Hotel Losset Flagey-Echézeaux

This week i went to school only on lundi (Monday) because Marie had exams all week. So that was really good for me because it gave me a week to do whatever i wanted and i actually felt like i was on holidays. =)
I'm sorry i have left it so long to write this blog entry and now i have forgotten what days i did things but now i finally have a good computer working. Unfortunately it is not my laptop but one that belongs to my host family ...

Well this week i started school. Which makes it feel like i have never left school because i have only had a couple of weeks holidays in Australia (not even). But i am just relieved that i do not have to worry about doing anything during class or any of the homework or exams =) So i can still feel relaxed.
Marie walks to and from school everyday and it is about a 20 minute walk through old small streets. The school is very beautiful and ...

Well I arrived in Paris at 6:05 in the morning yesterday, french time.
The flight was incredibely long!! and i only managed to sleep for what i think was 3 hours and even though i dozed off 3 times i slept for only a bit each time. It is so difficult to sleep in sitting in an upright position.
I had a very embarrassing experience on the plane on the way here. I opened the toilet door and a well lets just say there was a man in there. I was like oh no!!! but seriously ...

... is that everything closes for lunch from 12 to 2. They are serious on their lunchtime here, and when its raining and there's not much sightseeing to do in the small towns, well, lets just say we were lucky to have enough wine to get us through it. We also tried a proper french dinner in the town of Beaune, a 4 course meal for 12 Euros. Caity got Rabbit and Tom got Veal, or so we thought. We still aren't sure ...

After Angela spent the weekend with my mom, Linda, and I in London her mom was nice enough to extend an invitation to me to go to wine country with them for a weekend trip. Beaune was our destination, located in the burgundy wine region of France. In France will not see wine labeled by the type of grapes used (i.e. Merlot, Cabernet, etc.) instead they are labeled by region (i.e. Bordeaux, Bourgogne, etc.). Angela's mom and her cousin Tracy had already been in and around ...

... number of 'across the streets'. She should have said to the left and down the street.
Again the next morning I did the same thing, but now line 7 wasnt working so I couldnt get back to the centre so I was going to go down the street and catch line 15 but there was a whole heap of construction work which meant that stop wasn't in service. So I gave up on the buses and used each stop's very dodgy bus route maps to find my way, whereupon I finally arrived at the tourist office.

... bottle. Walking back to the van clutching our precious bottle - we're not used to paying £8.60 for a bottle of wine - we were stopped by a Begian couple who had pulled up in their camper. Being Belgian, their English was very good, and we described our tasting experience, mentioning that a single bottle of the second cheapest was a full 10eu!. Ten minutes or so later, they were on their way back to their van towing a trolley laden with three cases ...

Today we left Paris and headed for Burgundy. Our first stop was the historic project Le Chateau Guedelon. It is a medieval castle, built using medieval tools and tradesmen, but started in 1997. It is an active construction site as stone masons, rope markers, carpenters, tile makers, and laboureres all work to build this castle. It was fascinating. Our guide explained the different techniques in building an ...

... from Troyes to Dijon and just beyond to Beaune seemed, as I'd feared it would, to go on forever. There was some dramatic weather with torrential rain just north of Dijon, which at least took the heat out of the day for a while - it had been very very hot in the depths of the afternoon... But at last we pulled into Beaune and soon spotted a 'Camping' sign; it was easy to track the site down. 'Cent Vignes' is municipally ...

... stuff, including: - the ginormous Chateau de Versailles, built during the reign of Louis XIV during the 17th century. It's apparently the biggest and most impressive of the many French chateaux, and it certainly was huge, and lavishly decorated inside. However, it was really hot the afternoon we went, and jam-packed with sweaty tourists so we were quite relieved to get outside. We paid the extra 3 euros each to visit the formal gardens, and actually enjoyed ...