France Versus The U.S.....................Viva la Difference

Hello Everyone:

Maddy here again in France. I cannot believe that this is my last Blog of the trip. Thank-you everyone who has read about my adventures and have written me super nice notes. I am very excited to come home as I miss all of you very much.

Today's story is what I promised you all last week. It is about some of the really crazy differences between where I live in France and things back in the States. I hope some day all of you will come and visit me and I can show you some of these very strange things myself.

So, here we go!

1] Dogs Are Kings! Yes, that is really true. Dogs can go everywhere people can go. And we take Snoopy and Jolie with us all the time. Even to school with me every morning. And when dogs go to restaurants, the waiters bring them their water in a dog dish even before the humans get served. Amazing!

2] No Dollars Here! The money here is called Euros and they are very different. First of all they are all different sizes. The 500 euro note is the biggest and the 5 euro note is the smallest. (And they do not have a 1 euro note, just coins) Also, all the bills are different colors. Very pretty actually!

3] Rabbits and Chickens, Oh My! Do you know that they actually sell rabbits in the markets? People eat them all the time. And they still have their heads on. It is horrible to see. And even the chickens still have their feet and heads on. Yucko mucko. And the best tasting chickens actually have dark blue feet!

4] No Sand At These Beaches! That's true. The beaches of Nice have stones instead of sand. And these stones are very flat and very smooth. Millions of people come to Nice to go to the beach and the put out straw mats to lay on. It is supposed to be bad luck to take a stone from the beach so I cannot bring one home. And something else really amazing. The women do not wear swimming suit tops. Yikes!

5] Monkeys are Wild! That is really amazing. And fun to. At our zoo by our house there are great animals to play with. My favorite are the lemurs. You can touch them and they jump on your back and head. They are so soft and so nice. They don't even bite. Plus they love the grapes from my Dad's vineyard, but I can't tell him that I sometimes take some to feed the lemurs or he would get very mad. Maybe I can get one for a pet some day?

There are so many differences that I can't write about all of them. Just for fun today, my Mom and Dad and I made a list at lunch. We came up with over 40 to choose from. Like they do not use pounds here. I am 24.5 kilos and almost 120 centimeters tall. I feel like a giant. Plus things like no school on Wednesdays, no school buses at all as everyone walks to school, even in the rain. Plus, we have 2 hours for lunch every day at school. But the funniest thing is the bathrooms. There are no toilet seats on ANY of the toilets at school or at most restaurants. Hopefully, no little kids fall in!

Thank-you again Mrs. Herrera and Mrs. Santello for all your great comments. If it wasn't for the two of you, none of this could happen. My Mom and Dad say you are their Lighthouse. I think that is a good thing.

I miss you all and see you soon. Thank-you for being good listeners.

A bientot.

-Maddy

My French Secret

Hello Everyone:

It's Maddy again. This week I have another very interesting adventure. I am calling it "My French Secret" because I really can't tell you exactly where I went. I know because I was there, but I really am not supposed to give away the exact place.

French people have some very unusual habits and most of them are about eating. I don't know about you, but I am not really that interested in food that much. But here in France, eating is VERY important. And one of the favorite French foods are champignons (mushrooms).

There are hundreds of kinds of mushrooms but the most unusual are ones called cepes. We don't have anything like them at all in the States. They are big and brown and really ugly.

So, we were all invited to my friend's home about 2 hours from our villa in Villefranche. They live in a beautiful home on a golf course surrounded by forests and mountains. Right next door to their house is a castle that was built in the 1700's. It was a really beautiful place.

Now comes the secret.........

In the forest by their house, there are sometimes cepes. And we went this afternoon in search of those ugly things. They are seriously hard to see as they are covered up by grass and stuff. And you have to use a stick to push away the grass and moss to find them. But, guess what? I found the first one!!! You have to be very careful as there are a lot of poisenous muchrooms too, but these are very different as they have big fat white stems. Then you carefully put your hands in the soil and pull them up. We actually found a lot of them. My Mom says that in the French markets they are very expensive. About 60 euros per kilogram. I don't know what that really means but my Dad said that was about $100 per pound and each cepe was worth about $15. So we found about $500 in all. Plus, we found the biggest cepe any of us had ever seen. It was nearly a half a pound! And the funniest thing was that we had to hide the cepes in my friend Melanie's jacket so no one would see where and what we found. That is why it has to be a big secret. Amazing!!!

My Mom and Dad cooked them ce soir (tonight) for dinner and were very happy. But as I said, I don't like mushrooms at all and I didn't even try them. They are adult food and most kids don't eat stuff like that. But it was sure fun to find them.

Stay tuned next week when I write my last Blog. I can't believe I will be home in less than 10 days. So, next week I will make a list of some of the really big differences between France and the United States. Some of these things you will not believe.

Also, thank-you so much Mrs. Santello and Mrs. Herrera for your great comments. I really can't tell you how much it makes me want to write my stories when I know you read them every week.

So for now:

A Bientot

-Maddy

In The Shadow Of A Castle

Hello Everybody!

Maddy here again in France. Another week has gone by and I have another great adventure to share with you. Here in Europe, everything is so old. It is hard to understand really how old everything is since our country in America is only about 250 years old. The past two weeks I have told you about places we have seen where people have been there for nearly 2500 years. Way more, that is for sure!

This week I went to a chateaux (castle) that I can see from my fenetre (window) at our house every day. In fact, every night when we take our chiens (dogs) for a walk, we see this beautiful castle lit up with a lot of lights. It is really cool. The name of the castle (well actually it is a fortress) is Fort Mount Albon. The singer Elton John lives right next door. For those of you who do not know, he is the singer who sang the Lion King songs.

Fort Mont Albon is at the top of a hill right in my back yard. It was built in 1546 to protect the city of Villefranche. It is so big you can see it from miles away. I was sort of sad because you cannot go in it because the German's bombed it in World War II and it is closed to visit. But we could walk all the way around it and I got to climb on the draw bridge. And the view is really beautiful. I hope you like the pictures I am sending you.

I miss all of you so much and thank-you so much for your comments. Back again next week with my latest French adventure.

A bientot,
Maddy

Thank-you For The Comments

Mrs. Herrera: Thank-you so much for your comments. I am really excited about meeting our new classmate. I have been very lonely this past week and missing everybody so much. Your letters really help. I have a great question for the class. Since this castle was built in the 1500's, you might ask the class what what happening in Florida at that time? That might be really interesting to compare. Thank-you again and I will see all of you in less than 3 weeks!

Mrs. Santello: I bet you are smiling now as it was you who gave me the idea for my Blog this week when you sort of asked about the castle in the picture in my last Blog. So, I have never been up there so I asked my mom and dad if we could climb up the hill and see it. Thank-you for the awesome idea! I miss you so much and thank-you again for the letters.