School trip

Lara ( 15 years old) went on a school trip to Sicily last year. In this article she describes some of the various sights she visited with her class.

Last year, I went on a school trip to Sicily. I stayed in Palermo for a week from March 12th to March 17th. The tour was organized for all the students who had been learning Latin for two years.

On March 12th we flew from Paris to Milan. My school friends and I were on time at the airport but my teachers arrived late!At 7.30am we took off and stopped over Milan.

When we arrived at our hotel,my friends and I were surprised because our first hotel was great, it was a four-star hotel with a swimming pool. The hotel was in the centre of Palermo and we had lunch in a beautiful garden.

After visiting Palermo we visited Chiesa di S.Maria Catena church. Then we walked across the Spanish Door. Some students made a speech about Palermo. Palermo is the biggest city in Sicily. Personally I think it is a dirty city because there was rubbish everywhere and the ground was laid with about 25 umbrellas!!In the evening we came back to the hotel and had dinner, we had a strange local green cake it was disgusting.

Thanks to our teacher who woke us up, every morning was a nightmare because she wore pyjamas with teddy bear patterns and pink bunny-shaped slippers!

On March 13th we had breakfast and then took the bus to Monreale. We visited Duomo church. Duomo church was built in the 12th century by Guillaume Le Bon , the church is of a Bizantine, Norman and Muslim style. After we visited the cloister we returned to Palermo and went to the " Palace of the Normans" after having visited Palermo's cathedral. The building was constructed on a Mosque and a cimentary , the principal front is Islamic.

Next we went back to the hotel, had dinner and finally we had a test about the sights we had visited.On March 14th we took the bus and got to Selinunte and we climbed up the Temple then we went to Agrigente and visited a lot of temples like Junon's Temple, Temple of the Concorde, Jupiter's Temple, Hercule's Temple and Dioscur's Temple. The Hercule's Temple is in ruins so we could climbed up the remains.On March 15th we visited "La villa Casale" It is a Roman house in really good condition. Then we travelled by bus to Syracuse where we looked around Syracuse's theatre, Hiron's Altar, Archimedes' Place...

Then we went to Ortigia Island where we got lost, but we managed to find our way to our hotel.

OnThursday 16th, we went to Taormine and visited the Theatre. This theatre has still got the walls which surrounded the stage. In the afternoon we went shopping for souvenirs and took the bus again back to Palermo.

On Friday 17th we went to the airport and flew back to Paris. We arrived at 6.00pm in Paris.

I enjoyed my school trip to Sicily .

Acknowledgements: Photos provided under Creative Commons Licence by : Caribb ( plane) Xerones ( Palermo), Astilly ( Cloister), Growdy.Blue ( Palermo's Cathedral ,Duomo Church Monreale and Selinunte temple) progoddess ( green cake )), Davidjennings ( Agrigento), Branimir ( Syracuse theatre), Reziemba ( Ortigia island) via Flickr.

A weekend at the "Futuroscope"

In this article Loïc ( 12 years old ) describes his weekend at the "Futuroscope".

I went to the Futuroscope a month ago. It was great! The first attraction was : Destination Cosmos

We travel into space. We explore new galaxies and suddenly we find ourselves into a black hole. I was scared!!!


The second attraction was : Dynamic Vienne.
We discover the Vienne Department by train, hang-glider and Formula 3 car. There is also a naughty tree gobblin who often sneezes and sprays the audience with water!




The third attraction was : Star of the future.
In this attraction we are actors and we discover the secrets of making a film especially the special effects. I loved it!

The fourth attraction was : Deep Sea 3D.
We discover the oceans and the sea creatures. People are wearing 3D glasses. I saw octopus, tiny jelly-fish, squids and turtles.



The fifth attraction was : Race for Atlantis.

It is a race into Atlantis City. We are in a chariot and we have to save the city of Atlantis. We also meet a monster.


I enjoyed my weekend at the " Futuroscope" and I hope to visit it again

Acknowledgements : Photos provided under Creative Commons Licence by n3tsp1r1t ( futuroscope), sml! ( Dynamic Vienne, race for Atlantis, Ocean and image studio) John Wiley ( galaxies) , spikes55151 ( 3D glasses) and Laurgeo ( Atlantis ) via Flickr.

My summer holidays

In this essay, Florian ( 12 years old ) explains what he usually does on holidays and where he is going this summer.

I usually go to the mountains and the seaside. When I go to the mountains, I go hiking and I like cycling. I sometimes go jogging in the morning. I like watching animals. There are squirrels, rabbits, beavers, owls in the night and snakes!!!
In the mountains there are rivers and waterfalls.

Some brave people go white-water rafting, I go canoeing.

When I go to the seaside I like swimming, making sandcastles and I sometimes go bodyboarding. I like playing in the waves. Sometimes there are big waves and small waves. I like snorkelling and catching crabs.

This summer I am going to Auvergne ( Vic sur Cere). We are going to walk in the mountains. I am going to watch the scenery and take a lot of photos.
Then we are going to the seaside to Brittany ( near Concarneau). There is a long sandy beach and some shops. I am going to buy some Mangas. My Dad likes seafood. I don't like seafood.
When we are on holidays we sometimes have dinner in a restaurant.

At the end of my holiday on July 14th we are going to watch the fireworks.

Photos provided under Creative Commons Licence by : Jeff Henshaw ( beaver ), idreamofdaylight ( waterfall), Douglas-westbound ( canoeing), beckyloubyrne ( sandcastle), TarikB ( bodyboarding ) KPY ( mangas) and starandom ( fireworks) via Flickr.

French Parliament, French classes, Famous People

The French Parliament

France has two leaders. The President of the Republic who is elected for a five-year term and the Prime Minister who is appointed by the President. The French Parliament is a legislature comprising a National Assembly and a Senate. The National Assembly deputies represent local constituencies. The Senate 's legislative powers are limited.
French politics are characterised by two politically opposed groups : one left wing, the Socialist party and the other right-wing UMP.

French classes
The French society is considered to be divided into three main groups of classes : The highest class ,the middle class and the working class.The first and highest class is made up of the high level politicians, the wealthy families and the also powerful business owners. Following the higher class people, the middle class group comprises two different types of white-collar jobs. Senior executives of companies and the groups in which the professional jobs are included which include high income and are more or less stable.The lower class comprises blue-collar jobs where many people are in food-service jobs or work in retail , the unemployment level and the low living standards are very common in this group. Due to the shift to industry, the number of blue-collar jobs has decreased and the workforce in the civil section has steadily increased.
Poverty in France
In the past the poor were for the most part retirees. The trend reversed itself in the 1980s with an increase in unemployment among young people,while poverty among the elderly dropped. But it increased a lot among those still in the workforce. On the other hand despite poverty France has one of the lowest mortality rates.
But a form of extreme misery has appeared in the 2000s.

Famous French people

Guillaume Le Conquérant is a famous French person who had a strong impact on England. He conquered England built strong castles like Dover, brought his administration and his bishops built fine cathedrals like Canterbury. For the next 300 years, the King of England and all the important people spoke only French that is why the English language has thousands of words which come from French.

Jeanne D'Arc ( 1412-1431) was a French peasant girl who, believing she had heard "divine" voices telling her to act, led the French armies which defeated the English in 1429 and 1430, during the " Hundred Years" War.She was captured and handed over to the English, who burned her at the stake for heresy and witchcraft.

Napoleon Bonaparte ( 1769-1821) Born in Corsica, he was an officer in the army of the new French republic and took power in 1799. He reorganized France and the measures he introduced form the basis of many of France's institutions that still exist today ( legal and education systems ) As Emperor, he conquered most of Europe, and built a huge empire so in 1812 he controlled the greater part of Europe, failing only in his attempts on Russia and Britain. Austerlitz is one of his famous victory over Austrians and Russians in 1805 and Waterloo is the place where Napoleon's army was defeated by the British and the Prussians. The battle ended Napoleon's attempt to return to power.
Claude Monet ( 1840-1926) was a member of the Impressionist painters. His Impression : Sunrise gave Impressionism its name. He is famous for series of paintings showing different effects of light on the subject painted, eg: the water lilies of his garden and Rouen Cathedral.His paintings are famous all around the world.

Claude Achille Debussy ( 1812-1918) was a French composer who pioneered the use of the whole tone scale. Among his best-known works are short piano pieces that suggest a particular scene or mood such as " Clair de lune". These have been compared with impressionist paintings of the same period because of their dreamlike lyrical quality.
Camille Charles Saint Saëns ( 1835-1921) was also a French composer who is famous for " the Carnival of the Animals"


In literature, Alexandre Dumas ( 1799-1850) wrote the well-known "Three Musketeers" and the "Count of Monte Cristo"

Victor Hugo ( 1802-1885) wrote a lot of famous books like " Notre Dame de Paris", and Antoine de Saint Exupery ( 1900-1944) is the author of the famous book called " Le Petit Prince" which is known worldwide.

And there some more like Louis Blériot ( 1872-1936) who was the first person to fly the English Channel on 25 July 1909. He flew from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes.

Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier 1740-1810 , 1745-1799 ) invented the hot air balloon.

Louis Braille ( 1809-1852) who was blind invented a system of reading and writing for blind people using raised dots to represent letters. Braille books helped people like Helen Keller who is a famous American author and social reformer to get an education and graduate from university.

Louis Pasteur ( 1822-1895) was a French bacteriologist. He discovered the role of micro-organisms in fermentation and disease. He developed the process of pasteurization. He was also the first to suggest aseptic procedures in surgery to save lives. He developed the use of vaccination using attenuated virus, and produced an effective vaccine against rabies and anthrax ( a deadly cattle disease that was ruining agriculture in France at the time).

Marie and Pierre Curie 1867-1934 - 1859-1906 Marie Curie was born in Poland and met her husband at the Sorbonne university. Their research into radioactivity led to the discovery of radium and polonium.Pierre Curie was tragically killed in a street accident in 1906 which left Marie to continue the work on her own. She became Professor of physics at the Sorbonne; the first French woman to achieve such high academic honours and she worked on medical uses of their discoveries in x-rays. The Curie's work played an important part in the research leading to the treatment of cancer.

Ferdinand de Lesseps ( 1805-1894 ) built the Suez canal regarded at the time as the world's greatest engineering work. The Suez canal was opened in 1869, and bought by the British government in 1875 because it was a vital short-cut to India ( then part of the British Empire). In 1879, aged 74, he took up his next big project - a Panama Canal, to link the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean through the narrow 50-mile isthmus between North and South America.

Gustave Eiffel 1832-1923 designed the famous Eiffel Tower for the Universal Exhibition in 1889. Its trellis of wrought-iron girders was a revolutionary architectural innovation. It was built with 15,000 pieces of metal joined together by 2,500,000 rivets and stood 320m high. At night it was lit up by 10,000 gas lamps. Originally the intention had been to build a temporary structure for the Universal Exhibition but the tower proved so popular that it remains standing today. He also designed the framework of the Statue of Liberty in New york. The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris and France.
French inventors played a pivotal role in various fields, for example in the development of photography and the internal combustion engine.The world also owes the first mechanical adding machine ( 1642) , parachute ( 1783), electric generator ( 1832), refrigerator ( 1858) and neon lamp ( 1910).

French industry has also pioneered in the development of high-speed transportation system. ( the supersonic Concorde and the TGV high-speed train which broke the speed world's record a few weeks ago.)

Acknowledgements : Photos provided under Creative Commons Licence by : Gunthert ( Nicolas Sarkozy), Herman Beun ( castle ), un_cola ( Jeanne d' Arc), youplayawhat ( Austerlitz), Muddylaboue ( Nympheas), Djof ( Dartagnan), Djof ( Notre Dame ), Ange'sphotos ( Blériot), jdww ( air balloon), shutter-bug-1024 ( Pasteur), cicilief ( La Sorbonne), gr33ndata ( Suez canal) , altuva ( Eiffel Tower) and griXx ( Gustave Eiffel)

via Flickr.