Les Invalides

Today I went to Les Invalides. This used to be a hospital for wounded solders. Now, it's an Army Museum! It has armor from real knights, Napoleon's grave, and items from World War 1, and World War 2. Find the two pictures with the 1-Up Mushrooms today, and tell me in the comments where you found them. Each mushroom gives you one point!

Les Invalides.

The biggest cannon in the world- of its type. 

The armory.

This is a salamander on a canon. Medieval tales say that they can live in fire because, in real life, if you touch some salamanders' backs, it will burn your skin. The fire that you see coming out of the salamander's mouth is not him actually spitting fire like a dragon, but eating it. This was the king's symbol because he was feared and powerful.

This was a helmet of a a warrior named Anne. Back then, that was a boy's name. This is a special helmet because there is a hole in it where his jaw used to be. He was injured, but didn't die. He's also very lucky because he lived up to the age of 80. Most knights lived usually to the age of 20 or 30.

A knight on a horse

Big, bad guns

The guns were made in the 1600s!

The cross-bow

I learned a lot of stuff from an iPod tour for kids. It told me to search for items in the museum and then taught me a lot about the things.

More armor.

With funny faces

Hunting guns

We had to find this unicorn because the iPod requested it. We had to search for quite a long time, and finally found it. It's on this gun. All the hunting guns had beautiful decorations.

This is a black powder flask. Men would put it in a gun.

Little knights that princes would play with

Chinese Emperor suit.

Cannon!

The Dark Knight!

I'm looking at guns

More guns.

Me

Me

Children started training to be a knight when they were 6 or 7 years old. This is armor for a 6 year old.

This was a battle screen that told you all about the famous battle the Napoleon lost. We watched and listened to the strategy story for a long time. I loved it.

Armor for a child and for adults

Toys.

Napoleon and me.

Tank from WWI!

A taxi for carrying French soldiers

the oldest armor made out of chain

A cool sword.

Au revoir!

The Louvre and a new parc!

 I went to the Louvre! It was amazing! Of course I've been to The Louvre before, just haven't been there in a long time. I saw a bunch of statues, some of Roman warriors without armor (undressed). The guy who was fighting a giant snake was Hercules. And some other guys without armor were posing with a sword. They're pretty amazing statues. And I went to the medieval castle ruins under the Louvre. It wasn't too exciting to me, at least I got to see the ruins of a King Louis's castle under the Louvre.   

Here I found a new parc around the corner of our apartment. The parc was built in the 1600's - but the play ground is new.  

Here you can see I'm enjoying the park- with my beloved mushroom.  [If you can, zoom  up on my face.]   

a small little building

  

I got a comic biography of Leonardo da Vinci at the Louvre. I'm almost finished with it! 

I finished another Warriors book, too, which means I've finished 4 books so far in France!                        

Now it's your turn. Can you find the 1-Up Mushroom? Leave your answer in the comments.

Thanks for reading!
Julien Rémy

a funny close-up picture of me

The Doctor, Tonton Alain, and the rainy weekend

This weekend I was sick! I woke up 6:45 with a bad, sharp, pain reactor. So I went to the doctor - he pushed my intestine - no surgery, just pushing. The results? Constipation from eating too much French bread! (⊙▂⊙) The doctors were actually very nice. My medicine helped me. It tasted so sweet I couldn't drink it all in one gulp.
                                                       

The doctor's door. Looks so old-timey. Weirdly, there's NO elevator, so the sick people like me have to walk up the stairs. Unlucky for me, his office was on the third floor. I actually walked up 4 stories because in France, 0 is the ground floor.

The view from the doctor's office, looking at the City Hall.

On Saturday and Sunday, I visited with Tonton Alain and Tata Dana. Tonton (Uncle) and Tata (Aunt) visited us on Sunday. They brought a small present for me! What could it be? Could it be a pillow? Could it be one of those square books? I didn't open it up right away because I wanted to wait for what I call THE RIGHT MOMENT. That was about 30 minutes after I received the present. So, when I opened it, it was nothing what I expected. It was another box. So I opened that box, and I found a cute zoo bowl. It's a big cereal bowl with a bunch of cute zoo animals on it. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it because it's in the dishwasher. I used it shortly after I received it for cereal--that's one of my favorite things to do: eat, eat, and eat. A lot.

Tonton Alain and Tata Dana

The weather this weekend was rainy rainy rainy. Oh well. My Mama was too sick to go out anyway. She's gluten-intolerant, which means whenever she eats bread, she gets extreme stomach aches. I think she accidentally ate something with gluten in it. So this weekend, Mama downloaded games on the Kindle that we could all play together. We played the digital Game of Life, Trivial Pursuit, and (on my Kindle) my brother recommended a game called Jumping Finn. So I got that game. I say Jumping Finn is a bit too easy, but my Mama doesn't like it very much cause there's what you call "kicking" involved. (And just think, my Mama's right by me when I'm writing this very blog.)

There wasn't much to do, so I decided to read a book that I favored: Warriors. Actually, lots of Warriors books. I know some people don't like that series, but I like it. It's about a house cat who decides to go out in the forest and explore. He meets up with a cat "clan" and then joins it, and has to survive with three other clans who are hostile toward it. There are 6 books, and I'm close to finishing the 5th! My Mama always wanted me to download books on my Kindle, but I think now she's not very happy about because she's spending a bunch of money on books!

French Word of the Day:
Le chat (sounds like: luh shah)
That means "the cat." In France, that's also what playing tag is called. Whoever is "it" is the cat.
Je veux jouer le chat!  I want to play tag!
(sounds like: Zhu vuh zhoo-ay luh shah)

French Fact of the Day:
Children in Paris don't normally drink apple juice like many Texan kids do, including me. French kids drink orange juice most of the time. It's harder to find apple juice in the stores, but it sure is worth it.
Also, NEVER put your feet on the Metro seats or on a couch because you never know what you stepped in on the streets. There's pee and other stuff you probably don't want to know out there. People won't want to sit where your shoes were placed, and it's very rude. It makes me think I should not put my shoes on the couch when I get home.

Now, Find the 1-Up Mushroom for your chance to win a present from Paris! Leave your answer in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Julien Rémy

Science in Paris

Hello! Today I went to a science museum! It's called Cité des Sciences. Sorry,no translation because it's obvious.

First we checked in. Second we got tickets. Then we walked in the 5 – 12 years section and had fun! We went to the movie-making section and I read a small script on a small screen in front of me in a funny British accent, and when I finished it replayed the tape on the screen. Also, there was a control room for six special effect tapes. One room had a rock band with fake guitars, pianos, and drums. But on the movie screen, it all looked real.

The next room had a fake car, and there was a background of a road as if the car was actually moving. Someone recorded the scene in the back of a moving car, and once he finished the tape, he put it in the museum behind the fake car. It makes it look like the fake car is actually a real car moving. 

Next, we went to a green room with a carpet on a ramp in front of three small tv monitors. The monitor made the green room look like a snowy mountain. The second monitor which was right in front me showed me on the carpet with the mountain background, and it looked as if I were on a flying carpet. The third monitor was of me on the carpet in the green room with no mountain background. The screens were combined to make the special effects. What’s really funny is that you can step off the carpet and it looks like you’re standing in midair!

There were two more special effect rooms, but that’s a bit too much to type.

The Nature Butterfly room

The Ant Mound area

The Ant Restaurant (not the cemetery). The Ant Cemetery goes to the right.

There was also a water room where you could experiment with water pressure and plastic balls and other objects.

This is a tube that makes a ball shoot out the other end with air pressure. Somehow, this malfunctioned and it shot out and hit my face about 2 seconds after this picture.  I fell on my derriere!

The last room was more or less a machine room where you could design a blueprint, and a machine could craft a foldable paper box for you. I just followed the instructions after the machine crafted my box, and voila! I had an original cute, fancy box!

Here, I'm designing my box.

I was just about to go to a new room when they announced the closing of the museum. Sniff sniff. We’ll have to go back again to finish.

French word of the Day

Vache (pronounced vosh): cow.

I learned this funny sentence from my Papa: "Je parle le francais comme une vache espanole." (which means, I speak French like a Spanish cow.) hee hee.

French Fact of the Day

Late at night, the Eiffel Tower shines a bright yellow. And once every hour, it sparkles a pretty blue for one minute. 

I have a 3DS, and so do other French kids out there. 3DS has something called “Street Pass” where you get new Mii friends when you pass them on the street. I have several French friends now and their Mii’s help me complete new games. Here’s a picture of Luigi and the 1-Up Mushroom:

Now, it’s time for you to find the 1-Up Mushroom!

Last picture: my dessert last night.