The Hike

The next day's activity was the hike back down to where we picked up the mules. We walked past little streams, big rocks, and trees on the side of hills. Here are a few photos from the hike:

The cousins

Ashlynn & Max

Ariana & Me

Mommy got a bit stuck while trying to cross this river...the guides decided to move a few rocks to make a path for her. After that, Daddy just walked straight through the water. 

What a beautiful view

5* Hotels - or not

When we got to the final destination, we took our luggage from the van that had brought it up and went into our hotel. I think we were a little surprised to see that our first hotel room was just four mattresses on the ground. We were also a little bit surprised that the whole hotel was FREEZING! We ate a very nice dinner cooked by our personal chef and then we played cards in our room (the four kids shared a room) before going to sleep in sleeping bags with as many blankets as we could find on top of us. 

Day 8 Update: Aix-en-Provence

Zachary et moi

Little Nils with a mohawk 

Vero, Nils and Curt

Today I looked after Nils while Curt and Vero went out for lunch. At 3:30 I said goodbye to everyone and Curt drove me to the train station where I got onto the Thalys again. 

Au Revior Aix-en-Provence 

My first class seat

 Dinner - grilled vegetables, bread and artichokes

Dessert - some strange berry pie thing, yummy though

Day 7 Update: Aix-en-Provence

Ahhhh!! Olympic Opening Ceremony! Ahhhh!!

Well, I've only got two photos from today because I wasn't feeling very good so I spent almost the whole day in Vero and Curt's bed. I read, played on the computer and watched Friends in French. Yeah, so there's not much else to say about the whole day. 

In the evening, when I was feeling a little better I went out with Zachary and his mum to get ice cream in town. Boy, that chocolate ice cream was good. 

Right now I'm watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony. I loved the whole Mr. Bean thing. That was really good. And of course the whole industrial revolution thing. That was amazing. Now I'm just waiting for the USA and The Netherlands to come out into the stadium. It could be awhile. We're still on Canada. :P I'm loving it how all of the athletes are filming what's happening as their walking around the stadium. 

Watching the Opening Ceremony

Live from London! <3

I forgot to post this picture yesterday so I'll post it today. When we were walking home from the concert we saw this fountain being used to cool drinks. 

Day 6 Update: Aix-en-Provence

Today Vero and I were out of the house by 10 this morning to meet up with an Irish girl for me to walk around the market with. She's the daughter of one of Curt's work colleagues. Her name was Anna and she was 18 years old, about to go off to university to study to become a primary school teacher. We walked around the markets with her mum - the clothes, the food and the other things (jewelry, bags, pottery, etc) while talking.

The food market

After the markets Anna's mum drove us back to their house which was in the valley. It was a very nice house with a large garden and a swimming pool! Anna and I ate ice creams and went swimming. When one of her three brothers got home from visiting the city with his three friends from university we all played cards together. 

Playing cards in the shade

At about four I was driven back into town where I walked back to Curt and Vero's house. I chilled for a little bit, took a 10 minute power nap and then Vero and I went to the pool to meet up with Zachary and his mum. Okay, actually I went straight to the park to wait for them while Vero went swimming. I must have looked like a teen mum from the looks that some other parents of young children kept throwing at me. 

Awww! Mon petit Nils! 

At the park

In the evening, after dinner Vero, Zachary and his mum and I went to a church to watch a youth orchestra from America perform. Finally, I have found someone with a worse French accent than me. The man who was doing the commentary (and the next song is....) had such a bad accent it was funny. Anyways, the concert was very good. I realised that it must be VERY hard to play the cello. Yeah. That's about it for today. 

Tomorrow we're planning on going to the beach for the afternoon! Yay!

The orchestra in Aix-en-Provence's main Cathedral

Day 5 Update: Aix-en-Provence

So, last night I got kicked out of my room and now I'm sleeping in the office. I managed to sleep in till 9 (the church bells that woke me up the other days seemed to have no effect today).

Anyways, this morning after breakfast I went with Zachary and his mum to the pool where we swam for a while, then air dried and went home for lunch. After lunch I played some games via iTouch with Zachary such as 4x4 Tic Tac Toe. We also played real battleship, although I think some of it was lost in the French language. 

After that I decided that I would go on a photo safari, mostly photographing the main fountain. Well, when I got there, I realised that putting a slow shutter speed to get the effect that I wanted would let in too much light creating an image somewhat like this: 

So I spent the next hour wandering around aimlessly and texting Daddy to try and work out how to get the camera set so that the photos wouldn't be so whited out. By the end we figured out that it wasn't the camera or my fault, I just needed something else to put on the lens - an accessory. 

Here are three other photos from my photo safari:

Reflection of the fountain in my sunglasses

So, I went back to the house with no really spectacular photos of the fountain. Zachary, his mum and I went back out to the park to play Frisbee and we had dinner when we got back. 

After dinner I went back out to try and take the photos again, with much better results. 

To get to the fountain I walked through a little market

This is what happens when you zoom in while the camera is taking the photo on a slow shutter speed. WARP SPEED! 

Basically, the effect I wanted was the cars in front of the fountain to be a blur and the fountain to be steady in the background, this photo was pretty much what I was looking for. (The white and red lines are the car lights if you didn't get that)

I just liked this one. :P

Day 4 Update: Aix-en-Provence

Today I went to see the Lorax in French at the cinema, by myself. Apparently going to the cinema by yourself is something you must do before you turn 20 to help build self-confidence. So I can tick that one off the list. 

Anyway, before going to the cinema I walked around town a little bit by myself and went through the clothes market. They have some very peculiar fountains here in Aix, all covered in moss. And some strange sculptures too. 

Moss covered fountain - bet you haven't seen that before now, have you?

The movie theater....I wasn't the oldest child there, but I was definitely the only kid there who was by themselves, and probably the only one who didn't understand 5/6 of what the characters were saying. But I got the story line. (By the way, it's a really good movie, and you should force your children to watch it.)  

Ahhh....I love the sun....

(And the self timer function on my Nikon)  :P

So, in the afternoon I got kissed by a really cute French boy. And we held hands...

Okay. Fine. I'll tell you.

His name is Zachary and he's 8 years old. 

He kissed me on the cheek when Vero and I went to meet him and his mum. (They're staying with Vero & Curt as well.)

He held my hand when we crossed a road.

There. I told you. 

Yes, I do know I'm weird. Thank you for telling me.

Ma Petit Nils

We all went to the park for a picnic dinner (breadsticks and chips). I played Frisbee with Curt and also with Zachary. It was pretty fun until I began getting devoured by mosquitos. Now I'm covered in little red spots where they've bit me. 

Day 3 Update: Aix-en-Provence

Today was another pretty chilled day. Curt had to go to work in the morning so I went with Vero and Nils into town to two travel agents. In the late afternoon we went to a swimming pool where everyone has to wear swimming caps and nobody is allowed to wear swimming trunks. That meant that all of the guys were walking around in speedos. Hmmmm.

Anyway...Vero and I took turns with looking after Nils on the grassy area behind the indoor swimming pool. I was there with Nils when this guy came up to me and said something in French. Thinking that he said "what time does the pool close?" I said "I don't know" and then he said - in English - "This area closes now, in one minute." So I had to hurriedly pack up all of our stuff (blankets, towels, Nils, his toys, etc) and leave. Luckily I found Vero easily and after she had done one last lap of the olympic pool, we walked home.

Tomorrow some of Vero's friends are coming, which means that I'm going to get kicked out of my room and I'll probably be sharing a room with Nils. Oh well. 

My new best-est friend! 

Nils on the walk to the pool

View from the balcony

Day 2 Update: Aix-en-Provence

Today I slept in until 10:00, which was very good because I was very tired last night. Silly Nils wouldn't go to bed last night and he didn't want to take a nap today! We chilled around the house in the morning and in the afternoon we went into town. There was a little market set up which we went through. We passed by the cinema - where hopefully I'll go to see a movie in French sometime this week- and went to a park where we walked around with Nils in his stroller. After getting back to the house we went out again to another park where Curt & I played Frisbee while Vero went on a run. The weather was very nice, not too hot, but I'm afraid that the whole of next week is going to be above 30 degrees! That's a very big difference from the low 20s in Holland.

So, basically I wasn't bothered to bring my camera with me into town today, so instead I took a few videos and put them together into this little movie. That way you can also see Nils moving.
:P

To see the video big click here

Day 1 Update: Aix-en-Provence

It's Saturday evening and this week I'm in Aix-en-Provence attempting to improve my French. Throughout the week I'm going to (hopefully) be posting each day so that you can know what I've been up to. I'm staying with Curt and Vero, who both speak French, and their 7 month baby; Nils. 

Today I got 3 hours of sleep (our plane from Florence was delayed 6 hours and I didn't get to bed to 3:15) and we had to be out of the house before 7. My train to France left from Rotterdam at 8:03. I was riding first class (that is the life) so I got breakfast. I was sitting in a four person compartment at the very front of the train. 

I was on the train for 6 hours, in which time I:

- did nothing

- uploaded Y13 photos to Facebook

- read my book - 'Fast Food Nation'

- edited some videos from Europapark

I got off the train at 2:00 in the train station in Aix-en-Provence and Curt picked me up and drove me to their house in the center of the town. 

My bedroom

Nils! So cute!!

In town

Donkey Ride!

Our first activity was the donkey ride. Okay, actually it was a mule ride, but donkey ride sounds so much cooler... We got dropped off by the car and had to separate out the things that we needed for that night. Then we were lead to our mules who would carry us on an hour and a half walk to the town in the mountains where we would stay the night.

My mule and his owner. 

My mule was the only one who's oner was female. She looked like she could be my age. I tried speaking to her in French and then she must have thought I understood her because she started speaking rapidly in some language, I'm guessing it was French, and I couldn't understand her.  Oops.