Lots of Castles and Da Vinci's House

After we left Paris we stayed in a little village called Cepoy. The place we stayed in was 900 years old. Everyday we drove out to see castles around the area and in the Loire Valley. We also saw DaVinci's House and some of his inventions. Da Vinci thought of lots of inventions which we use today, like bicycles, cars, parachutes, flying machines. He also invented lots of war machines like moveable bridges, machine guns and tanks. They never got invented in his time.
The Castles we saw were Versailles, where they signed a treaty after world war one and where Marie Antoinette was when the revolution happened in Paris and they killed the royals; Fontainebleu, Vaux Le Vicomte which the King stole off one of his men because he didn't like that the man had a grander palace then he did. He put the man in prison. We also saw Chambord Castle, Amboise Castle where Leonardo Da Vinci was buried, and Chenonceaux which is built over a river.

Fontainebleu

Fontainebleu

Vaux Le Vicomte

Vaux Le Vicomte

Chambord Castle

This staircase was designed by Da Vinci. It is called a double helix

DaVinci's bed

Da Vinci's backyard

The army tank he designed.

The water pump he designed

The heavy lifter he designed

Versailles

The Hall of mirrors at Versailles

The Gardens at Versailles

Versailles gardens

Da Vinci's grave at Amboise Castle

The Hall at Amboise Castle

Chenonceaux Castle

The hall over the river at Chenonceaux

Paris, France

We stayed in the 9th Arrondissiment in Paris. This is where the Moulin Rouge is. The Moulin Rouge is where dancers used to dance the cancan, a french dance where they kick their legs up.

It is also near the Sacre Cour, a church.

While we were in Paris we saw Notre Dame, Sacre Cour and the Grande Chapell, three famous churches.

Sacre Cour

The Window of the Grande Chapell

Amelia in front of Notre Dame

The back of Notre Dame

We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and looked over Paris. The Eiffel Tower is about 800 metres high. We also took a night dinner cruise on the river Seine and saw it light up which was very pretty.Nearly everywhere we went in Paris, we saw the Eiffel Tower.

We visited Napolean's tomb at Le Invalides. Napoleon was once the Emperor of France and he had lots of battles but the most famous one was Waterloo where he lost. The french love Napolean and his coffin is under 9 other coffins.

Napoleans coffins

Napoleans Tomb

Napolean's Tomb at Les Invalides

We climbed to the top of the Arc De Triomphe and looked over the Champs Elysees which is a very wide street.

Arc De Triomphe

The Champs Elysees

We also went to the Louvre which is the largest museum in the world. It used to be the royal palaces. We were there all day but didn't see all of it. This is where we saw the Mona Lisa which is not very big but is the most famous painting in the world. It is by Leonardo DaVinci and is actually called La Jaconda. We saw the Venus DeMilo statue which is very famous and saw many other famous statues. 

The Mona Lisa

Venus De Milo

a room in the Louvre

We also visited the Musee D"Orsay which has lots of famous paintings by old artists like Vincent Van Gogh. He was in an episode of Dr Who. Also Monet, Degas and a famous french painter called Toulouse Lautrec. They didnt let us take photos there.

We visited the "palaces of Justice" which are the Courtroom where criminals go to trial. In France, the Judges do the investigating. The police take their evidence to the Judge and he tells them what to look for and orders testing and stuff.

We visited the Catacombs which are tunnels under the city where they store their dead.There are 6 million skeletons stored there. It was very creepy. After this we visited Pere Lachaise, which is huge cemetaryin Paris where lots of famous people are buried. We spent ages looking for Jim Morrison. He was a singer in the 60's who died in his bath. His grave is very famous but it is also very small.

The skulls in the catacombs

Jim Morrison's grave

Some graves in Pere Lachaise

Our favourite place was the Opera which is huge and very golden with lots of chandeliers and statues.

The Opera

The Opera

They had lots of ballet and Opera costumes on display

When we were in Paris, we met many of our cousins.

Cologne and Hamburg

Cologne has a very large cathedral and a very interesting roman museum where they still have the original tiled floor of a roman house. There are lots of roman ruins and relics in Cologne.

While we were staying in Cologne they had visiting soccer supporters making a lot of noise.

After Cologne we went to Hamburg to drop off our motorhome. We took a bus tour of Hamburg before taking a night train to Paris.

Cologne

The Cathedral

A roman statue

Old roman tiles

Part of a roman wrestling school under a church in Cologne

Waterloo and Bruges, Belgium

The mound commemorating the Battle of Waterloo. The English lion on top. 

We visited Waterloo in Belgium where Wellington beat Napoleon's army. We climbed the mound which is very high and you can look out over the battlefield. There is also a waxworks museum and a panorama painting there. The farmhouse that Napoleon used in the battle is still there but we didn't go in as someone lives there.

The famous painting

Bruges has lots of beautiful buildings

Town Hall

We visited Bruges for a couple of days. Bruges is a world heritage city. It is Medievel. It has lots of canals and it is very expensive. There is not much for kids to do there.
We visited the Museum of chocolate and saw the history of chocolate and how it is made and then we watched a demonstration of them making some chocolates and got to try some (but we didn't really like them because they were pralines).
We visited the Historium where we saw the story of one of Jan Van Eyk's most famous paintings. You follow the story from room to room and it takes you through historical Bruges.
Bruges was very pretty and also very expensive.

Chocolate sculptures