Water Fight

Before coming to France, I was so clueless as to what activities I could do with the children, so when I was mooching around my local bargain store, I found 200 water bombs for less than a pound - perfect! And they really did go down well on this particularly hot day in the south of France!

Proudly lining up the water bombs

The three little monsters!

Uh oh! Balloons flying from all angles!

'You can't aim at me... I have a camera!' 

School Trip

I'd forgotten all about school trips in primary school - packed lunches, long, rowdy bus journeys and bringing every item of clothing possible just in case it rained/ snowed/ was actually sunny. Today I went on a French school trip which was exactly that - even though there was no chance of rain in sunny Provence, every child had a raincoat in tow! 
We went to a Ferme Pedagogique, which was completely the opposite of what I imagined when I was told we were going to a farm. Instead of lots of animals, we played with instruments made out of vegetables, tasted all different kinds of honey and made collages out of herbs.  

Some very strange 'instruments' made out of rotten vegetables

All of this was very strange but the French just seemed to take it in their stride. My favourite part of the day was the cooking section, where we made Peach sorbet and sirop du menthe (like a mint squash - surprisingly nice!) As I was deemed a 'responsible adult', I was put in charge of cutting the peaches... 

Top chef!

My little team busy chopping up peaches

Sorting out the freshly-picked mint

After the cooking lesson, we went to see some of the animals, but I wasn't too impressed - French sheep having nothing on the ones back home! We also had a little lesson in beekeeping before we got back on the bus after a busy but fun day at the farm!

Beekeeping... without any actual bees for health and safety reasons!

Nîmes

Still making the most of the children still being in school, I set off to explore the city of Nîmes. After a disastrous start of accidentally telling the bus driver 'I want to ride you' instead of 'I want to ride the bus' (cue the entire bus cracking up laughing and me dying of shame), I made my way towards Les Arènes. This beautiful building is the most well preserved amphitheatre in the world, and is still in brilliant condition. In awe of the building, I spent the morning exploring it and learning all about Gladiators. 

Inside Les Arènes

After lunch, I went to explore the wonderful Roman city, starting with Les Jardins de la Fontaine, which are beautiful gardens with a Roman watchtower, La Tour Magne, offering a spectacular panoramic view of the city. It was fascinating to see how much the city had changed from Roman times, but with no one to take a photo for me, I became that person, you know, the one who takes selfies with historical buildings...

Shameless selfie at the top of La Tour Magne

Sporting a demin-look dress in homage to the city where Denim was discovered (Serge De Nîmes = Denim), I wandered around the city with my staple Crêpe au nutella and took in all of the spectacular sights.  

1. La Maison de Carrée 2. Les Arènes
3. La Tour Magne 4. Les Jardins de la Fontaine

Le palais des Papes

Although I'm not particularly religious, I did find Le Palais des Papes in Avignon completely fascinating. The beautiful palace is steeped in history, with it being the home to the Pope during the 14th Century. I put my history A Level to good use and set out to explore the palace, listening on my headset to all the facts about this wonderful building.

Le Palais des Papes

Some of the original painting inside the palace

Le Palais des Papes

Les Ramparts - The walled city

I then went to explore the rest of this walled city, visiting Notre Dame des Doms (the cathedral), Place Pie (where I tucked into a delicious crêpe au nutella) and also, Rue de la République: the main shopping street! I then ditched all of the culture and spent the rest of my afternoon wandering around the shops - where I belong! 

Sur le pont d'Avignon

As the children are still in school at the moment, I took the opportunity to explore this beautiful region, starting with the historical city of Avignon. Growing up, I had only ever heard of this city through the children's nursery rhyme:

"Sur le pont d'Avignon,

L'on y danse, l'on y danse,

Sur le pont d'Avignon,

L'on y danse tous en rond."

So, obviously, when I did visit the city, the first thing I HAD to do was go and dance on the bridge, which is now only a fraction of what it was and cuts off halfway through the river. By law, it's technically not classed as a bridge anymore but its name remains to this day. 

Looking rather windswept on the bridge

Due to the blustery conditions caused by le Mistral, it was impossible to get a photo of me actually dancing on the bridge without having a 'Marilyn moment.' 
The tour around the bridge was fascinating, with so much history surrounding one bridge. I visited the tiny chapels built by different Kings and Popes over the years inside the bridge, and saw where all the women used to go to dance underneath the bridge.

Le pont d'Avignon

And if you haven't heard that very famous tune, here's an incredibly cringe-worthy yet hilarious video of it, guaranteed to make you smile!

La fête du Pain

Whereas us Brits celebrate Guy Fawkes and the bonfire in November, the French have a similar celebration in June - La fête du Pain. That's right.. the Festival of Bread. Heaven, right? Whole villages congregate together to eat, drink and chat around a bonfire, all in the name of bread. And the bread they made truly was delicious! Made in a kiln in the village square, the loaf really had been perfected! As the night grew darker, the bonfire grew bigger, with the men of the village attempting to jump over the flames. (I tried, but got stage fright, wondering what exactly I would say to my insurance company if I fell into the flames...) 
The night truly was magical, with the whole of this small, Provençal village coming together to celebrate the greatest carb of them all!

La fête du pain

Glitter, Bedtime Stories and Table Tennis: My New Life

As a modern languages student, it can be difficult to practise speaking the language, so what better way to improve my skills than to go and live in France for 6 weeks as an Au Pair? So I contacted a family and before I knew it, I was in the midst of bedtime stories, glitter and table tennis! My new little life in Provence is miles away from my actual life in South Wales, so I thought I'd create this blog to keep my friends and family up to date with my little adventure, and also to help any other budding linguists who are thinking of Au Pairing this summer. 
À Bientôt!

The beautiful Provençal countryside - taken on my morning run!