And it was really, really good.

Actually, I'm a little intrigued by the concept of patron saints, so did a quick Google search and found that a Saint Michel is also the patron saint of parachutists, strangely enough. Spurred on by the apparent nugget of truth in my mum's assertion that practically every activity on earth has a parton saint, I googled again and found that, by jove, she might be right!

Sensibly, there is a patron saint "against snakes". Umm, actually make that 8 patron saints against them. Which upon reflection is a bit harsh. Why are they against them?? Do snakes have a patron saint? Or even a patron saint for snakes - against humans? (We all know that snakes are more frightened of people than we are of them...)

Then there are patron saints for animals as well as animals with horns, domestic animals, sick animals and animal attacks. There are 3 saints for protection against mice and one against caterpilllars. There are saints for losing your keys, against explosions (Saint Barbara...), against fainting and also stinging nettle rash, which I will have to remember for next time. And Radegunde is the lucky guy who gets to be the patron against scabs. (And they are just a few of the A's!)

Anyhoo, the rest of the day we spent exploring the town which is when I started to develop crytoscopophilia. Of course, I didn't know the name of it at the time. It was just a coincidence that my mum was reading a book later that day which oddly enough contained the name of my nosey condition. It means "an urge to look through the windows of the homes you pass". And it's true. I can't help myself. I stop in my tracks if I've passed an open window, jumped a step back and poke my head in. I mean, the houses are right up against the pathway. It's very difficult not to poke your head in, to see how the "others" live, right??




Although I haven't been yelled at yet, is it a habit that I should try to get out of quickly. But apart from that, I think yesterday was probably the best day yet in France. And today, I'm going to ride my bike around town and try to find some more cool stuff. That's the good thing about French towns. So many little nooks and crannies to explore. (And poke your head into.)

R.S.V.P. This commonly used abbreviation comes from the French répondez s'il vous plait. However, the French don't use it themselves. They prefer to write Prière de répondre which isn't nearly as catchy!

School, Calcédoine & Courgettie

Well, I've started school in France. I wasn't too pleased about the whole thing initially, however, it's actually turned out to be pretty cool. No uniforms, a one and a half hour lunch break as well as morning and afternoon tea. And before you laugh at me for having to be at school from 9am to 4:30pm, I also get Wednesday off as well as the weekend! (Oh yeah, and all the pretty French girls aren't bad either.)


The school's in a lovely spot. This is the view of the river just down the road from my classroom. Not bad, hey?


Yesterday, on my day off (ha ha to you losers in Australia going to *school* on Wednesday), I met my new best friend, Courgettie. He was in the garden under a few weeds. I've been carrying him around as he comes in handy in loads of situations. (Pretending to shoot people or pretending to be an annoyed call centre employee. Stacks of situations...) My mum even accused one of us of being smelly but it certainly wasn't Courgettie. (Courgettes are what we call zucchinis which I suppose is the Italian word. All courgettes grow this big here - all vegetables do - and lots and lots of them. Certainly nothing like the veggie gardens at home.)


And today, I joined my first club. Clubs/associations are really big in France. There are clubs for everything and people of all ages take part in them. School children usually take part in a few club meetings on their day off on Wednesday. But everything in France starts in September, including school, so if you miss the initial sign up, it's hard to get in. It sucks that I can't go kayaking (Canoë-Kayak) with the other kids on Monday because I wasn't there to pass a test in the first week. Anyhow, I'm now a member of the Club «Eymoutiers-Minéraux». They have a huge and fascinating museum, which I visited today, and will attend my first meeting early October, on a dig with a bit of luck. The man at the museum could speak a little English and was super nice, he even gave me a present - a bit of Calcédoine. Once again, the French people are *so* nice!!

We finished the day off with some delicious pizza with *more* lovely French people. (And the French really do say hello to everyone in the shop when they walk in - it's so sweet!) The owners were really helpful too and could speak a little English which is lucky because our French isn't improving at all.

That's all going to change though now that I'm at school. Or so everyone keeps telling me...

De Luxe Deluxe. Was playing Monopoly yesterday and I noticed "Taxe de Luxe" - the nasty little tax for those nice rich people between the two dark blues. Which made me think that perhaps the English word, "deluxe" comes for the French "of Luxury". Googled it and it does. English is kind of interesting when you learn where it all came from!

Limoges, "An Open City"

Limoges is the administrative capital of the Limousin région and famous for its porcelain. Not that I'd ever heard of either of them before. But it was a nice day out and a good opportunity to take some photos. (None of which would win a place in the Warwick Show but I hope they are enjoyed all the same.)

The first one my mum took of me outside of a toy car shop. There were thousands of old toy cars and figurines inside which I would have loved to have photographed, but it may have been considered rude. Though the old man didn't look up even once from his repair work. I'm not even sure if the cars were for sale. It was an incredible collection and one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

The Jardins de l'Evêché and Cathédrale Saint-Etienne were truly beautiful, except for the toilets. (Note to self, go at every opporunity when in France.)





Still nervous about speaking (and understanding) French, we decided to have Indian for lunch since it was a menu which we were somewhat familiar. It turned out to be our worst experience of the day. (We had had brilliant experiences with the French in Limoges.) Just after this photo was taken, the Indian restaurateur stomped up and snatched the glass from me, chastising me loudly and angrily in French. Then yelled at my mum when she was ordering, especially annoyed that she only ordered one dish (plus rice, naan and 2 drinks) when there was the two of us. And by the time she poured tea all over the table and ground, he well and truly hated us.


The Mairie de Limoges was beautiful as well.


And the Aquarium de Limousin was totally cool. It's built under the town in the tunnels.




Our day ended where it had all began at le Gare de Limoges Bénédictins. A very beautiful train station with very good pastries.



Tout compte fait, une bonne journée. :)

Une carte de Limgoes s'il vous plaît? A map of Limoges please. I'm not sure if it's good French, but the lady at the train station understood me! The hardest part of speaking a foreign language, I had discovered, is the fear of looking stupid. But once you've looked stupid a few times, it's kind of not really a big deal anymore.