Paul Cezanne's Biography

Paul Cezanne was an artist with fame, who lived from 1839 to 1906. He was famous because his work was the first to show cubism art.

Paul was born in Aix-en-Provence, France in 1839. His personality was emotional. His Dad wanted him to have a lawyer, but Paul convinced him to let him be an artist.

Cezanne went to Paris to paint, but he was not happy because people didn't like his art, so he went to work for his Dad as a banksman. Paul thought he had fixed his mistake, but actually he had made another mistake. While Paul worked as a banksman he started to hate it, so he gave painting another chance.

He moved back to Paris to be around other artists. Then he met a girl and fell inlove with her. They got together and had a son, but Paul and his girlfriend didn't marry until their son was 14. Paul didn't want his Dad to know about this, because it was not respectable back then and he feared his Dad would take Paul's allowance. Paul did tell his Dad eventually, but his Dad got over it.

When Paul was 47, a close childhood friend of his, Emile Zola, who was a famous writer, wrote a story about a failed artist, which sounded just like Paul. So Paul broke up with his friend.

Paul Cezanne passed away in 1906. Paul's art continued to be famous from then until now. It's studied and admired all around the world by artists.

Glanum

I know what you're thinking, you think that the Roman's built the village, don't you? WRONG!!! First it belonged to the Celts, (by the way, I don't know who the Celts are), then the Greeks took over the village, then the Roman's conquered it.

The village has a Triumphal Arch. They used the arch for telling the Gauls (their enemies), that the Romans were important - 'hump', show offs!
The three pools were like the baths. The temperatures were: tepdarium (normal), caldarium (hot), and frigidarium (cold).

The village has a special well where you walk down to the water on stone steps. The well was special because people thought that the water had healing powers.

There is also a building around a courtyard, called a Forum. This is the place where they had meetings to make decisions about the town.

The houses were different. If you were rich you'd have a rain tank, cooking stuff, and an inside courtyard. If you were poor, your house would be rain 'tankless', cooking free, and there would be no courtyard.

One of the temples was built to worship Augustus' son-in-law.

If I lived in Glanum, I would want to be rich, because I would get a better life.

Roman Theatre

Have you heard of the fruit called orange? Well, Orange is also a place in France... we went to a Roman theatre there. (Of course you're getting bored of Romans - well, too bad). A Roman theatre is just like an arena but it's half a circle and without gladiators. What did they do? They did plays, music, dancing etc. instead.

The stage wall was important. Behind it were rooms called grottoes... urghhh... that word gives me the CREEPS. Grottoes are the place where the actors got dressed... or was it a prison... (In later centuries, it was used as prison - Ed.) The stage wall also had the starue of Augustus. When the Roman's changed emperors, the statue's head could be taken off and a new one put on!

The stone seats could hold lots of people, 10,000 infact. The seats could be supported by either hill or wall. (Hills would be easier to build next to).

CASSIS

Yesterday we went to a place in France called Cassis. On the way there we saw a place called Marseille where there were big cruise liners. When we got to Cassis we went on a boat trip on the Mediterranean Sea. We saw big, big, big, big, cliffs (perhaps 300m high even), with rock climbers on them… we also saw kayakers in the sea. Then did we go home? Nope. We went to the beach… it was weird, as the sand was all rocky and shelly. I say, this holiday is ‘going good.’

DINO-I-SAW

Yesterday we went to a dinosaur park.

The largest of all meat eaters is the spinosaurus. The spine on the spinosaurus helps keep it warm.

The diplodocus has teeth like a comb for stripping leaves off plants... they swallow stones to mush up their food. A diplodocus' tail is as big as a bus.

Hey, remember that aquaduct I told you about? Well, they once found some dino-footprints near it. Dinosaurs must have drunk out of that river.

Eggs from dinosaurs have sand or leaves over them to protect them from predators and to keep them warm. Dinosaur eggs also have different shapes. If you're a meat eater your egg is oval and if you're a vegetarian your egg is round.

Here's a dinosaur joke:
Which dinosaurs were the best policemen?
The triceracops.

How Does a Battering Ram Work?

A battering ram was the strongest and best weapon in the Medieval Times. It was used to break down a gatehouse or even a castle wall. The battering ram is made out of three parts: a log with a sharp end, a roof-shaped penthouse, and six or four wheels.

The carpenters shaped a sharp end on a log, which is the part that the soldiers swung back and forth on the gatehouse or wall. The log was attached to rope on hooks, connecting it to the penthouse.

The penthouse helped protect the soldiers from flaming arrows. The flaming arrows were put out by wet animal skins which covered the penthouse.

Last of all are the wheels. Like all wheels, these help the battering ram move. Because it’s heavy and it moves slowly, the battering ram is nick-named the tortoise. It needs up to 100 men to push it.

By Robbie Murray

France is a Wonderful Place

France is a wonderful place. Yesterday we left the motel in the Loire and we are in our own France house. The house has a big place (playroom - and where I practice my spells). In France there are shutters outside the house instead of curtains inside the window. The shutters are made of wood because wood is stronger than glass and it keeps the place secure. Our shutters are coloured green. This morning I went around and opened them all. Along the way from the motel to the house there are rest areas with cafes, playgrounds and lots of other stuff. You can tell if it’s a rest spot because there has to be a sign that says aire. The signs are blue. Here’s a little tune about our house ‘it’s a lovely house, diddly dum, (this is from a Winnie the Pooh book I read ages ago). We have a marvellous pool, but I think it’s too cold to swim in. The thermometer for the water is in the shape of a duck. There are a lot of interesting places in France. There are some interesting castles. One that we went to was Langeais. It had some great rooms with lots of chests for the old moveable furniture. One room had a scene of a young queen's wedding. The castle had a real drawbridge! At the castle there was this enormous tree house (which I didn’t climb to the top), and it was built like a fortress. Mum and dad took lots of photos. We went to a restaurant last night where our teacher Hilary ate some FROGS LEGS! The first motel was great as well. We stayed in the attic. There was a triangle shaped roof like most attics. Did I mention, we slept in the attic! How has your holiday been so far? I hope it’s been good. Please write back soon.
Bye!
Robbie

Nimes

We went to another Roman arena, which is in the shape of a round football field with sand in the middle. The part that is not sand is the amphitheatre, which is the seats. In the arena, they had gladiator fights, where gladiators fought other gladiators. Otherwise they fought lions and tigers. Sometimes they threw criminals and traitors in with the lions. They also did chariot racing in there. The Romans built the arena about 2,000 years ago. About 300 years ago, they put houses in the arena, so people could be safe from the sieges. The houses aren’t there now, and these days they use the arena for matador fights.

When we’d finished looking at the arena, we saw a 3D movie, which showed what happened years ago in Nimes. The 3D movie was a movie where lots of things look like they’re actually coming towards you when you where these special glasses. I felt like the spears were going right towards me.

We also went to this place where people did wedding marches. There was music around them. At that place we went up a tower, where Celine counted 139 steps. The Magne tower was in a park.

On the way home, we saw an aquaduct, that carried water over a river or a gorge. It was built by the Romans 2,000 years ago. It was called Le Pont du Gard.

Arles

Yesterday we saw a Roman arena in Arles. That’s where they did a lot of Roman games like, gladiators showing off their strength and lion fighting. Mostly people who they thought had done something wrong, and people who were Christians, got thrown into the lions. The arena was like a football field only it was a circle. If you were rich you’d sit in the front seats, close up, and if you were poor you were put way up, far away – so you weren’t very lucky if you were poor back then. The arena was about 2,000 years old. Now they use it for matadors.

We didn’t just see the arena in Arles; we also saw the Roman baths. They were very, very big and they were made of stone. They looked kind of like swimming pools, with fires underneath them, because I don’t think they had any electric heaters. The Romans, when they were having baths, wore nothing at all and the women and men didn’t bath together.

Van Gogh Trail

Today we went on a walk to find out things about Vincent Van Gogh. We learned that Vincent was an artist who died when he was 37. He painted a lot of his pictures in Saint Remy de Provence, which is where we are staying in France. This was because he lived there at the hospital for quite a while because he was a little bit sick. He painted a lot of pictures that were made to look 3 dimensional. A lot of his paintings were about nature. When he was alive he was very sad because his life wasn’t always the best. He even cut off his own ear! Vincent was born in Holland. He always signed his pictures with just ‘Vincent’ at the bottom of his paintings. Some of his paintings had people with blank faces; he didn’t draw on eyes, noses or mouths. The way he drew his pictures was with lots of little curvy lines in different colours.

Villandry Castle

We looked inside this palace. It had a library which had lots and lots of old, old, old books. There was also a cage infront of the books so Celine couldn't read them. In the garden there was a maze. It was easy, with all it's short cuts through it's hedges. In the middle of the maze there was a little look out. The gardens were humongus and they had patterns in them. They grew fruit and vegetables in the gardens. In the moat there were little fish with gapping mouths, looking for food. (I have been searching for hot chips throughout France, like a gapping fish - but I'm not turning into one).

Langeais Castle

We have seen a few castles. We saw a royal garden with a fountain, flower pots, a great big tree house and an old fashioned water pump. Inside the castle there was a wedding room with a fireplace (almost all the rooms had fireplaces). In the wedding room there was a show about the duchess Anne getting married, she was 14 years old. She was married in secret. In the dining room they had these shelves for the royal tasters, to make sure that the king didn't get killed by poison (or to check if the food was too salty!!!) There were big chandeliers (at the top) not powered by electric power (because there was no electricity in that time). They had fold up furniture. They carried their stuff in chests and moved to other castles (aka holiday homes). The Lord's bedroom had a fireplace. They tied knots on the canopy of their bed if you were invited in, otherwise if there's no knots you're not allowed in. There was also this room where they use to have a dead guy in a box (now they just have a box). And they have a praying place, where they ask God for information and help.