All Aboard!

The day before yesterday we went on a train to Italy. We decided to go to the market there and I got a toy. Then we went to Monte Carlo and saw some fancy Ferrari's, a playground with a great view was in Monte Carlo as well, also, some French people were setting up rides. Whaea Hilary had a ride on... THE WINDMILL TWISTER (a spinney ride). Dad and I went on the dodgems; Bang!... Wham!... Bonk! Those were fun. Then Celine and I went in a Surprise House with a vibrating floor, a rolling squishier, a hamster wheel, and some air blasters. Sounds good, eh. I hope there's a next time...

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