Roanne

Bonjour from the region of Roannaise!

This is not a very well known part of France and not much has been written in the Lonely Planet but we certainly think it should be as it was pretty amazing.

The reason we got to come here was that our Auntie Anna actually lived here when she had just finished university. She had done a degree in French and came to the place to teach English. She spent only a year here but made friends for life! We got to meet heaps of them and they were really nice and very frenchie!

 

Her best friend is Delphine - she is married to Hughes (pronouced Uuuuugggg) and they have two kids, Camille (pronounced Cami) and Chloe which is just the same as in New Zealander language. They were 9 and 5. It was really cool to meet french kids but it was very hard to understand them! We had to do a lot of sign language but it didn't matter as they were cool fun to play with. Cami was really into music and it made us laugh when he sang to the songs in English. Chloe was so cute and she loved to dance.

 

Our Cousins stayed with them while we stayed down the road in a Gite (thats a country farm house). It was a two story place and we all stayed upstairs. It was a bit stinky and creepy but the views were incredible. One night while we were staying there, there was a huge thunder and lightening storm and guess what...we didn't even wake up once. Mummy said she had to hold Daddy's hand as she was a little bit freaked out. Haha.

 

On our first day we went on a adventure to the mountains and did a climbing in the trees course. It was a bit like adrenaline forest in Christchurch but easier obstacles. We loved it though and Violet was the gutsey-est I have ever seen her.

 

Another day we all when and did a pottery class with a local art guy called Nate. He could speak english really well and it was so much fun. We all got to make a tiny dog house for our toy pet dogs. He also showed us how to 'throw clay' and he made a bowl in like 20 seconds! It was crazy. Mum brought a very cool salt shaker from him. We sent that home so I hope it makes it!

 

The weather was really hot and to cool off we got to swim at Delphine's parents house just outside of Renaision (the village below Delphine and Hughes). It was so nice to chill out and get cool! Its so fun to hang out with our cousins and our new friends. Delphine's parents were so nice to let us come in and swim - they also pretended to be an ice-cream shop and served us all ice-creams from the window.

 

On one of our last days all the kids went with the dads to visit a wine region called Burgundy. It was a long car trip and very hot. The Dad-twins dragged us around heaps of vineyards and tried heaps of wine. Uncle Tim gets very excited by wine. There was a cave which had loads of barrels in it. The best bit was we got icecreams!

 

On the day we left we got to meet the owners of the Gite. They were a sweet old couple and he was a clog maker! One of only 15 france. They are dying out. My Mum loved that as she loves clogs. They drove a really cool 2CV. Cool old french people! He wore clogs.

 

The next journey is a long one into the Mountains to stay in a wee town called Samoens. See you soon!

 

Love Isla and Violet.

 

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