Saint Paul de Vence

Saint Paul de Vence was our first day in France. Saint Paul de Vence is a small town and we stayed there for two weeks in an apartment. Our balcony had a beautiful view of the countryside. Under our apartment there was a bakery full of French bread and sweets. Every morning my brother and I would go down to the bakery and get either fresh chocolate or plain croissants or one fresh baguette and we would all share it.

The croissants and baguettes were very fresh and smelled so good! One morning I was coming back from the bakery and I had to run home because the baguette came fresh out of the oven and it was so hot! In Saint Paul de Vence I also made a really nice friend. Her name is Emma and she was 11 years old and she spoke a little bit of English so it was easy to communicate. Emma also had a brother named Fabio who was five years old. I played with Emma and Elliot played with Fabio.

Beune

Today we went to visit Hotel Dieu, a hotel for the poor. The hospital was built by a man named Nicholas in 1883. One of the reasons he built the hospital was so he could go to heaven. In the hospital there is one very big hall. The hall is where all the poor patients with absolutely no money lived. More wealthy patients got their own rooms. In the hall where all the poor patients are there are 330 beds. The hospital is run entirely by nuns which care for the patients. The nuns are very hard workers and wake up at 5:30 in the morning and go to bed at nine. In World War II nuns helped a French general escape by pretending he was dead. The nuns even made a fake funeral for him and filled his coffin with sand. The roof of the hospital is covered with beautiful colourful tiles. The tiles are made of porcelain and black, green, red and yellow colours. The Hotel Dieu is very old and figuring that it was built in 1883 even though it is more than 1,000 years old it is still running.

Museum in France

While in Paris we visited the museum de Pompidou. We spent one afternoon exploring the museum. There was one really cool exhibit where you could fly a virtual WWI plane. At the end of the ride you get a certificate. The certificate that I got said “Adventurous pilot”. The certificate that my mom got said “Reckless Pilot”. There was another really cool exhibit where a video describes how an astronaut lives in space. At the end of the museum, we visited a planetarium that held a show about space and comets. Close to the end of the show is starting to get very cold! After the planetarium, the museum was starting to close so we visited the gift shop really quickly and left. And that was our day at the museum.

Luxembourg Garden

The Luxembourg garden is a big garden in Paris. One day for lunch we brought sandwiches and had a picnic in Luxembourg Gardens. We brought our picnic blanket hoping that we could have a picnic on the grass but we forgot that like most gardens in France you were not supposed to sit on the grass. Since you can’t sit on the grass, the many chairs and benches made up for it. After lunch we saw there was a bunch of sailboats in the pond. My mom and dad let my brother and I rent our own boat for 30 minutes. Each sailboat had a country flag on it. I wanted to get Canada but I was already taken. My brother got Poland and instead of Canada I got Japan. We got our sailboats and we also got a stick to push our boats into the water.

The boats are controlled entirely by the wind, when the wind is really strong the bolts will zoom across the pond, but when the wind is very still the boats will not move or move very slowly across the pond. After that we went to a really cool park. To get in the park you have to pay 1.50 euros but it was worth it! At the park there was a zip line!

Musee d’Orsay

The museum d’Orsay holds the largest exhibition of impressionist art work in the world. It was at first a train station and then converted into a museum. We spend a day at the museum admiring beautiful artwork and sculptures. The museum also has a collection of artwork by Vincent van Gogh! At first I thought that the room where van Goghs art is displayed was going to be very crowded but it’s surprisingly wasn’t that bad. The artwork was amazing! My favorite work by van Gogh is a painting called the starry night. It was especially amazing as we stayed in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, the place where van Gogh painted the painting and then seeing the art in person. The famous starry night is at the MOMO in New York City but this museum had a similar one. At the museum there is a place where you could dine in 100 year old restaurant! A long time ago there was a hotel beside the museum d’orsay and the hotel had a restaurant where their customers could have dinner. 100 years later the restaurant was converted into a restaurant for the customers of the museum d’Orsay. The restaurant was amazing with an original painting ceiling and at the end of our meal our waiter showed us pictures of the restaurant 100 years ago and it was almost looking exactly the same!

Paris

We stayed in Paris for 3 weeks. Paris is a beautiful city with a river called the Seine that runs right through it. Get a fresh baguette from the grocery store and some lunch supplies sit by the SeineGogh’sand you will have an amazing lunch! It’s also fun to sit by the canal and watch the water levels rise and just watch as the water gates open and close. While in Paris we also visited the Eiffel tower! We went there at night because when the Eiffel tower lights upd’Orsay it’s so beautiful! When we got to the Eiffel tower we climbed to the second floor and saw an amazing view of Paris. In Paris because the Parisians love food they have food contest for everything! If your bakery won best baguette in France they will be a big sign on the bakery saying first place!

Paris versus Rome

Paris and Rome are very different cities but they are also very similar in some ways. For example they’re both big cities with beautiful monuments like the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum. Both of these cities are also famous for good wine and food. The most tourist day on is probably Paris because it is so famous for the Eiffel Tower. Both the cities are European so they are pretty similar. My favourite city is Rome because the food is just amazing!!!