Now's your chance to give us a quick glimpse into how you spent your summer... people, places, things that you saw, books that you read, whatever you feel like sharing!
Hi guys, since summer's already gone I propose you a brief view of London, the british capital which hosted two months ago the Olympics – and is currently presenting the Paralympic Games. You may have already visited London, but this summer the city was dressed to amaze thousands of tourists coming from every corner of the globe to enjoy the greatest sportive festival of the year. Streets were indeed decorated with british flags and gigantic screens to allow every one to watch the Olympic celebrations. Plus, live music shows were performed in each district before, during and even after the Opening Ceremony. Besides, Tower Bridge was adorned with huge Olympic rings and the banks of River Thames were enlightened with flames to lead the Olympic torch to the very new Olympic Stadium built for this special occasion. London was buzzing, bringing the british culture to the largest audience in green areas or famous places like Covent Garden where I spent one afternoon. I unfortunately left the city few days before it really started partying. Nevertheless I had a lot of fun exploring and wandering throughout the capital with my english penpal Lilly. I’d have loved to stay longer! Victoria
How lucky you are to have discovered London in such a climate! I guess you really did have the feeling of understanding a little better the english culture during this unique period! Do you think you'll go back to your exchange partner's home?
You must have had a great time visiting London ! I can imagine the cultural intensity of that city, brought up to its climax by shows, concerts... Did you see any of those ?
Hi Iseut I definitly will go back to Lilly's, her family proposed mine to come over next summer at their apartment in London but also in Winchester where their main house takes place. Lilly and I had so much fun together, we are both looking forward to see eachother again :) I've heard you spent one month in Canada, how was it? Hope you enjoyed your journey there x
Hi Margot, I indeed went to an open-air concert with fireworks in Kew Gardens... unfortunalety it was pouring - typical english weather I guess! Few days before I left Lilly and I attended another musical performance in Hyde Park, the show was really amazing and, lucky us, the sky was blue! x
During these summer holidays, I've had the chance to move quite a lot and to visit places I've never been before, indeed I went to Munich, Germany, to Portiragnes, a small touristic city in the south of France and to Argeles in the Pyrenees.
First, I went in Munich. It was a schooltrip and I slept at my penpal's home where I had the pleasure to meet her Romania native parents and brother. In fact, Petra, my penpal, was born in Romania too, but her family left for Germany when she was one year old. At hope, they usually spoke romanian and hungarian and talked to me in german or english. I ate a lot of hungarian and romanian specialities, with complicated names, but it was delicious. I did not really go to school there, because we made a lot of visits with the group, such as the olympic stadium, Dachau's concentration camp where we learned about the way the jews and other deported people were treated and the evolution of these camps as the number of prisoners grew. It was really sad and we all had a strange feeling trying to imagine what these people were living everyday. When we were not on a visit, we spent time with our penpals and their families. I had the chance to visit several castles and I have to say that we clearly feel the french influence while visiting these places of a great beauty, especially the gardens. I finished the week a bit disabled because of a bad fall. I did not break my knee but I had a few problems to walk and it was very tiring, especially when we had to make a long walk for a visit. I was tired at the end of this week but I do not regret this amazing experience and I took a lot of nice photographs. More than this, I decided to take the german literature option, in order to progress. I was not expecting to fall in love with germany, but it's a beautiful country and I would like to go back there as soon as possible.
I also went camping with my family, on order to forget the city life and the technology for a couple of weeks. The first week, we went ti Portiragnes, a city located in the south of France, on the Mediterranean coast, near Beziers. I had the occasion to swim, to sunbath and I also took some zumba lessons. I spent a lot of time reading a serie of twelve books called the ' Emerald Knights ' and re-read Edgar Allan Poe's ' Oblog Box ' which is quite short but very pleasing. As I am a great fan of body art, at the end of this week, I got a bird tatooed on my wrist, but unfortunately, it was only with henne and the water removed it very quickly. The next week, we went to Argelès, in the Pyrenees where I took a lot of photographs in the local natural park where I saw bears, wolves, a lot of bird species and a lot of other animals. I made a lot of sport too, like swimming and walking. I did not read any book, but to improve my american english, I subscribed to Teen Vogue, which, I hope, will help me for my journalism studies.
I hope you all enjoyed your holidays as much as I enjoyed mine.
My summer holidays weren't as exciting as the two previous one, unfortunately. I enjoyed a two-weeks journey in Corsica with family and then went to Britanny for nearly the same period.Both were highly great and let me time to rest and read books in english as in french. I finished Lolita by Nabokhov, which I particularly recommend to those who love beautiful poetry and texts and also disturbing stories.
The only detail thay may interest you is the discovery of a stunning english bookshop, called Shakespeare and Company, lost in the middle of Paris. I found there everything you guys, can enjoy. There are classical books, from english or other country literature, translate in english as well but not only! You can find there books about mythology, cooking, music, dance, historical events, fiction, comics, novel, plays and so on. I spent 2 hours, lost among this amazing collection of books and believe me I've never seen such before! If you are looking for a singular present, pick up one of the mater and only copy of your choice. Everyone can get something out of it! I give you their website so that you can see on your own.
How funny it is to discover such store! I've cheked the website which does seem quite complete and very attractive. I saw they even sell rare items and very old books that travelled through centuries; some are quite expensive wehereas others are cheaper, there's a very interesting range of literary works. I was looking for a present for my cousin who's crazy about english literature, thank you so much for the link! x Victoria
It's nice that you discovered this book shop ! Everytime we go to Paris to meet my mother's family, my father is able to avoid the family reunions by going there ! I think it's his favourite shop in France ! When I was younger, he used to take me with him, but I dindn't now how to read, and after that i didn't know how to read English ... so for me, it still is a very boring place, where i was doing various expeditions between the bookcases to find my father and ask him when would we go home ! x Amélie
To speak the truth, I used to imagine that I was a cowboy riding a beauiful horse in the Far West, looking for the cow that I had lost ... (Yes, my father was the cow ...)
Summer, the best part of the year, there is no doubt to that !
As most of you already know, I left for three weeks in the US, to see my old friends. A lot of them had changed, physically and mentally but in all I got along with everyone. Have you guys seen X factor ? Well... American parties aren't really like that unfortunatly. The only similarity was the red solo cups. For the 4 of july (national american day) we watched the fireworks from the the playground we all used to play on in elementary school (momoment of nostalgia). I enjoyed seeing the huge american houses again and eating the "junky" food. After that i left with my parents to the ocean in brittany where we had great weather ! We were near the beach therefore most of our days were spent on the beach. We visited Vannes, a small but charming city. We went to a few historic shows including "Marie-Antoinette" in a castle. Visiting a middle age castle was actually quite interesting. Finally, the last three weeks were devoted to my loved ones including my friends old and new. A few parties, many afternoons at the pool and in the city. It's always nice to see friends from school away from the pressure. Therefore we can start on fresh new bases.
Two perfect month, in which we make new fiends, pictures, new goals and memories.
I did not have the chance of travelling abroad during these summer holidays, nevertheless, I spent one day in Paris. There, I wandered across the streets of that great city and visited an exhibition on Tim Burton. No doubt you all have seen one or several movies of this famous film director, still it did not solely deal with movies. As a matter of fact, that exhibition was rather centered on the man himself, one of the greatest and most imaginative film directors among all and his incredible universe. There, people could observe hundreds of drawings, watercolours or models made and designed by this master of movies, in crowded rooms that were about to burst at the seams. Each of these works recalled the extended universe of masterpieces such as Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorheads or Alice in Wonderland, making us travel throughout lands of laughsome and magic. Apart from this amazing journey, I spent most of my time dreaming, travelling through London and Barcelona when reading the Picture of Dorian Gray and some Spanish books.
Hey everyone! I hope you guys have had a great summer and that you have enjoyed those sunny, hot, lazy days that summertime offers. For my birthday (which happened to be on the 30th of July) , my parents offered me tickets for a music festival that took place in Brittany, called « Festival des Vieilles Charrues », which lasted 4 days during the month of July. It was absolutely amazing. I really had a great time! There, I discovered new groups of music and artists that I had never heard of before and I got the chance to see on stage some of my favorite bands and singers; Even if it was really cold and windy, even if the place was noisy and very crowded, the atmosphere would be jovial, festive and rollicking from 3 P.M. To 4 A.M. One week only after my small trip to Brittany, I had the amazing opportunity to spend a week in the south of France with one of my closest friends from Montreal. It was great and we had a lot of fun. We were both really excited to see each other after such a long wait! It was comical because we hadn't seen each other in « reality » for a while since we would often use Skype to communicate, so when we saw each other face to face, we smiled and laughed; we couldn't believe we were really there, together. But the week passed so quickly that it's only on the penultimate day we realized she would have to leave soon and go back to Canada afterwards. A few days after, I went back to Brittany. This time it was to see my family but the weather was terrible: it would not stop raining all day! So my cousin and I both became couch potatoes doing nothing of our days but eat and watch series. Overall it was fun, but the week passed and I already had to go back to Dijon! I was sad leaving because I knew it meant summer was over soon and classes and homework were coming back as well. That's it, I already have summertime sadness! Adèle
I spent my first holiday week in Limerick, in Ireland, where I did a lot of visits of castles and historical parks as Ireland includes an amazing number of castles which are unfortunately mainly in derelict because of the numerous conflicts between Ireland and England. During the second and third weeks of my journey in Ireland, I took an instructor course in a summer camp in order to find a summer job next year. I learned how to put the ropes in order to do the belaying for the kids and realized that it wasn’t always an easy job to cope with small kids. I would conclude by saying that my stay in Ireland has enabled my to know the Irish people’s culture and state of mind better. Indeed, the Irish are really attached to their culture and their origins and are really proud of their nation, and they would claim everywhere that they love their country and that it is very special. I remember a boy from Jersey who actually didn’t want to go to the summer camp because he was scared that other children might laugh at him because he didn’t have an Irish accent, which is by the way quite hard to understand…
Hey guys ! I loved this summer, I really had the nicest time (Possibly of my life) and made an amazing experience by crossing the ocean for the first time. Of course the plane part wasn't the enjoyable one (it's a twelve hour flight : it's too hot with freezing air currents, all sorts of forms to fill, bad coffee and crowded restrooms.) but the stay was unforgettable. The family welcomed me warmly, immediatly made me feel like home, and was eager to re-discover their city (Los Angeles) through the eyes of a foreigner. I tasted all kinds of food (enchiladas, various burgers, classic San Francisco sea food, carrot juice, and of course frozen yogurt, what would I give for one more mouthful.), visited San Francisco, made myself a little routine of eating watermelon and cinnamon bread next to the pool every morning, rode through a national Park named Joshua Tree, witnessed the 4th of July's night fireworks over the sea at a friend's beach house ... I had a wonderful time and am already planning with my exchange student Owen and his family to meet in New York next summer. I'm really excited and can't wait to see them ! After two weeks, Owen and I took the plane back to Paris where he took a sneak peek of the capital's streets. We left to Provence, spent a few days there, drove to Dijon, then back to Paris. He was the nicest guy and always thrilled to discover. After he left, I went to visit my grand-mother for a week and a half to finally get back home for good and spend some time with lifelong friend who stayed at our place. I hope your holidays were as happy as mine. I don't know about you but I can't wait for summer to be back !
Hi everyone ! This summer, I mostly spent my time seeing friends I hadn't seen for a while and making new ones. First, I went to Brittany to a summer camp with my scout group at Plouha. We were lucky since the weather was clement ( It hasn't rain for two weeks ! ) and since we had an entire camping aera for us. We went to Brehat island, went to see the fireworks at the beach, made a lipdub and several short movies since the theme was the Cinema. I also had the chance to partly anime the children, disguised as a sound man . I then went ten days to Tunisia where I joined a group of teenagers. We had fun in the hotel, however, I also met a Tunisian, Samir, with whom I had long debates about his country and its new government compared to ours. I finally went back to Brittany to a Music Festival. I stayed four days, it was amazing to be at this festival because it was entirely ecologic and also based on the respect. The night there were long and beautiful and I came back without my voice. I had a great time this summer and I enjoyed to discover Brittany, its food and its " Fest-Noz" and I must admit that I now love this region.
Hi Boris, (as promised I comment your post) How old were the kids you had to look after for a while? Did you enjoy to take care of them? How did you make out with them? Are you going to animate again a youth group next year? victoria
Hey guys ! Like the most of you know I spent my summer in Australia, in Melbourne. I left Dijon the 5th of July to arrive the 7th in Melbourne, I firstly had a 2hours flight to London, then a 15 hours one to Singapore and finally the last lasted 8 hours ! I met the 19 others french teenagers who were going to Melbourne as well, so we had a great time in the plane !
My host family was really nice, welcoming and we were all very glad to meet each other. I've seen my exhange partner, Shannon for the first time.They were in holidays when I arrived so we had 1 week to visit Melbourne's surroundings, it was a fantastic week, even if the weather was not that good .. We went to The great Ocean Road where stand the most beautiful beaches of Australia, and to an Island to see penguins and kangaroos ! They also brought me to Adelaide and many other nice places. It's not a myth, Australia is a really beautiful country, the people are smiling when you look at them in the eyes, and some kangaroos are crossing the street when you leave the city !
I started school on the 15th of July ! It was an unforgettable day, I arrived at PLC, Shannon's high school : the biggest of melbourne, 2000 girls are studying there ! It was indeed a girl school, I had to wear their uniform -not really cool but anyway it was a good experience for me- and they gave me the very long list of all the rules to respect (no make-up, gold earrings only, skirt under the knees, I even had to buy a certain type of shoes, very expensive, only for 1 month !) School lasted from 8am to 3:30pm every day.
It was a bit hard to wake up at the begginning because for me it was holidays but I quickly had a routine and a school rythm. I didn't have to follow my exchange partner's lessons, I could choose my options and the lessons I wanted to go, I chose music, photography, fashion, english, french, maths, commerce, health, history and geography ! It was very interesting and I improved my comprehension skills.
All the people were very nice and welcoming to me, I was the first french person they've seen, it was funny to hear all the clichés they had about France, that's why the geography teacher asked me to do a presentation about France (school, food and stuff) and they were all very interested ! I met a lot of girls and some becomed good friends, with who I went out on saturdays and afternoons.
It was really hard to say goodbye but anyway I knew I would come back one day. My best friend Tilley organised a party for my departure it was really touching but I had a good time ! I took the plane on the 13th of August and I was in Dijon, with many souvenirs in the head and in the suitcase, the 14th ! It was the best experience of my life, I improved my english, I met fantastic people and I discovered an amazing country ! I think I'm certainly gonna return to Australia soon !
Hi everyone. As you might've noticed, I left France a week before school ended. I took the train to England by myself to meet up with some close family and also to do some work experience : they owned a big beautiful garden open to visits and I was a waitress in the teashop they also owned. It was a lot of work, I never washed so many dishes in my life! But people were always very polite and nice to me. Then I took the train to Wales where I stayed for a few days, which I really enjoyed because of the rare lovely weather that welcomed me. A few weeks after that I this time flew by myself to Venisia where I met up with an Italian family in which I was a fille au pair for a month. Because I never spoke Italian before it was quite hard at first but I met lovely people, the weather was great, and even though the kids were sometimes too annoying for me I really enjoyed my stay. Five days after that my sister and I flew to Berlin to a summer camp for two weeks, where we had classes in the morning and various activities in the afternoon and in the evening. That was the best part of my holidays, I met for example hungarian, swiss, russian, canadian, serbian or even lithuanian and many other people there, we did wild stuff all week long I still miss each and every one of them. (yes, I did improve my german) I'm looking forward to our next holidays now!
Hi everybody, I’m going to tell you how I spent my summer holidays. I have chosen Corsica and the south of France to spend all my wonderful summer. I’ve met a lot of people who became my friends and I have seen many landscapes I will never forget.
To begin my holidays, I went to Corsica with my best friend. She lives in Nantes and we decided to go to Corsica together because everybody said that it was splendid. We were in a summer camp. It means that we lived during twelve days with teenagers coming from different cities of France and we learned more about them. Moreover, there were many other summer camps in the camping where we slept so it was an opportunity to share with them and to talk during the night. I remember that we had to prepare the meals by ourselves. It was an experience quite funny! In Corsica, I’ve practiced the skin-diving, an activity quite stressful at the beginning but very fantastic because in the water, I’ve discovered another world and I felt very good when I swam with my friends between the rocks, the fishes… During the night, we took advantage of the beautiful weather to play, listen to music, talk on the beach. To finish with, the sea is probably more beautiful in Corsica than in other places because the mountains behind and the transparent water are totally magical!
Secondly, I spent one month in the South at my grand-father’s house. He lives in Uzès, the city next to the “Pont du Gard” (I hope you will have the chance during your life to see the “Pont du Gard” by night, illuminated; it’s beautiful!) but also the city with the museum “Haribo” for ones who are fond of candies! With my friends, we rode horses and we made canoeing for example. This last activity is very interesting and I regret that it is more complicated in Dijon to do it because this sport provides a lot of adventures. We went also to the beach. Unfortunately, my family had to take the car to carry us because Uzès is more situated in the countryside. Nevertheless, I assure you this city is very agreeable and charming. I went each day to the swimming-pool, this was inescapable with the wonderful weather they have in the South! Finally, I took advantage of my aunt’s holidays to be with her, to do shopping… We saw together a display of country, a dance very joyful. Their clothes and their coordination were really impressive!
To conclude, I really enjoyed my holidays which were restful, funny and exotic. I’ll keep perfect memories!
Hi everyone! I am going to do a little summary of my summer ; it wasn’t so interesting than some of you because I didn’t go outside of France but overall it was great! Anyway, a summer is always great.
I shared my time between Dijon and the south of France. Indeed, with my mother and my sister, I went to Collioure in July for a week. From my part, I enjoyed this city. It’s a really beautiful one that draws its charm from its small size, its colourful houses, its beaches of pebbles and its narrow back alleys. There was a lot of animations, concerts in the evening. I never got bored there and I assure you that it’s a very nice place for holidays. After Collioure, I went to Avignon, and it was really interesting because there was “le festival d’Avignon”. As a consequence, there was a lot of shows in the streets, music, plays… I slept in a guest house located in a small village near Avignon. The place was really pleasant.
In August, I went to Cannet for two weeks, it is a city near Collioure but really different. In Cannet, it wasn’t so lively than Collioure; you go to this city predominantly for the beach. Nevertheless, I spent wonderful holidays.
To conclude, I’d say that this summer was amazing!
As far as the books are concerned, I have read one book called The Host by S. Meyer (Les Ames vagabondes in French), I have read it in French. It’s really different than her other world-famous books and so better! This book isn’t a masterpiece of literature; you just read it for pleasure; that’s why it’s a good book for summer. Lucie
Hi everyone ! While reading each comment one by one, i thought that we really are an international class ! We've all been traveling throug the world, and even the holidays we had in France sounded extraordinary ! (which, because it's one of the most visited places in the world, is not really a suprise !)
For my part, I went to my grandparents' place in New Delhi. It was ... awesome ! I wish I never had to come back. We spent our time shopping, visiting friends or family members, swimming ... The only problem was the weather ... It was 38 degrees at least, but we felt like it was 45, because of the humidity. I spent three weeks in Delhi, and then we went to Mumbai, at my uncle's place. Mumbai is an incredible city ! During the night, it looks just like New York (ok, I've never been to New York, but still, I've seen pictures!),and during the day, we can see that between each skyscraper, there are hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of slums. In fact, Mumbai represents quite well the India that we know throughout statistics : incredibly few rich people for millions of very very poor peole. Then we went to Goa for five days. It was just beatiful ! I want to get retired there ;). It was like ... A paddy field, three coconut trees, five houses, one temple, a paddy fiel, five cocony threes, two houses, a church, a white-sand beach, a paddy field, ... I really loved it ! It was just amazing. Plus, my cousin came with us, so we had a lot of fun !
In conclusion ? I can't wait to go to India again, in two years ! Time really needs to fly !
I spent most of my summer holidays in a very exotic Slavic country, that is, Poland. Being a big enthusiast of salt water and sandy beaches, I chose a seaside named Ustka as my first holiday destination. Thanks to various activities such as swimming in the sea, sun-bathing, attending different concerts in the evening, I made many acquaintances and was never bored. Meeting the members of a famous Polish dance troupe, winners of well-known TV-shows like ‘Got Talent’ or ‘So You Think You Can Dance’, was a complete surprise to me. Furthermore, while sauntering on fine golden sand, I had enough time to seriously contemplate the prospects of my future or just to relax my mind and read some great literature. By the way, sunsets on the beach were really conducive to feeling the atmosphere of Jane Austen’s romantic novels. At the beginning of August I decided to change the purlieus and go to Czech Republic, where I could meet native Bohemians and advance my command of Czech language. In fact, after having a marvelous week in that mountainous part of Central Europe, I was totally mesmerized by their style of living and especially by the lavish hospitality. This generousness is highly esteemed by all the tourists from the whole world. The view of the snow-covered mountains in the middle of the summer season was really breathtaking. When I stopped to catch my breath in a mountain shelter, I bumped into a group of young people, French wayfarers. It was fascinating to meet them. We got into a pleasant conversation and I regretted that it could not last a little bit longer. Actually, I think my holidays were quite successful, all things considered. That was a truly unforgettable experience.
Hi guys! During this summer I went to Ottawa in Canada by my exchange partner's, who was one of the least out-going people I ever met but I'm not going to flaunt on this. Fortunately, she had an amazingly kind and communicative family, with whom I did fall in love! Seriously, they took me to a lot of cities around Ottawa, such as Montreal, Toronto, or even New-York City, which was a terrific experience, and they were always present to have talks about everything with me. I really do miss her little sister and brother as well, since both of them were adorable and open-minded children! I got to know a little better the Canadian way of living or even thinking, which overall is quite different from the French one. For instance, they eat pretty much all the time with their fingers and would awkwardly stare at me using fork and knife... Once back in France, I was often asked the same question: did you improve your English? I guess I did in a certain extent, but my beloved Canadian family used to sometimes mock my terrible accent. My way of saying “banana” was extremely funny to them, and they made me repeat it countless times! To conclude I can say I really had a whale of time over there, even though I had some difficulties with my exchange partner!
Hey everyone, i had a great time over the summer. first of all, i went to Florida for two weeks with my parents, my brother and my sister. It was simply awesome, the first week and a half went very fast. We visited every amusement park in Orlando! Disneyworld, Epcot, Universal studios, water parks, ... My little brother was ecstatic! We also went shopping and visited the Kennedy space center (which was equally awesome). Unfortunately, my brother got sick for the last three or four days, and we had to stay at the hotel.
Then, my second trip was in Normandie with my grandparents and my sister. If you're thinking that it must have been pretty boring after The US, then you are wrong! We had an awesome time there, we visited World War two museums, the beaches from the "débarquement" and it almost wasn't always raining! (I lost my tan though). But the best part was that we slept at a "maison d'hote" which was ran by an 92 year old woman who lived here during the events. She would tell us stories and anectodes from when her family was hiding resistants in their basement, i loved it.
Hi everyone, Although I didn’t have the chance to cross the ocean this summer (that will be for next year), I can assure you I enjoyed every moment of my holidays (and I hope you did the same)! No alarm clock early in the morning, no school, no work, no stress… Two months of pure happiness. First of all, I spent three weeks near Arcachon, where I visited my cousins. I use to go there every year since I am a baby, and it stays the best moment of my summer! There, we spent our time shopping, wandering along the Bassin d’Arcachon (which is a lovely place), swimming in the ocean, going to parties… We had so much fun, I was so sad when I had to leave my cousins! In August, I spent a week in Majorca (Balearic Islands) with my mum, to take a breath of Mediterranean air. The landscapes were handsome (most particularly the coast) and the capital, Palma (which is actually the only city of the island) is a very nice place! The sun came with us during the whole trip and permitted us to have a very pleasant time together. Finally, my brother and I spent a week somewhere in the countryside where we saw my father and some friends. Actually it wasn’t as boring as I could imagine, mostly thanks to the swimming pool, I guess… Then I went back to my sweet home, and realized that it was the end of the holidays, already… So, let’s be positive: the summer is back in ten months!
Hi everybody! Unfortunately, my holidays were not as exciting as yours... I spent the whole 2 months in my dear nation, my beloved birth country: Britanny!
I can predict what you all are going to say, and I also contradict you: it is not always rainy! Sometimes, let's say a couple of minutes a day, we can distinguish a yellow circle beyond the clouds!... Well, in fact the weather was awful. But, there's a good point in that: this gave me the time to enjoy Shakespeare's masterpiece! Not the dreamt vacation, but well, I had to deal with it.
As I said, I read a lot of books. There is one I especially liked, and I recommend you to read, which is "The Prince" by Machiavelli. The thoughts of the author are really stunning. When it wasn't raining, I walked along the coast. Having a walk in Britanny is a thing I wish everybody to live even once in his life. The dark grey sky over you, blue-green waves crashing over the rocks, 15 feet below you, is a very strange and powerful feeling. It's the perfect example of the "Romantic" feeling we studied last year in French class. I know you remember it!
[Useless to precise that we have not felt the heat wave there!]
Hi everyone! Unfortunately, I cannot say I travelled abroad for two months to Australia, or spent two weeks tanning in beautiful Corsica or visiting the many skyscrapers of impressive New York. No, I did none of these wonderful and out of the common things, nonetheless I was able to move to quite a few different places and I spent one of the most wonderful summers although it seems very far away today! I began my holidays by flying to England, to my hometown near Nottingham. It was great to meet all of my friends as we spent our day laying in bed watching sad films among which were, The Notebook, Bridget Jones' Diary or Love Actually (my favourite), eating salted popcorn by the handful. I will reassure you however, when I tell you that we did get out at the first mention of the sales! Unfortunately, my stay was brief and I left only a week following my arrival, with a lot less money I must mention, to fly back to Paris where my best friend awaited my arrival. Only a few days later, we took our coach to Bombannes, a summer camp located on a lake in the south-west of France. We feared greatly our stay in this new area, surrounded by unknown people and shuddered at the thought of having to remain by ourselves during the whole of the week. Extremely fortunately for us, things turned out considerably better! The resort overlooked a vast expanse of clear water on which we sailed during the day, and the small beach was blancketed in people playing volley ball, chatting and meeting up. Although they were not hungarian, russian or german, I met many great people from all over France which contributed to making my week the fabulous week it was! Of course, the return from this stay was very difficult and upsetting as I could not imagine my holidays being anywhere as close as being as amazing as the past week! Again, I am happy to say that I was wrong! First, my family and I followed on to Britanny where the climate was disappointingly and nonetheless not surprisingly, terribly cold and cloudy. During this time however, I entertained myself by reading! I enjoyed Bel-Ami very much, although not quite as much as Confessons of a Shopaholic... The bad weather did not remain news for long though as the following week, the sun came out, bringing blue sky and sky high temperaures which we were not used to; turns out half of the population of this small holiday town got sunburnt! Our next destination was Arcachon where I stayed with family and friends. There, the sun was so present that we were not able to stay on the beach before four o'clock in the afternoon! We had excursions on motor boats, water skied and long bike rides along the coast, a comforting breeze constantly reminding me it was summer. I will always remember the lunches on the terrace, tea on the beach and evenings of watching shooting stars laying on the sand. After all of this, returning to Dijon was awfully hard as every picture and song reminded me of a part of summer, and every person I left behind left me feeling empty inside. I could not imagine myself waking up at six o'clock and having eight hours of work a day when I was used to having ten hours of laughing and enjoying myself ! But as the saying goes: "no man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one"!
Hi guys, since summer's already gone I propose you a brief view of London, the british capital which hosted two months ago the Olympics – and is currently presenting the Paralympic Games. You may have already visited London, but this summer the city was dressed to amaze thousands of tourists coming from every corner of the globe to enjoy the greatest sportive festival of the year. Streets were indeed decorated with british flags and gigantic screens to allow every one to watch the Olympic celebrations. Plus, live music shows were performed in each district before, during and even after the Opening Ceremony. Besides, Tower Bridge was adorned with huge Olympic rings and the banks of River Thames were enlightened with flames to lead the Olympic torch to the very new Olympic Stadium built for this special occasion. London was buzzing, bringing the british culture to the largest audience in green areas or famous places like Covent Garden where I spent one afternoon. I unfortunately left the city few days before it really started partying. Nevertheless I had a lot of fun exploring and wandering throughout the capital with my english penpal Lilly. I’d have loved to stay longer! Victoria
ReplyDeleteHow lucky you are to have discovered London in such a climate! I guess you really did have the feeling of understanding a little better the english culture during this unique period! Do you think you'll go back to your exchange partner's home?
DeleteYou must have had a great time visiting London !
DeleteI can imagine the cultural intensity of that city, brought up to its climax by shows, concerts... Did you see any of those ?
Margot
Hi Iseut I definitly will go back to Lilly's, her family proposed mine to come over next summer at their apartment in London but also in Winchester where their main house takes place. Lilly and I had so much fun together, we are both looking forward to see eachother again :) I've heard you spent one month in Canada, how was it? Hope you enjoyed your journey there x
DeleteHi Margot, I indeed went to an open-air concert with fireworks in Kew Gardens... unfortunalety it was pouring - typical english weather I guess! Few days before I left Lilly and I attended another musical performance in Hyde Park, the show was really amazing and, lucky us, the sky was blue! x
During these summer holidays, I've had the chance to move quite a lot and to visit places I've never been before, indeed I went to Munich, Germany, to Portiragnes, a small touristic city in the south of France and to Argeles in the Pyrenees.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I went in Munich. It was a schooltrip and I slept at my penpal's home where I had the pleasure to meet her Romania native parents and brother. In fact, Petra, my penpal, was born in Romania too, but her family left for Germany when she was one year old. At hope, they usually spoke romanian and hungarian and talked to me in german or english. I ate a lot of hungarian and romanian specialities, with complicated names, but it was delicious.
I did not really go to school there, because we made a lot of visits with the group, such as the olympic stadium, Dachau's concentration camp where we learned about the way the jews and other deported people were treated and the evolution of these camps as the number of prisoners grew. It was really sad and we all had a strange feeling trying to imagine what these people were living everyday. When we were not on a visit, we spent time with our penpals and their families. I had the chance to visit several castles and I have to say that we clearly feel the french influence while visiting these places of a great beauty, especially the gardens. I finished the week a bit disabled because of a bad fall. I did not break my knee but I had a few problems to walk and it was very tiring, especially when we had to make a long walk for a visit. I was tired at the end of this week but I do not regret this amazing experience and I took a lot of nice photographs. More than this, I decided to take the german literature option, in order to progress. I was not expecting to fall in love with germany, but it's a beautiful country and I would like to go back there as soon as possible.
I also went camping with my family, on order to forget the city life and the technology for a couple of weeks.
The first week, we went ti Portiragnes, a city located in the south of France, on the Mediterranean coast, near Beziers. I had the occasion to swim, to sunbath and I also took some zumba lessons. I spent a lot of time reading a serie of twelve books called the ' Emerald Knights ' and re-read Edgar Allan Poe's ' Oblog Box ' which is quite short but very pleasing. As I am a great fan of body art, at the end of this week, I got a bird tatooed on my wrist, but unfortunately, it was only with henne and the water removed it very quickly. The next week, we went to Argelès, in the Pyrenees where I took a lot of photographs in the local natural park where I saw bears, wolves, a lot of bird species and a lot of other animals. I made a lot of sport too, like swimming and walking. I did not read any book, but to improve my american english, I subscribed to Teen Vogue, which, I hope, will help me for my journalism studies.
I hope you all enjoyed your holidays as much as I enjoyed mine.
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteMy summer holidays weren't as exciting as the two previous one, unfortunately. I enjoyed a two-weeks journey in Corsica with family and then went to Britanny for nearly the same period.Both were highly great and let me time to rest and read books in english as in french. I finished Lolita by Nabokhov, which I particularly recommend to those who love beautiful poetry and texts and also disturbing stories.
The only detail thay may interest you is the discovery of a stunning english bookshop, called Shakespeare and Company, lost in the middle of Paris. I found there everything you guys, can enjoy. There are classical books, from english or other country literature, translate in english as well but not only! You can find there books about mythology, cooking, music, dance, historical events, fiction, comics, novel, plays and so on. I spent 2 hours, lost among this amazing collection of books and believe me I've never seen such before! If you are looking for a singular present, pick up one of the mater and only copy of your choice. Everyone can get something out of it!
I give you their website so that you can see on your own.
www.shakespeareandcompany.com
Hope you'll enjoy!
Julia.
How funny it is to discover such store! I've cheked the website which does seem quite complete and very attractive. I saw they even sell rare items and very old books that travelled through centuries; some are quite expensive wehereas others are cheaper, there's a very interesting range of literary works. I was looking for a present for my cousin who's crazy about english literature, thank you so much for the link! x Victoria
DeleteGlad to see you enjoyed it ! xoxo . Julia
DeleteIt's nice that you discovered this book shop ! Everytime we go to Paris to meet my mother's family, my father is able to avoid the family reunions by going there ! I think it's his favourite shop in France ! When I was younger, he used to take me with him, but I dindn't now how to read, and after that i didn't know how to read English ... so for me, it still is a very boring place, where i was doing various expeditions between the bookcases to find my father and ask him when would we go home !
Deletex Amélie
To speak the truth, I used to imagine that I was a cowboy riding a beauiful horse in the Far West, looking for the cow that I had lost ... (Yes, my father was the cow ...)
DeleteSummer, the best part of the year, there is no doubt to that !
ReplyDeleteAs most of you already know, I left for three weeks in the US, to see my old friends. A lot of them had changed, physically and mentally but in all I got along with everyone. Have you guys seen X factor ? Well... American parties aren't really like that unfortunatly. The only similarity was the red solo cups. For the 4 of july (national american day) we watched the fireworks from the the playground we all used to play on in elementary school (momoment of nostalgia). I enjoyed seeing the huge american houses again and eating the "junky" food.
After that i left with my parents to the ocean in brittany where we had great weather ! We were near the beach therefore most of our days were spent on the beach. We visited Vannes, a small but charming city. We went to a few historic shows including "Marie-Antoinette" in a castle. Visiting a middle age castle was actually quite interesting.
Finally, the last three weeks were devoted to my loved ones including my friends old and new. A few parties, many afternoons at the pool and in the city. It's always nice to see friends from school away from the pressure. Therefore we can start on fresh new bases.
Two perfect month, in which we make new fiends, pictures, new goals and memories.
Glad to see you enjoyed your time in the US, have you already planned to come back again and see them next summer? x victoria
DeleteHi, everyone !
ReplyDeleteI did not have the chance of travelling abroad during these summer holidays, nevertheless, I spent one day in Paris.
There, I wandered across the streets of that great city and visited an exhibition on Tim Burton. No doubt you all have seen one or several movies of this famous film director, still it did not solely deal with movies. As a matter of fact, that exhibition was rather centered on the man himself, one of the greatest and most imaginative film directors among all and his incredible universe.
There, people could observe hundreds of drawings, watercolours or models made and designed by this master of movies, in crowded rooms that were about to burst at the seams. Each of these works recalled the extended universe of masterpieces such as Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorheads or Alice in Wonderland, making us travel throughout lands of laughsome and magic.
Apart from this amazing journey, I spent most of my time dreaming, travelling through London and Barcelona when reading the Picture of Dorian Gray and some Spanish books.
Margot
Hey everyone!
ReplyDeleteI hope you guys have had a great summer and that you have enjoyed those sunny, hot, lazy days that summertime offers.
For my birthday (which happened to be on the 30th of July) , my parents offered me tickets for a music festival that took place in Brittany, called « Festival des Vieilles Charrues », which lasted 4 days during the month of July. It was absolutely amazing. I really had a great time! There, I discovered new groups of music and artists that I had never heard of before and I got the chance to see on stage some of my favorite bands and singers; Even if it was really cold and windy, even if the place was noisy and very crowded, the atmosphere would be jovial, festive and rollicking from 3 P.M. To 4 A.M.
One week only after my small trip to Brittany, I had the amazing opportunity to spend a week in the south of France with one of my closest friends from Montreal. It was great and we had a lot of fun. We were both really excited to see each other after such a long wait! It was comical because we hadn't seen each other in « reality » for a while since we would often use Skype to communicate, so when we saw each other face to face, we smiled and laughed; we couldn't believe we were really there, together. But the week passed so quickly that it's only on the penultimate day we realized she would have to leave soon and go back to Canada afterwards.
A few days after, I went back to Brittany. This time it was to see my family but the weather was terrible: it would not stop raining all day! So my cousin and I both became couch potatoes doing nothing of our days but eat and watch series. Overall it was fun, but the week passed and I already had to go back to Dijon! I was sad leaving because I knew it meant summer was over soon and classes and homework were coming back as well.
That's it, I already have summertime sadness!
Adèle
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteI spent my first holiday week in Limerick, in Ireland, where I did a lot of visits of castles and historical parks as Ireland includes an amazing number of castles which are unfortunately mainly in derelict because of the numerous conflicts between Ireland and England. During the second and third weeks of my journey in Ireland, I took an instructor course in a summer camp in order to find a summer job next year. I learned how to put the ropes in order to do the belaying for the kids and realized that it wasn’t always an easy job to cope with small kids.
I would conclude by saying that my stay in Ireland has enabled my to know the Irish people’s culture and state of mind better. Indeed, the Irish are really attached to their culture and their origins and are really proud of their nation, and they would claim everywhere that they love their country and that it is very special. I remember a boy from Jersey who actually didn’t want to go to the summer camp because he was scared that other children might laugh at him because he didn’t have an Irish accent, which is by the way quite hard to understand…
Don't forget to sign your name, whoever you are!
DeleteHey guys !
ReplyDeleteI loved this summer, I really had the nicest time (Possibly of my life) and made an amazing experience by crossing the ocean for the first time. Of course the plane part wasn't the enjoyable one (it's a twelve hour flight : it's too hot with freezing air currents, all sorts of forms to fill, bad coffee and crowded restrooms.) but the stay was unforgettable. The family welcomed me warmly, immediatly made me feel like home, and was eager to re-discover their city (Los Angeles) through the eyes of a foreigner. I tasted all kinds of food (enchiladas, various burgers, classic San Francisco sea food, carrot juice, and of course frozen yogurt, what would I give for one more mouthful.), visited San Francisco, made myself a little routine of eating watermelon and cinnamon bread next to the pool every morning, rode through a national Park named Joshua Tree, witnessed the 4th of July's night fireworks over the sea at a friend's beach house ... I had a wonderful time and am already planning with my exchange student Owen and his family to meet in New York next summer. I'm really excited and can't wait to see them ! After two weeks, Owen and I took the plane back to Paris where he took a sneak peek of the capital's streets. We left to Provence, spent a few days there, drove to Dijon, then back to Paris. He was the nicest guy and always thrilled to discover.
After he left, I went to visit my grand-mother for a week and a half to finally get back home for good and spend some time with lifelong friend who stayed at our place.
I hope your holidays were as happy as mine. I don't know about you but I can't wait for summer to be back !
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi everyone !
ReplyDeleteThis summer, I mostly spent my time seeing friends I hadn't seen for a while and making new ones.
First, I went to Brittany to a summer camp with my scout group at Plouha. We were lucky since the weather was clement ( It hasn't rain for two weeks ! ) and since we had an entire camping aera for us. We went to Brehat island, went to see the fireworks at the beach, made a lipdub and several short movies since the theme was the Cinema. I also had the chance to partly anime the children, disguised as a sound man . I then went ten days to Tunisia where I joined a group of teenagers. We had fun in the hotel, however, I also met a Tunisian, Samir, with whom I had long debates about his country and its new government compared to ours. I finally went back to Brittany to a Music Festival. I stayed four days, it was amazing to be at this festival because it was entirely ecologic and also based on the respect. The night there were long and beautiful and I came back without my voice.
I had a great time this summer and I enjoyed to discover Brittany, its food and its " Fest-Noz" and I must admit that I now love this region.
Hi Boris, (as promised I comment your post) How old were the kids you had to look after for a while? Did you enjoy to take care of them? How did you make out with them? Are you going to animate again a youth group next year? victoria
DeleteHey guys ! Like the most of you know I spent my summer in Australia, in Melbourne. I left Dijon the 5th of July to arrive the 7th in Melbourne, I firstly had a 2hours flight to London, then a 15 hours one to Singapore and finally the last lasted 8 hours ! I met the 19 others french teenagers who were going to Melbourne as well, so we had a great time in the plane !
ReplyDeleteMy host family was really nice, welcoming and we were all very glad to meet each other. I've seen my exhange partner, Shannon for the first time.They were in holidays when I arrived so we had 1 week to visit Melbourne's surroundings, it was a fantastic week, even if the weather was not that good .. We went to The great Ocean Road where stand the most beautiful beaches of Australia, and to an Island to see penguins and kangaroos ! They also brought me to Adelaide and many other nice places. It's not a myth, Australia is a really beautiful country, the people are smiling when you look at them in the eyes, and some kangaroos are crossing the street when you leave the city !
I started school on the 15th of July ! It was an unforgettable day, I arrived at PLC, Shannon's high school : the biggest of melbourne, 2000 girls are studying there ! It was indeed a girl school, I had to wear their uniform -not really cool but anyway it was a good experience for me- and they gave me the very long list of all the rules to respect (no make-up, gold earrings only, skirt under the knees, I even had to buy a certain type of shoes, very expensive, only for 1 month !) School lasted from 8am to 3:30pm every day.
It was a bit hard to wake up at the begginning because for me it was holidays but I quickly had a routine and a school rythm. I didn't have to follow my exchange partner's lessons, I could choose my options and the lessons I wanted to go, I chose music, photography, fashion, english, french, maths, commerce, health, history and geography ! It was very interesting and I improved my comprehension skills.
All the people were very nice and welcoming to me, I was the first french person they've seen, it was funny to hear all the clichés they had about France, that's why the geography teacher asked me to do a presentation about France (school, food and stuff) and they were all very interested !
I met a lot of girls and some becomed good friends, with who I went out on saturdays and afternoons.
It was really hard to say goodbye but anyway I knew I would come back one day.
My best friend Tilley organised a party for my departure it was really touching but I had a good time ! I took the plane on the 13th of August and I was in Dijon, with many souvenirs in the head and in the suitcase, the 14th ! It was the best experience of my life, I improved my english, I met fantastic people and I discovered an amazing country ! I think I'm certainly gonna return to Australia soon !
Sorry if I was a bit long! I hope it's not too boring!
DeleteHi everyone.
ReplyDeleteAs you might've noticed, I left France a week before school ended. I took the train to England by myself to meet up with some close family and also to do some work experience : they owned a big beautiful garden open to visits and I was a waitress in the teashop they also owned. It was a lot of work, I never washed so many dishes in my life! But people were always very polite and nice to me. Then I took the train to Wales where I stayed for a few days, which I really enjoyed because of the rare lovely weather that welcomed me. A few weeks after that I this time flew by myself to Venisia where I met up with an Italian family in which I was a fille au pair for a month. Because I never spoke Italian before it was quite hard at first but I met lovely people, the weather was great, and even though the kids were sometimes too annoying for me I really enjoyed my stay. Five days after that my sister and I flew to Berlin to a summer camp for two weeks, where we had classes in the morning and various activities in the afternoon and in the evening. That was the best part of my holidays, I met for example hungarian, swiss, russian, canadian, serbian or even lithuanian and many other people there, we did wild stuff all week long I still miss each and every one of them. (yes, I did improve my german)
I'm looking forward to our next holidays now!
Hi everybody, I’m going to tell you how I spent my summer holidays. I have chosen Corsica and the south of France to spend all my wonderful summer. I’ve met a lot of people who became my friends and I have seen many landscapes I will never forget.
ReplyDeleteTo begin my holidays, I went to Corsica with my best friend. She lives in Nantes and we decided to go to Corsica together because everybody said that it was splendid. We were in a summer camp. It means that we lived during twelve days with teenagers coming from different cities of France and we learned more about them. Moreover, there were many other summer camps in the camping where we slept so it was an opportunity to share with them and to talk during the night. I remember that we had to prepare the meals by ourselves. It was an experience quite funny! In Corsica, I’ve practiced the skin-diving, an activity quite stressful at the beginning but very fantastic because in the water, I’ve discovered another world and I felt very good when I swam with my friends between the rocks, the fishes… During the night, we took advantage of the beautiful weather to play, listen to music, talk on the beach. To finish with, the sea is probably more beautiful in Corsica than in other places because the mountains behind and the transparent water are totally magical!
Secondly, I spent one month in the South at my grand-father’s house. He lives in Uzès, the city next to the “Pont du Gard” (I hope you will have the chance during your life to see the “Pont du Gard” by night, illuminated; it’s beautiful!) but also the city with the museum “Haribo” for ones who are fond of candies! With my friends, we rode horses and we made canoeing for example. This last activity is very interesting and I regret that it is more complicated in Dijon to do it because this sport provides a lot of adventures. We went also to the beach. Unfortunately, my family had to take the car to carry us because Uzès is more situated in the countryside. Nevertheless, I assure you this city is very agreeable and charming. I went each day to the swimming-pool, this was inescapable with the wonderful weather they have in the South! Finally, I took advantage of my aunt’s holidays to be with her, to do shopping… We saw together a display of country, a dance very joyful. Their clothes and their coordination were really impressive!
To conclude, I really enjoyed my holidays which were restful, funny and exotic. I’ll keep perfect memories!
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteI am going to do a little summary of my summer ; it wasn’t so interesting than some of you because I didn’t go outside of France but overall it was great! Anyway, a summer is always great.
I shared my time between Dijon and the south of France. Indeed, with my mother and my sister, I went to Collioure in July for a week. From my part, I enjoyed this city. It’s a really beautiful one that draws its charm from its small size, its colourful houses, its beaches of pebbles and its narrow back alleys. There was a lot of animations, concerts in the evening. I never got bored there and I assure you that it’s a very nice place for holidays.
After Collioure, I went to Avignon, and it was really interesting because there was “le festival d’Avignon”. As a consequence, there was a lot of shows in the streets, music, plays… I slept in a guest house located in a small village near Avignon. The place was really pleasant.
In August, I went to Cannet for two weeks, it is a city near Collioure but really different. In Cannet, it wasn’t so lively than Collioure; you go to this city predominantly for the beach. Nevertheless, I spent wonderful holidays.
To conclude, I’d say that this summer was amazing!
As far as the books are concerned, I have read one book called The Host by S. Meyer (Les Ames vagabondes in French), I have read it in French. It’s really different than her other world-famous books and so better! This book isn’t a masterpiece of literature; you just read it for pleasure; that’s why it’s a good book for summer.
Lucie
Hi everyone ! While reading each comment one by one, i thought that we really are an international class ! We've all been traveling throug the world, and even the holidays we had in France sounded extraordinary ! (which, because it's one of the most visited places in the world, is not really a suprise !)
ReplyDeleteFor my part, I went to my grandparents' place in New Delhi. It was ... awesome ! I wish I never had to come back. We spent our time shopping, visiting friends or family members, swimming ... The only problem was the weather ... It was 38 degrees at least, but we felt like it was 45, because of the humidity.
I spent three weeks in Delhi, and then we went to Mumbai, at my uncle's place. Mumbai is an incredible city ! During the night, it looks just like New York (ok, I've never been to New York, but still, I've seen pictures!),and during the day, we can see that between each skyscraper, there are hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of slums. In fact, Mumbai represents quite well the India that we know throughout statistics : incredibly few rich people for millions of very very poor peole.
Then we went to Goa for five days. It was just beatiful ! I want to get retired there ;). It was like ... A paddy field, three coconut trees, five houses, one temple, a paddy fiel, five cocony threes, two houses, a church, a white-sand beach, a paddy field, ... I really loved it ! It was just amazing. Plus, my cousin came with us, so we had a lot of fun !
In conclusion ? I can't wait to go to India again, in two years ! Time really needs to fly !
Hi, everyone !
ReplyDeleteI spent most of my summer holidays in a very exotic Slavic country, that is, Poland. Being a big enthusiast of salt water and sandy beaches, I chose a seaside named Ustka as my first holiday destination. Thanks to various activities such as swimming in the sea, sun-bathing, attending different concerts in the evening, I made many acquaintances and was never bored. Meeting the members of a famous Polish dance troupe, winners of well-known TV-shows like ‘Got Talent’ or ‘So You Think You Can Dance’, was a complete surprise to me. Furthermore, while sauntering on fine golden sand, I had enough time to seriously contemplate the prospects of my future or just to relax my mind and read some great literature. By the way, sunsets on the beach were really conducive to feeling the atmosphere of Jane Austen’s romantic novels.
At the beginning of August I decided to change the purlieus and go to Czech Republic, where I could meet native Bohemians and advance my command of Czech language. In fact, after having a marvelous week in that mountainous part of Central Europe, I was totally mesmerized by their style of living and especially by the lavish hospitality. This generousness is highly esteemed by all the tourists from the whole world. The view of the snow-covered mountains in the middle of the summer season was really breathtaking. When I stopped to catch my breath in a mountain shelter, I bumped into a group of young people, French wayfarers. It was fascinating to meet them. We got into a pleasant conversation and I regretted that it could not last a little bit longer.
Actually, I think my holidays were quite successful, all things considered. That was a truly unforgettable experience.
Hi guys! During this summer I went to Ottawa in Canada by my exchange partner's, who was one of the least out-going people I ever met but I'm not going to flaunt on this. Fortunately, she had an amazingly kind and communicative family, with whom I did fall in love! Seriously, they took me to a lot of cities around Ottawa, such as Montreal, Toronto, or even New-York City, which was a terrific experience, and they were always present to have talks about everything with me. I really do miss her little sister and brother as well, since both of them were adorable and open-minded children!
ReplyDeleteI got to know a little better the Canadian way of living or even thinking, which overall is quite different from the French one. For instance, they eat pretty much all the time with their fingers and would awkwardly stare at me using fork and knife...
Once back in France, I was often asked the same question: did you improve your English? I guess I did in a certain extent, but my beloved Canadian family used to sometimes mock my terrible accent. My way of saying “banana” was extremely funny to them, and they made me repeat it countless times!
To conclude I can say I really had a whale of time over there, even though I had some difficulties with my exchange partner!
Hey everyone, i had a great time over the summer. first of all, i went to Florida for two weeks with my parents, my brother and my sister. It was simply awesome, the first week and a half went very fast. We visited every amusement park in Orlando! Disneyworld, Epcot, Universal studios, water parks, ... My little brother was ecstatic! We also went shopping and visited the Kennedy space center (which was equally awesome). Unfortunately, my brother got sick for the last three or four days, and we had to stay at the hotel.
ReplyDeleteThen, my second trip was in Normandie with my grandparents and my sister. If you're thinking that it must have been pretty boring after The US, then you are wrong! We had an awesome time there, we visited World War two museums, the beaches from the "débarquement" and it almost wasn't always raining! (I lost my tan though). But the best part was that we slept at a "maison d'hote" which was ran by an 92 year old woman who lived here during the events. She would tell us stories and anectodes from when her family was hiding resistants in their basement, i loved it.
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I didn’t have the chance to cross the ocean this summer (that will be for next year), I can assure you I enjoyed every moment of my holidays (and I hope you did the same)! No alarm clock early in the morning, no school, no work, no stress… Two months of pure happiness.
First of all, I spent three weeks near Arcachon, where I visited my cousins. I use to go there every year since I am a baby, and it stays the best moment of my summer! There, we spent our time shopping, wandering along the Bassin d’Arcachon (which is a lovely place), swimming in the ocean, going to parties… We had so much fun, I was so sad when I had to leave my cousins!
In August, I spent a week in Majorca (Balearic Islands) with my mum, to take a breath of Mediterranean air. The landscapes were handsome (most particularly the coast) and the capital, Palma (which is actually the only city of the island) is a very nice place! The sun came with us during the whole trip and permitted us to have a very pleasant time together.
Finally, my brother and I spent a week somewhere in the countryside where we saw my father and some friends. Actually it wasn’t as boring as I could imagine, mostly thanks to the swimming pool, I guess…
Then I went back to my sweet home, and realized that it was the end of the holidays, already… So, let’s be positive: the summer is back in ten months!
Hi everybody! Unfortunately, my holidays were not as exciting as yours... I spent the whole 2 months in my dear nation, my beloved birth country: Britanny!
ReplyDeleteI can predict what you all are going to say, and I also contradict you: it is not always rainy! Sometimes, let's say a couple of minutes a day, we can distinguish a yellow circle beyond the clouds!... Well, in fact the weather was awful. But, there's a good point in that: this gave me the time to enjoy Shakespeare's masterpiece! Not the dreamt vacation, but well, I had to deal with it.
As I said, I read a lot of books. There is one I especially liked, and I recommend you to read, which is "The Prince" by Machiavelli. The thoughts of the author are really stunning. When it wasn't raining, I walked along the coast. Having a walk in Britanny is a thing I wish everybody to live even once in his life. The dark grey sky over you, blue-green waves crashing over the rocks, 15 feet below you, is a very strange and powerful feeling. It's the perfect example of the "Romantic" feeling we studied last year in French class. I know you remember it!
[Useless to precise that we have not felt the heat wave there!]
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I cannot say I travelled abroad for two months to Australia, or spent two weeks tanning in beautiful Corsica or visiting the many skyscrapers of impressive New York. No, I did none of these wonderful and out of the common things, nonetheless I was able to move to quite a few different places and I spent one of the most wonderful summers although it seems very far away today!
I began my holidays by flying to England, to my hometown near Nottingham. It was great to meet all of my friends as we spent our day laying in bed watching sad films among which were, The Notebook, Bridget Jones' Diary or Love Actually (my favourite), eating salted popcorn by the handful. I will reassure you however, when I tell you that we did get out at the first mention of the sales! Unfortunately, my stay was brief and I left only a week following my arrival, with a lot less money I must mention, to fly back to Paris where my best friend awaited my arrival.
Only a few days later, we took our coach to Bombannes, a summer camp located on a lake in the south-west of France. We feared greatly our stay in this new area, surrounded by unknown people and shuddered at the thought of having to remain by ourselves during the whole of the week. Extremely fortunately for us, things turned out considerably better! The resort overlooked a vast expanse of clear water on which we sailed during the day, and the small beach was blancketed in people playing volley ball, chatting and meeting up. Although they were not hungarian, russian or german, I met many great people from all over France which contributed to making my week the fabulous week it was!
Of course, the return from this stay was very difficult and upsetting as I could not imagine my holidays being anywhere as close as being as amazing as the past week! Again, I am happy to say that I was wrong! First, my family and I followed on to Britanny where the climate was disappointingly and nonetheless not surprisingly, terribly cold and cloudy. During this time however, I entertained myself by reading! I enjoyed Bel-Ami very much, although not quite as much as Confessons of a Shopaholic... The bad weather did not remain news for long though as the following week, the sun came out, bringing blue sky and sky high temperaures which we were not used to; turns out half of the population of this small holiday town got sunburnt!
Our next destination was Arcachon where I stayed with family and friends. There, the sun was so present that we were not able to stay on the beach before four o'clock in the afternoon! We had excursions on motor boats, water skied and long bike rides along the coast, a comforting breeze constantly reminding me it was summer. I will always remember the lunches on the terrace, tea on the beach and evenings of watching shooting stars laying on the sand.
After all of this, returning to Dijon was awfully hard as every picture and song reminded me of a part of summer, and every person I left behind left me feeling empty inside. I could not imagine myself waking up at six o'clock and having eight hours of work a day when I was used to having ten hours of laughing and enjoying myself ! But as the saying goes: "no man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one"!