Castles: Part 3 - Medieval Fortress

Good Morning Room 3

Bienvenue (Welcome) to Part 3 of the Castles posts. Part 3 is about Medieval fortresses! Boys ready your swords and girls grab you bow and arrows because it is time to protect the castle.

I have been lucky enough to visit two medieval fortresses in France and they were both amazing!

These are a special type of castle because within the huge castle walls is also the town. Many of these are now named 'old cities'.

Aigues-Mortes 

Aigues-Mortes is just outside the large city of Montpellier. The huge walls of this fortress have been well preserved. Inside the city walls is a town, this town is like any other with restaurants, shops and people. 

View of Aigues-Mortes from above. You can see the walls and towers surrounding the city.

We went up the towers and walked around the whole outside (perimeter) of the city's walls. It was really fun to imagine when these walls would have protect the castle and the people that lived in the townships. Along the walls there are small slits where guards would have keep watch with their weapons.

One of the famous towers of Aigues Mortes. The french word for tower is tours. This is Tours Constance.

At the top of the tower it can get a little windy.

Gates protecting the entry.

These were made from iron - they would have been very heavy the lift.

One of the canon balls

One of the specially designed holes that they would drop the canon balls into.

If they were under attack they would use these weapons to defend their land for their king. One of the interesting weapons were huge canon balls. They drop these huge balls, some weight more than 50kg over the walls. Sometimes they would drop them down specially made holes in the castles that were before the gates.   

I really enjoyed learning all the medieval history of this huge fortress. 

Carcassonne

Carcassonne is another medieval city that has been well preserved and it is huge!

View from above of Cite de Carcassonne

Carcassonne had huge walls protecting it's city and castle. You could walk on top of these walls too.

Miss Stinson in front of Carcassonne. It is 9.30pm. The sun is just starting to set.

 The towers to go into the castle are huge! They used to have a draw bridge that would be lowered and raised for people to enter and exit the castle. Now they have built a bridge so people can get in and out easily.

This is the basic design of a drawbridge on a medieval castle. It helped stop the enemy from entering the castle.

I am standing where the old drawbridge would have been. It has now been replaced by a permanent bridge.

 Inside this castle it had many facts about medieval times. One thing that I found fascinating at Carcassonne was there was a real mile stone. Back in the medieval times they didn't have road signs like we do now telling us how far to the next city or town. They used mile stones on the side of the road. Nowadays we use the term mile stone for when someone reaches an important time in their lives. For example, losing your first tooth, riding a two wheel bike with no training wheels, or your birthdays are all mile stones.

This is a real mile stone!

One last thing about this city that was really cool was everything was set out like an old medieval style city. All the cafes and restaurants had medieval style names, you could buy wooden swords and shields and you could ride around in a horse and cart. One of the coolest things was the lolly shop. All the lollies were in big barrels! 

Barrels upon barrels of lollies

More barrels! 

Aigues-Mortes and Carcassonne were both very cool medieval cities. Could you imagine if Camboon Primary had to turn into a medieval fortress? The office would become the castle and we would have to fight to protect it! We could build up and protect the walls!

I hope you are all enjoying the last couple of weeks of Term 2 - holidays soon!

Au revoir

Miss Stinson

Castles: Part 2 - Bedrooms

Good Morning Room 3

Welcome to Part 2 of the Castles series in this blog. Part 2 is focussing on bedrooms throughout these famous chateaus.

The bedrooms are huge and when I say huge some of the bedrooms are the size of your whole house! Yep, believe it.

Here are some of the beds in the castles. The beds are all four poster beds which means they have large wooden posts are each of the corners of the bed. They have large thick hand made canopies that hang from the top of the bed. At night they closed the curtains on all sides of the bed and there were 2 main reasons for this.

Reason 1: Warmth. The castles had very large rooms, often with no carpeting or heating so it would get very cold. Closing the curtains maintained warmth in the bed.

Reason 2: Privacy. They also closed the curtains on the beds for privacy. Often rooms were shared and people working in the castles would walk in and out the rooms so those that were asleep did not want to be disturbed. Think of it like closing your door to your bedroom at home.

The details on the canopies and linen were amazing.

These beds were mainly for royalty, royalty means kings, queens, princesses and princes. Nobility may also have slept in beds like these, so lords and ladies. These were not beds for the average commoner like you and me.

True or False question. People slept sitting up?

That is actually true! Many people slept in an upright position with their legs out straight (like some of you do on the mat at school). They did this because they believed laying down was only for people that were no longer living. They thought it would be creepy to lay in a position like you are dead. Weird! I could not imagine having to sleep sitting up. Do not try this at home!

This is the bed that Leonardo Da Vinci slept in while he stayed in France.

The bedrooms were truly fascinating. 

I hope you are all enjoy the cold winter months. maybe you can try and make a canopy for your bed this weekend!

Au revoir

Miss Stinson 

Eurovision Song Contest

Good Morning Room 3

It is my favourite time of year - Eurovision! Mia and Alanna get your dancing shoes on because you would love this competition! Eurovision is a song contest that is held once a year in May in different countries throughout Europe. Interestingly, there are some countries that are not from Europe that also compete.

Here are the rules for the contest:

• Each country gets to enter 1 brand new song. So it can not be a song that has already been sung or performed, anywhere! 
• People in Europe vote for songs to enter the semi finals. There are 16 in each semi final and then 10 from each semi goes into a final. So there are 20 finalists
• The live performances can only have a maximum (remember that means the most) of 6 people on the stage.
• United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain all get automatic entry into the finals because they are the largest economic contributors. That means they have the most money
• There is a catch - you can not vote for your own country.

This year it is in Copenhagen in Denmark because last year Denmark won. That's how it works, if you win the next year the competition is held in your country. 'Only Teardrops' is the song that won it for Denmark last year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3f9v8ebuD4

This year Australia is performing at the 2nd Semi Final but not competing. The atmosphere is electric. The crowds all dress up and wave flags from their country. Most of the songs are sung in English but some countries like to sing in their language. Lots of people throughout Europe have Eurovision parties where they invite their friends over and watch the songs and vote.

One of the most famous Eurovision performances was Waterloo by Abba. Listen to it and see if you have heard this song before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FsVeMz1F5c

Other famous performers, and one of my favourites, is Jedward. These guys are crazy! These twins from Ireland are best known for their energy and enthusiasm. It is so over the top and it always makes me laugh. They have performed for Ireland twice at Eurovision. Check them out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXouSYabDig

and here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_9QaVC-NKw

Two nights ago was the first Semi Final and tonight is the second Semi Final. The final will be held on Saturday night here. Remember there is the time difference because we are on opposite sides of the world so Saturday night here is early morning Sunday.

The best thing about the competition this year is I can vote! I watched the first semi final and had some favourites and I am really looking forward to second semi final tonight.
These were my two favourites from the first semi final.

Latvia - such a silly song about baking a cake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0D1Ya3NBQs

Those crazy hipsters.

Iceland - a quirky song about prejudice towards stutters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzaC7K8IhaA

It's not trigonometry, inside we're the same!

You can watch Eurovision on SBS channel in Australia. You can also read updates and information about the song contest on the website http://www.eurovision.tv/page/timeline

Happy Eurovision Everyone!

#JoinUs

Miss Stinson

Guessing Game - Famous Places Around Paris

Good Morning Room 3

Have a look at the photos of famous places below and see if you can name any or know any information about them before reading the answers at the bottom. These are all famous landmarks in Paris. Get your parents to play too! Good luck.

I will give you a hint for this one: A famous hunch back lives here...

Photo A

Photo B

Photo C

Photo D

Photo E

Answers:

Photo A 

Notre Dame. The Disney movie Hunchback of Notre Dame was set here. Find out more information about this famous cathedral here http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/-English- 

Photo B

Arc de Triomphe. You can find more information here http://arc-de-triomphe.monuments-nationaux.fr/ but the coolest way to see the Arc de Triomphe is on a map https://www.google.com.au/maps/preview?ie=UTF-8&q=arc+de+triomphe&fb=1&gl=au&hq=arch+de+triumph&cid=15687558599447307325&ei=1tZjU9f5NOmU0AXMhYDABA&sqi=2&ved=0CMcBEPwSMBA 

Photo C

Napoleons Tomb. This was huge! More information here http://www.musee-armee.fr/en/collections/museum-spaces/dome-des-invalides-tomb-of-napoleon-i.html 

Photo D 

Sacré- Cœur a famous cathedral in Montmarte. Way on top of a hill this was a big walk and a lot of steps. Inside the cathedral you are not allowed to talk or take photos. You can find out more information http://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/ 

Photo E

Eiffel Tower. If you didn't get this one then you wouldn't be allowed into France. This tower was originally built as a temporary structure but it soon became such a popular tourist attraction that it has stayed. 

How did you go? Some trick ones in there. Hope you enjoyed that little quiz.

Au revoir

Miss  Stinson

When is it lunch?

Good Morning Room 3

Welcome back to Term 2 Room 3! I hope you have made Miss Bettella welcome and are being the best that you can each day! 

My blog this week is about food! The food in France is similar but also very different to food in Australia. There are 3 main things about food that I am going to let you know about today. Read carefully because there will be a test at the end... just kidding!

First things first here are some local delicacies that have become my favourites.

Citron Tart
Yummy lemon tart. Creamy lemon flavour with a think biscuit base.
Recipe - http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/16046/lemon+tart 

Goats Cheese - Chèvre
A creamy and delicious soft cheese. The black around it is a light ash, which you can't taste.
Try and make it home
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/02/how-to-make-goat-cheese-recipe.html

Flan
My favourite dessert in France. Thick custard like you would find in vanilla slice. I am definitely tying to make this, you can too
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/18047/chocolate+and+cinnamon+flan

Escargot - Snails
Yep - that's right snails! The creepy thing is they give you these special utensils to pick them out of their shells. I tried them and they were okay, similar to squid texture. The taste is sensational because they are marinated in garlic, butter and herbs. Aaron's favourite entrèe.

Get adventurous and ask mum or dad to cook them for you http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Escargots-Bourguignonne-Snails-in-Garlic-Herb-Butter

The first thing I am going to talk about is the freshness, everything that is sold today - you eat today. The best example I can give is bread. Everyone in France loves their bread, the most famous form being a baguette. The baguettes that you buy are similar to a long long roll. They are crispy on the outside and soft, fluffy and airy on the inside. A baguette only lasts for the day you buy it because the next day it will be stale. You compare this to bread in Australia that last up to and sometimes beyond a week. The fruit and veggies are the same - you buy it, you eat it. Fruit won't last in a fruit bowl. This freshness also makes the food a lot more flavoursome and cheap. But why does it only last a day? This brings me very conveniently to my second thing.

The second thing is there are many rules in France about adding artificial or 'fake' things to food. This means anything that is not natural. Think back to year 1 (year 2s) when you learnt about natural versus man made. This is happening with food too. Most of the food in Australia has been changed by a human. It might be adding something like preservatives, which make food last longer or additives which makes the food taste better. It could even be adding colours to make it more appealing to eat, for example, blue lollies. In France however it is very hard to add these types of things because of their rules which means you buy it today, you eat it today. The food is a lot more natural and in most cases very good for you (an exception at the moment may be cheese, not in quality but the quantity that we are eating it). But where do you get all this food?

The last thing I want to talk about is getting food. The markets are very popular here. Australia usually has a farmers market on the weekend where your parents can buy fresh food but these are often only on for a couple of hours and in random locations like schools or ovals. In France the markets occur 2-3 times a week and in every town centre. Instead of people going to Coles or Woolworths, like the ones at Noranda or Galleria, French people walk to the markets to get their meats, fruits, vegetables, cheeses and anything else they would like to eat. They still have supermarkets similar to Coles and Woolworths and the main change here is named Carrefour for their groceries but most people go to the markets. Aaron and I have visited the markets several times now because it is so fresh, easy and cheap. We went to a very old town near Blois yesterday and they still hold markets in the same place since the 11th century - ask Mum and Dad if that's older than them! He he.

Here are some photos of the markets in Orleans

All things pickled and dried stall.

Cheese stall.

More cheese - you can never have enough!

Cookie and cakes stall.

Fresh pasta stall.

Cured meats stall. 

Fresh meat stall.

Markets set up in the middle of the town.

Fresh fruit stall.

All the food we got for dinner (and some drinks).

All put together in a baguette.

Okay, let's recap the 3 things about food in France. 

1. Freshness  - you buy it today, you eat it today.

2. Not allowed to add anything - there are rules in France about preservatives and additives.

3. Buy it at the markets - the food is fresh, cheap and easy to get to.

So, where are you going to buy your food from on the weekend?

I know you are all going to be working really hard this term and showing Miss Bettella how intelligent and creative you all are and don't forget you had homework to complete over the holidays too!
Whoops - who forgot? Quickly do it now.

Au revoir 

Miss Stinson