There Were Real Pirates Here

Hello Everyone:

Maddy here again and wow did I have a great week. I actually got two good scores on my French assignments, a 19/20 and a 20/20. My parents were pretty proud so that made me smile. Now, I really have to work hard this week. I guess we'll see?

Did you know that my maison (house) in France is in a little fishing village? Villefranche is a small village of 8000 people between the big city of Nice and the Country of Monaco. We are right on the Mediterranean Sea in a bunch of houses in really high hills. The streets are so small and curvy that we almost can't drive a car through them. So we walk everywhere, even in the rain. At least I get to have my perapuie (umbrella).

In the old town of our village, there is a cool place called Rue Obscure. It is sort of like a cave from the 13th century that runs from the water down through the entire old town. It is really a dark street like the name Rue Obscure means. Actually pirates like Blackbeard were part of the history and there still are old and dusty rooms that have bars on them from the days they used them for jails. It is really freaky. It would be a great place for a haunted house on Halloween except they don't celebrate Halloween much here. And, it is only 5 minutes from my school so I get to see it almost every day.

I really wish you could come and visit as there are so many neat things to do in our little village.

Stay tuned next week and I will have another great story.

A bientot.
-Maddy

Thank-you for your comments!!!

Mrs. Herrera: As always you are my reason that I am so excited about writing my Blog. You make me feel so special Mrs. Herrera. Always part of the class even though I am 5000 miles away. Thank-you so much. You have no idea how much your comments mean to me.

Anne-Laure: Wow was I happy to hear from you! For those of you who don't know Anne-Laure, she is my French tutor in Florida. It was awesome reading your comments. Plus I memorized a poem that you will love. Thanks for writing. Gros Bisous

Trophy of Augustus

Hello Everyone:

It is Maddy again here in France. I had a very fun week at school and my teacher, Madam Gastaud, said I am improving my French each day by reading a book. Plus, we have to memorize a poem each week and this week's, Crayon du Coloeur, is about colors and making the world a better place. I will tell it to you when I get home.

This week, my Mom, Dad and I went on a trip to a little village less than 30 minutes from our house, called La Turbie. It is very high in the mountains and has a fantastic view all the way from Italy to our house in Villefranche. In La Turbie there is a monument from the Roman Empire and it is called The Trophy of Augustus. It was built over 2000 years ago in 7 B.C. Augustus was the son of Julius Caesar. They built the trophy because Augustus won a huge war against the people of the Alps. It was really cool and really big.

So, I decided to climb to the top. My legs were shivering the whole time because it was so high up and I climbed to the top by myself, without ANY adults. It was just me, me, and me alone! All that is left of the the Trophy is some bricks and columns but it once was the biggest Trophy in the world of its kind. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Barbarians took the marble and then in the Middle Ages people used the bricks to build their maisons (houses). Too bad as it was a really neat monument and there is only one more left in the world and that is in Romania.

Plus, don't forget to ask me about the goats up there!

I hope you enjoyed my Blog and the pictures I am sending you. I will write you all again next Sunday with a really cool story. Stay tuned.

-Maddy Rosenberg

Thank-You For Your Comments!

Mrs. Herrera: I just love it when you write to me. I miss you and the class so much. I almost wanted to write another blog right away. This one the class might really like because I think we will be studying the Roman Empire. See you soon.

Sam Snow: Thank-you Sam for your comment. When my dad told me Sam had written a comment I thought it was my hamster Sam. But I was really happy it was you instead. I will for sure help you with your French class when I get back. A bientot.

Hunting For Octopus

Hi Everyone:

Another week has past. My teacher, Madam Gastaud, said I am doing good and working hard. One thing very different about school here is that we have 2 hours for lunch but I do not eat at school. The main reason is that you have to eat at the cantine and they do not let me bring my own lunch from home. And they eat very strange things here like Bouillabaisse (fish soup) and poulpe (octopus).

On Saturday, my friend Roman invited us to go snorkeling in the Mediterranean with him and his father. They wanted to dive for poulpe as it is his favorite food and they wanted it for dinner that night. YUK!!!

To catch an octopus you have to dive to the bottom and move rocks and shells to see if one is hiding there. Then they swim away and you have to go after them. Well, we caught a huge one that spit ink at us. After we got to shore, we had to clean it and then slam it on the rocks to make the meat soft to eat. I couldn't believe that a 7 year old boy was going to eat that slimy thing. It was so gross.

They do have good food here like great pizza and pasta. I definitely prefer these to fish soup and octopus. But, the octopus was sure fun to play with.

I will write again next Sunday so hopefully you will like my next surprise.

Have a great week and I miss you.

Thank-you for the comments:

I really love the comments you all write and I promise I will answer each one personally.

• Mrs Santello: I love it that you still read my blog. Thank-you for the encouragement!!
  



• Mrs. Herrera: I have been doing all my homework like you want. We have 26 kids in our class here and so it is extra hard to get help if we need it.
  



• Barb and Deb: Thank-you for your comments. Lillian and Sugar say hello! Do you like to eat Octopus?

Back Again In France For 2008

Dear Mrs. Herrera and my Willis Elementary Class:

I am back at my home in France and I have started my school in Villefranche sur Mer. For those of you that do not know where that is, you can find our village on a map of France right next to the city of Nice almost on the border with Italy. We have about 8000 people that live here and there is only one ecole (school). I am in CE2 which is sort of like 3rd grade.

My teacher's name is Madam Gastaud. She is very nice. I have many of the same friends from my class last year. We speak only in French and that is very hard. The good news is that I do not have school on mecredi (Wednesdays). That is the day I get to spend with my family. The bad news is that we went snorkeling in the Mediterranean Sea, way out in the ocean as the water is very clear. On our way swimming back, I got stung by a Medusse (jellyfish). It hurt really bad and left a scar but it is better now.

Yesterday, we finished our vendage (grape harvest). My mom and dad planted a small vineyard in our back yard and we pick the grapes every September to make our own wine. We took our grapes to our winemaker in Provence. His name is Mr. Buisine. We also saw how wine was made and it is very interesting.

I hope you are all having a good time. I REALLY miss you and I will write a new BLOG every Sunday. You can always ask questions on my BLOG and I will answer each one.

A bientot

Maddy

Writing/Social Studies BLOG #7

Camargue: The Wild West of France

There are 16 major regions of France. We live in the most southern and eastern part called the Cote D'Azur. However, there is a region of France where we just visited which is really the wild west of the country and it is called The Camargue.

The wild west of The Camargue is an area with many wild white horses and bull farms. They even have rodeos and real bull fights every Wednesday night. The land is very flat and full of marshes where there are beauiful wild flamingos. I liked it alot. I even got to go to a ranch and ride a special white horse named Guardian.

The Camargue is a beautiful place and is really the wild west of France.

Writing/Social Studies Blog #6

The Castle in My Back Yard

In Florida, there are many wonderful things in back yards, but my back yard in France is very special because I have my own castle looking at me every day.

The castle in my backyard is very old. I love to imagine what happened in my castle so many years ago. It was built around the year 1500. That was about the time that Christopher Columbus discovered Amercia. There were no kings or queens that ever lived in this castle, but it was built by a very famous Duke from Italy. Dukes were really rich people but were not always royal like kings. The castle is on a cove on the Méditerranéen Sea. In the olden days, pirates used to attack the castle and the Duke used to let people hide inside the castle walls to protect them.

Many people have beautiful back yards but I still love what I see every day in my 600 year old castle in my back yard. Do any of you ever want to come visit it with me?

-Maddy Rosenberg

Writing/Social Studies BLOG #5

My Magic Garden

At my house in France I have the most amazing Magic Garden. Every night I surprise my family and I go get the best food in France for my harvest.

My Magic Garden has a beautiful view of the sea. It also has super soil because the earth has been here without anything growing on it for hundreds of years. That is why I get such special things in my Magic Garden. One night for dinner I used the purple shells around the bananas from my super banana tree for my for dessert plates for the chocolate cake I made. They were so big they were perfect. This year in my magic garden we grew an extraordinary zuchinni. It was almost as big as me!

Garden's grow many wonderful things but my Magic Garden grow's the best food in France.

-Madison Rosenberg