Lundi 25 Mai – Vendredi 29 Mai

A very normal week – Nev not working and me flitting between schools!
On Wednesday we went into town and scavenged some boxes for packing some stuff up to get sent home. Wednesday is recycling cardboard day and all the shops in town put out all their boxes.
One highlight this week was on Thursday afternoon I went to the movies with the College. We saw Promises – a movie/documentary all about Jerusalem and children from the different quarters. Absolutely fascinating – I really had not much knowledge about this area apart from all the fighting, the filmmaker was trying to look at children’s voices and what they thought of the peace process. It showed the prejudices passed down by parents and cultures to the children. It managed to get the different children all together and they had fun showing them also what life and town looks like in the different sections.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and there is so much debate you can have with the pupils about it.
On Friday morning we had a lovely phone call from home – Karen and Gavin, so nice to hear your voices!
We took one of the boxes we packed down to La Poste and sent it off home – 26kg and €160!! Never mind it had to be done…….have another to send but it might have to wait for another couple of weeks.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I hope this doesn’t sound presumptuous and is certainly not meant this way BUT IF anyone is planning to send any letters to us they would have to be sent in the next week. Because school finishes July 1 and then school is shut so we won’t get any mail at all as school is still shut when we leave!

Mai 19 -24 - 5 day Holiday!

Wednesday – Thankfully no school and in fact the start of a 5 day holiday! Thursday is Ascension Day – the day Jesus went to heaven, 40 days after Easter, and because it is a Thursday holiday the French take Friday off too. It is called “the pont” the bridge weekend – a bridge from Thursday to Saturday! Great idea…there is so much New Zealand could learn from France!

On Wednesday I was invited to the movies with Pascale (from the College), we went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic! The first time I have been to the movies here! All in French and it was great! After we went and sat in the sun at a Terrace Café and sipped a chardonnay! Walked home in the heat – another scorcher – 30 degrees!
I am thinking of you at home surrounded by snow and the chill in the air!

Thursday – Nev working and the girls and I packed a picnic and headed to the park in town for the afternoon.
Along with many other people we lazed in the sun until a brief shower sent us home- naturally by the time we got home the sun was out again!
Friday – Nev was working again so the girls and I decided to go out to the “Foire Comtois”. We weren’t really sure what we were heading to but it turned out that it was like an A&P show combined with a home and leisure show along with all the sideshows and rides you can imagine! It was held in a big event centre. One whole pavilion was just all the food/wine stands and mini restaurants all set up. It smelt great! We then wandered into the next pavilion where we spotted what looked like the doors to a movie theatre and even had a doorman. So in we went and found a huge auditorium – 2000 seats! It looked like something was just about to start so we hurried to find 3 vacant seats.
It turned out to be a performance, singing, dancing and multimedia informational showcase for travel to Peru! Very interesting and about 50mins long.
Continuing we found the huge pavilions with all the new home furnishings. I saw some great lounge suites but I did wonder how we could pack them into our small suitcases!
The girls got their hair straightened for free – demonstration of a new product.
I was fascinated by a cocktail maker, however the fascination quickly wore off when the price was mentioned €50!
We found the animals outside – including llamas, as the theme this year was Peru! It was a really hot day about 33 degrees and we then wandered around the sideshows and rides. Deciding what the girls wanted to do – they were only allowed to do 1 thing! I know – very mean but money doesn’t grow on trees and is certainly leaking out of our bank account at an alarming rate!
After a very busy day we returned home about 6:30 pm just before Nev arrived.

Saturday – Wow!! What a scorcher – we decided to have a picnic at the park all together. We spent a very nice hot afternoon reading, doing puzzles and playing ball games. Too hot really for sunbathing so we had to keep finding shade under the trees. It seemed that everyone was out at the park and just sitting and enjoying the day.

Sunday – Yesterday was hot but today an absolute stinker!! The temperature gage at one part said 37 degrees! The heat is sticky, muggy and sweaty. Couldn’t even play with the ball – it was very uncomfortable. We tries rattling our brains as to how to cool down but couldn’t think of any! The river Doubs is a disgusting grey/brown colour and you certainly can’t use it. We don’t have a car to find a cleaner river out of town and because it is Sunday we couldn’t catch the bus to get to a pool. Even if we had been able to I think it would have been standing room only!
We even relented when we came home and shut the shutters to keep the sun out of the girl’s room.
Sleeping the past few nights has been very disturbing – a bit like at home but at least there we have air/con and fans in our rooms!

Mai 18/19 Rando' Flambeaux!

My first week without university and I took advantage of some quiet time. Nev was at work and after the children had gone back to school after lunch, I took off down to the river to sit in the sun and read a book. The weather was fantastic, regularly now above 25 degrees daily.
I lay in the sun and lovely lizards were on the fort walls just in front of me. I just love seeing them, they have such great colours, however if a snake appeared out of the cracks……!
On Tuesday night it was a beautiful evening and there was a walk organised in town – Rando’ Flambeeaux! It started at 8:00pm. Nev was too tired so off went the girls.
As we arrived at the start point there was music playing and a great atmosphere.We were really surprised at the amount of people out for the walk people of all ages, really little to older folk and even groups of teenagers! Looking around most people had backpacks and big hiking boots on. We didn’t even bring water as we thought it was just a stroll around the river and not too strenuous. We were given a map and informed it was an 8 km walk. OK – not too bad! Off we went, strolling around the river then people started disappearing in front of us, we ground to a halt as we were shepherded through a narrow stairway at the side of a hill. Looked up….there were all the people making a zigzag up the side of this steep hill! It seemed to go on forever but it was nice to look back down and see the hundreds of people still coming. We ended up at the top of the hill where a fort was. It had fantastic views back over Besancon.
We then walked around the Fort and started to descend the other side. We ended up back along the river, it was getting quite dark now and as we rounded a bend we saw many flamed torches. As we arrived we picked up our torches, lit them and continued on. The trail of torches in front guiding our way. It was very impressive seeing the long line in front of us! A really nice idea and very enjoyable. As we walked along the rivers edge many groups of people stopped, placed their torches in the ground and dug out bottles of wine and bread from their backpacks! Now I know why they had the backpacks! Some even had guitars and were having a singalong! At this stage it is 10:00pm and still 23 degrees!
We finished our walk at 10:30pm and were amazed to discover that the live music was on, people were dancing and their were free drinks and nibbles! It was great, as I had thought people would just finish their walk and head home but no…..
Free wine, beer, OJ, coke, water etc…ensured people hung around. The musician was great and people just danced! At one point 3 people started a line dance and by the end nearly about 100 or so had joined in – fantastic!
It just so happens that after 8pm you have to catch a night bus, they don’t run that regularly so we were stuck until 11:35pm – the last bus for the night. We arrived home at 11:45!
Luckily it was such a gorgeous night, entertainment, free wine (me!) and coke (the girls) kept us happy until the bus arrived! Another free activity!
It was such a good idea and I had thoughts of watching the line of torches winding itself up to the lookout at home, or probably better to climb first, gather torch there and wind back down!
It was one of the best nights we have had!

Mai 11-17

My last week at CLA – I have already told you about the surprise exam!! The week finished with me being the only one at the course on the Friday again!
This week Nev has continued to help out John with the house, we were both so busy that the girls got to go to the canteen for lunch! The first time and they both really enjoyed their 4 courses! Salad to start, spaghetti Bolognese, dessert – meringue and chocolate, followed by some type of cheese. The girls really want to eat there every day but it is quite expensive €5 each per day. So that is $22 a day! I think they can just go another couple of times!
On Saturday Nev went to work and the girls and I went into town to a pottery exhibition. There was also a tent for children to have a go at making their own – the girls loved it and it is all free. We spent quite a while there and then Nev arrived to join us. We continued onto another plaza and their were many stalls of food and drink. A display of animals were also there to keep the children amused, horses, cows, lambs, pigs, goats and hens. It turned out to be a Bio market. All produce organic! There was also a floral craft tent where the children could create their own floral art! Again – Free!
We sat in the sun with some friends that we knew, drank some cider until after 6:00pm.
A great day!

Le Petit Train!

HI - Well just had to put this in. last Saturday in town, the small tourist train that really ripped us off the week before had a major accident!
This excerpt from the news:
Besançon: 11 injured in a toy train accident According to first reports, the train was in a very winding down and was traveling at "excessive speed". The last car would hit a wall. Eleven people were injured, 6 seriously, Saturday afternoon at the Citadel of Besancon in the crash of a small tourist train on tires whose driver was taken into custody. The accident occurred at around 14.30 while 43 people were on board, according to firefighters. The train was in a very sinuous descent lined with high stone walls with several hairpin turns, according to police. According to a police source, citing the testimony of passengers, the train was traveling at an excessive speed. " The last car of the convoy reportedly hit a wall before overturning and then get back on its wheels, according to the same source. The train conductor was placed in custody to be heard and to make screening of drugs and alcohol, according to a police source. The initial results are negative, it added. Eleven injured were evacuated to the hospital, according to firefighters. The shocked passengers were gathered in a city hall to be comforted, it added. According to the Mayor of Besançon, Jean-Louis Fousseret only two people were still hospitalized late in the day, including fractures and hand injuries.

As you can see the translated English isn't perfect - but it wasn't me!
So, all joking aside, that was a terrible thing to happen and I hope that everyone is now OK. I was intrigued however by the mention of 43 people being on board. When we went there were only 4 of us! I have since found out they were all the wives of Firemen who were in town for some type of activity!

Exam!!

While Alison was here we talked about her exam at university, I was telling her we didn't have an exam and it was really just internal assessment as there had been no talk of exams- Well !!!
On Monday as I arrived at class the class was informed we would be having a "small exam" today. The small exam turned out to be 3 hours long and included, all 4 major components - reading and comprehension / written expression / listening and then an oral!
EEKKKK!!! Nobody had known and so we were all in the same boat! However it was OK and on Wednesday we got our results.......I scored 15.5 / 20 (Everything in France is scored out of 20!) I got the top mark in the class which really surprised me.
Anyway ...thought I would share that with you all!!

Mai 2- 10 A Visitor!

Mai 2 –
A beautiful Saturday here and we spent half the day restocking the fridge and cupboards! I got to task downloading photos and starting on my blog. The girls were happy just to chill out, Nev went running and we all enjoyed being home.

Mai 3 – Dimanche
We were invited out to a BBQ lunch – Wahoo, first BBQ in quite a while! Not a gas BBQ either but a good old charcoal variety.
John, being ever so nice came and collected us and took us out to the village, Auxon Dessous. We had a fantastic time, wandered around to their new house to look at progress and made it back home at 8:00.

Mai 4 –
Nev went to ‘work’ – Christelle picked him up as she dropped the children off and he went out to help John for the day with moving furniture and sanding ready for painting.
I spent the day catching up on blog entries – they take ages!
In fact we spent the next 3 days doing these things in amongst the normal routine.
On Wednesday night, I went to the Gare and met Alison – another NZ teacher who is in Poitiers doing the same AFS language immersion as me! It was nice to have a visitor.
We spent Thursday doing touristy things around here in the lovely heat. We decided to do the River Cruise, 1hour 15 minutes on the Doubs river. The boat was leaving at 10am so we raced to get there. We arrived and were the only 2 but were informed they were waiting for a group and we would be a bit late setting out. Alison and I took our seats and waited. All very peaceful….then…….we heard screaming kids!! The group was about 70 primary school children who quickly clambered on board and were excited. Oh YAY!!!! The operators struggled to get the speaker to go correctly without screeches and static but finally it was sorted.
The ride was very noisy in particular as we went under a bridge the children would yell nonstop until they had passed through. Then we made it to the lock which was at the beginning of a 185m long tunnel under the Citadelle – oh joy!!! Instead of screaming the whole way – it was just at every runner, blader and cyclist that went past.
We even went past Nev on his run around the river and we could at least wave to someone!
We made it through to the other side of the hill when the boat turned around and headed back to the lock!! What? Not even up the river for a bit? Very pointless exercise except for watching the magical marvels of how a lock system operates.
I wish I could have expressed my disappointment with the tour but unfortunately my French isn’t quite up to it! We think we probably had a shorter specialised tour because of the kids, but maybe they should have told us! It was still full price! We also probably wouldn’t have gone if they had told us it was a school group, we had both pictured buses pulling up of older people on tour!
We met Nev in town for lunch after this and we sat in the sun in Place 8 septembre. At 2:00pm Alison and I decided to do the Petit Train. Big Mistake!!!!
However the Petit Train was such a rip off, 50 minute tour but we spent 25 minutes at 2 stops with nothing really to look at. The commentary didn’t start and then when it did was out of synch, then after 1 of the stops it just repeated itself! Thumbs down! However all the other Petit Trains we have done in other cities have been really good and normally give the lay of the land and a bit of history.
The Musee des Beaux Arts was next on the agenda then home for tea!
Seph got a lovely surprise parcel from Liisa – This certainly put a smile on her face!

Vendredi was 8 Mai – a public holiday as it celebrates Victory in Europe for WWII. We spent the day at the Citadelle, Nev and Alison spent about 3 hours in the Musee of Resistance and Deportation while the girls and I went to the Zoo and spent ages with the monkeys,especially the little Squirrel monkeys who can get out of their cage and be really close to you.

In the end we spent the whole day here and arrived home about 6:00pm.

Saturday morning Alison and I went to the Historical Astronomical Clock – it has over 1500 working pieces. Quite a giant thing really, it can tell you the tides, the astronomical sign and where the planets are, the time in over 10 countries, the day, date, year, and leap century ( this only moves once every 400 years, last time was in 2000!) plus other things.It didn’t have a lovely chime, in fact none at all but it did have moving figurines! A bit of a disappointment really but if I could understand French better it certainly would help.
Next we went off out to Chateaufarine for a bit of a look at the shops, had lunch at Buffalo Grill, another disappointment – waited far too long and for what we had was expensive.
Home for the Last Supper with Alison before she departs on an early train in the morning!
It was very nice having a guest and it was great to swap stories, I think Nev really enjoyed it as he showed off his culinary prowess the whole time and I believe he loved having someone else to watch soccer with and to talk to another person other than me!!
Alison in Eglise St Jean

Sunday the 10 – Alison departed early, Nev went for a run, Seph started the immense job of scrapbooking about Italy – Hermione had long since given up, all she did was pick and cut up her photos!
I managed to get my blog up to date!!!!!! Next is naming and sorting the photos!
Monday again tomorrow!!

Le premier Mai - Arrivederci Roma!!

We had to meet our apartment agent at 9:00am for the return of our deposit then we were off to the Metro to get to our bus for the journey to Ciampino Airport.
Easyjet use the simplest procedures possible – the girls and I checked in online (up to 60 days before travel) because we were only carrying hand luggage. Nev had the pack and he had to check in as usual.

Ciao Roma!!

The rules for hand luggage are as long as it is regulation size there is no weight limit! Whew!! Easyjet also do not allocate seats. You can pay extra for Speedy Boarding – priority, then it is chunked as to when you check in. We were in Group A and at the front of the line. So you board the plane in this order and you choose your seats! Each time it worked out well for us with 2 window seats! The Swiss Alps

There is no service as you can imagine but you can BUY snacks/drinks and Duty Free items!
Our flight left at 1:15pm and we arrived at Europort at 2:45.

Then began the saga of connecting buses and trains back to Besancon. The Gares were all ghost towns as it was Mayday here – our equivalent is Labour Day, there were hardly any trains and some trains were cancelled and only had a few running. Luckily with only a couple of waits we were finally on the last train home.
We got into Besancon at 7:30 pm, such a long day, only to find there were no buses at all because they get the day off too!
Luckily we got a taxi!
Naturally no shops were open and our fridge was bare, just like Old Mother Hubbard not much was in the cupboard – so we had a good old packet of soup!

Avril 30 - Zoo, Mouth of Truth

Our last full day……fairly sad. We went up to the Bioparc in the Borghese Gardens, commonly called a ZOO!
We did have 2 free entries so that was a bonus. We got our maps and off we went, the girls were pretty excited to see some living things!
Overall the Zoo is mediocre, overgrown, weeds everywhere again and even huge bushes etc in front of viewing areas so it makes it hard to see the animals. I did feel sorry for the animals and just wished they were in Auckland Zoo, getting stimulated or in Taronga Zoo in Sydney. Just to see lions and cheetahs in very small areas broke my heart. It really makes you aware of how lucky we are in New Zealand / Australia and our values on how to look after animals.
The Zoo however was very busy and had many school groups on the day we were there. The viewing for the birds was the funniest thing I had seen – a tiny little slit in the fence about the size of a letterbox opening, great to protect the birds but when there are crowds not very practical.
However we did enjoy the Reptile enclosure – Snakes, crocodiles and frogs! I think I might be getting over my phobia of snakes as I could look at them a bit easier through the glass. I am sure it would be a completely different story in the wild though!
Some of them were huge!!!!
Late afternoon, 4:00pm we jumped onto the metro to go and visit the Mouth Of Truth. Legend has it that you place your hand in the mouth and Liars have their hands cut off. All day the children had been worried and a bit unsure about it.
By the time we walked there from the metro it was 4:50 and as we got to the door the guard was shutting it. I couldn’t believe it! Behind him the sign said that it shut at 5:00pm. I pleaded my case and requested we be allowed in, even told him we were leaving first thing in the morning and couldn’t come back. No compassion – the answer was NO! Seph was very upset that she didn’t get to do it and even this didn’t move the guard. Hard hearted b******!
That was such a sour note to end our trip on but at least we all still have our hands!! We passed the Circo Massimo where they used to hold the chariot races as we walked back to the Colosseum for one more look. We sat on the grass admiring her beauty in the late afternoon sun. A quick stop in another church turned up a Michelangelo statue – worth stopping!
Our last Gelato, 3 scoops and a chocolate cone. We all decided that Limon (Lemon) was our favourite.
We found a small Trattoria for our Last Supper, a glass or 2 of Chianti to accompany as the sun went down on our time in Rome.

Avril 29 -Temple of the Capuchin Monks! PGR!

Off to a different market on the hunt for some shoes for Hermione – no luck! Borghese Gardens was next on the agenda. We hired a quad bike for an hour and toured around the gardens. Nev again was disappointed about how they were so neglected but had the potential for being beautiful. People were sitting in the grass and you could hardly see them because it was so long, they were surrounded by weeds and daisies

Kerry had told us of a site to visit – The Temple of the Capuchin Monks, so this was next. Wow! A very interesting place and I am so pleased she told us about it as I couldn’t find information anywhere else.
It was only €1 to enter and it was a crypt underneath a church where a few centuries ago the Monks found old very important Monk bones!! I found this description and unfortunately don’t know who the author is to acknowledge them, however they sum it up well.
“The bones in this crypt were nailed to the wall and arranged in patterns: cross, floral, arch, triangle and circle, as well as forming objects. A large clock is composed of vertebrae, foot bones and finger bones. The single hour hand represents the idea that time has no beginning or end.



he bones in the six-room crypt represent over 4,000 individual monks. It is said monks fled the French Revolution (1793-94) and took refuge at the Church in Roma. There are many theories about the arrangement of the bones, but most stories end with the notion that the anonymous artist reaped his heavenly reward. One tale says that a French Capuchins did the work, no doubt mimicking the catacombs of Paris. The Marquis de Sade visited the crypt in 1775 and described it as "An example of funerary art worthy of an English mind", created "by a German priest who lived in this house."





A view of the entrance room from the interior of the crypt.
Iron gates on the right lead to the six rooms. The vaulted ceiling of the 60' hallway.
One of several lampshades
composed mainly of vertebrae and sacral bones.






A standing Capuchin monk skeleton
surrounded by patterns made with bones.

Many of the monk skeletons are supine
in individual niches.



The Capuchins separated from the Franciscans in 1525 in order to get back to a more fundamental interpretation of St. Francis' edict to help the poor and the helpless. The bearded Capuchins wear sandals with no socks, and a tunic with a rope belt, and a hood. It is the hood, the capuce, from which the name of the order derives. Cappuccino coffee is named after the colour of their robes.”


A monk surrounded by skulls.
Comparing photographs with those from the early1900s shows
that the crypt has altered little in the last 100 years.

An altar surrounded by bones. The crypt
also contains the heart of Capuchin devotee
Maria Felice Peretti (1656),
the earliest date in the crypt.



Kerry was absolutely right…..we will probably never see something like this again!

Avril 28 - Emergency Room

Had a bit of a lie in as everyone slow to get moving today. Hermione woke with a bit of a sore stomach and we waited for some panadol to take effect then we took ourselves into an area of Rome we hadn’t been and wandered. By 2:00pm however Hermione was in a lot of pain, couldn’t really do much so we found a pharmacy – not nearly as easy to find as in France, got her to take 2 Nurofen. Yes! I know that is a lot but she was in agony. Went and found a spot to sit and wait for the effects to take hold. Unfortunately she only got worse and worse, could no longer really walk and was crying and groaning with the pain. EEEKKK!! What do we do? We went back to the pharmacy to seek advice. They were remarkably kind and suggested we go to the emergency room at the hospital. They also phoned for a taxi and waited out front to meet him to tell the driver where to go while I sat inside with Hermione.
After about 10 minutes the taxi arrived and off we went, about 3 km away but it seemed to take forever as she was in so much pain and of course you get nowhere fast in the traffic!
We arrived at the E.R. and the doctors took a quick look, found out she was 10 years old and told us we had to go to the Children’s hospital another 1km away. They too then phoned a taxi and we waited, all the while with agonising groans and yelps of pain.
Finally we arrived at the E.R. in the correct hospital where she was quickly assessed and sent to the waiting room to be called.
There were many people waiting and it did nothing for our hopes of a quick visit into the Dr. But the wait wasn’t too long till she was seen. The usual questions, poop + pee (both fine, if you wanted to know) no fever, no vomiting, just pain. They ruled out appendicitis and said she would have to have an ultrasound. Back to the waiting room and drink a lot of water. At this stage I did think we were going to be admitted and our stay in Rome would be a bit longer and on operation would follow.
This was interesting as many people were seen and then sent back to the initial waiting room some repeated this 3 or 4 times. After an hour and a half I went to check about the ultrasound, Hermione had drunk quite a lot and was bursting!
Not much longer and in we went – they were looking for kidney stones – all clear! Can we please now have a urine sample – then go and wait in the waiting room! During this time the pain had subsided remarkably and 45 minutes later in we go again – the verdict – “all fine and she can go home. We can’t see anything wrong!”
7:00pm we leave the hospital!
We still have no idea what it was but it was like nothing had happened she was back to her usual self, running, jumping and being silly on the walk to the metro. Thank goodness!

The one thing we did see on the way home – a movie set! Wow!

The setting for the movie!

It was exciting, we got to see a period drama being filmed. There were horses and carriages, the beautiful maiden, the kiss, a fight scene and other things. We could have watched it for ages, we were extremely close as we were on a rise and they were straight below us. We could hear everything. Nev however was anxious to get home and hurried us along after 30 minutes. The film is going to be in Italian, The Dove and the Hawk (The Colombine and Falco, or something similar).
There was a famous actor/singer (Papiito?) and a model actress.
The kids thought it was funny how the actors were primped and preened over and even had people holding the umbrellas over them as it had started to spit.

Anyone recognise her?

The makeup trailer etc was all there too. A great eye opener!

Avril 27- Pompei

In case you didn't realise Pinocchio is Italian and is everywhere!

By the entrance to Pompei ruins.

Up early and off to the bus tour office by 7:00am. We left at 7:30 and headed south to Naples (Napoli), the weather was nice and it was great to see the countryside. It was very green but surprisingly you don’t see much stock in paddocks, in fact in Italy and France there really are no fences bordering properties or running alongside the roads.
At about 9:15 we stopped off for morning tea in an overpriced/tearooms come souvenir shop. Luckily we had packed our own!
The guide who was on the bus giving a commentary was, unfortunately hard to understand and we struggled to hear.
We continued on to Naples arriving about 11:00 where we went down to the port area to drop off a few people who were off to the island of Capri, we changed guides and this older man was a little bit easier to understand. Yay! We then continued with a whirlwind tour of Naples. What we saw in no way makes me want to return there. It was dirty, heaps of rubbish and homeless it was generally unkempt and the only thing going for it that I can see is that you can catch a ferry to some gorgeous islands.
We did stop and take the obligatory photos looking out to Capri for 5 minutes.
We then headed back to the port where we picked up our guide again ( he must have been meeting the other guide for Capri) during our tour. In fact I think that is the only reason we had a tour is to fill in time while all these drop off’s /pick up’s happen.
On we went to Pompei, about another 30 minutes away. We could see Mt Vesuvius and it looked peaceful and calm, a very symmetrical and non dramatically featured mountain. This photo makes Mt Vesuvius look small but when we were driving to Naples it is actually very big!

We arrived in Pompei and went on a tour of a Cameo brooch factory then to the restaurant for lunch which was included in the price. We had soup or pasta, then pork or fish with roast potatoes then gelato. Very nice and a slick operation as there were many tour buses there.
Finally at 1:30 we met our elderly guide from the bus, gathered our headsets and were off to the ruins!
The fountains have been repaired and still can be drunk from!

History: In 62 AD Pompei was struck by an earthquake and the reconstruction work was still proceeding when on Aug 24 79AD, Vesuvius unexpectedly awoke submerging the town under a hurricane of Ash, cinder and eruptive materials. The volcano had been considered extinct so took everyone by surprise. The volcano continued its terror for 3 days! After the disaster Pompei remained buried under a layer of ash more than 6 metres deep which suffocated and protected evidence of life at the moment of the tragedy.
In case you were wondering Pompei wasn’t affected by the lava flow, other villages were wiped out by this.

It was fascinating to walk through the cobbled streets seeing the rut marks left by the chariots, the places where the horses were tied up, bakeries still with the millstones and ovens found still with loaves in them, bath houses, the main centre of town –The Forum, and of course many temples and basilicas!
Naturally we saw plaster casts of the bodies that had been buried and many of the relics that were left untouched. Pompei ruins are huge, I think 66 hectares and unfortunately we didn’t have nearly enough time.
It was impossible not to be moved by being there and seeing how these people lived and died.

Important fact: Ancient Romans discovered how to make concrete – that is why many buildings/ruins look like they are reconstructed with bricks and concrete. However this is what lead them to be able to build such large buildings and quickly. After the foundations of brick and concrete slabs of marble, really like ultra thick wallpaper went on the exterior to hide all this and to make it look so amazing.

We had to meet back at the bus at 4:20, and the tour finished at 3:40 – not enough free time. However as we got back to the bus we were informed that we had to wait for a connecting bus and some passengers – BUT you must stay on board! Well we sat there for an hour! I was really annoyed as we could have used that time much better!

Then we headed for Rome (Roma) with a stop for a break at the same place as in the morning. We got back at 8:40pm and headed out to a little Trattoria for tea.
An exhausting day!

In the end I was disappointed with the tour and we should have got to Pompei ourselves. I was keen to do this but Nev was hesitant about changing trains in Naples ( after everything he had heard) it would have saved us lots of money and we wouldn’t have had to wait around for people. We would have just hired an audioguide when we arrived and had much longer at the site. Nevermind now – but for those of you who are planning this……it is easy to do it yourself!

Avril 26 - Pantheon + Spanish Steps + Designer stores

Well Sunday is Flea Market day! – Wahoo, I just love markets, I can never get enough. Off we went, we had to catch a bus, this was a first for us. We had seen them of course and noticed how packed they are! If you imagine sardines in a can – that was us. Trying to watch pockets and bags was interesting. When the bus stopped it was virtually impossible to let people off the bus without the whole bus(nearly) piling out first then jumping back on in a hurry or you might not get on. We also had no idea of knowing stop names and we relied on a nice young man of African descent to tell us when to get off. We then had to transfer to a tram to get to our destination. The tram I must say was much more comfortable and we even got a seat. Still no way of knowing the names of the stops we guessed when to get off and fluked it right!
The market is long and covers everything. We made some purchases of different currencies, shoes, cap, tops and socks! The market shuts promptly at 2.00. so that was perfect to head into town and go to Piazza Navona ( the main square) where we had lunch in the sun overlooking another 3 beautiful fountains and amazingly another column! After a very overpriced and mediocre lunch we strolled through small streets in the oldest part of Rome.
Around the corner another treasure –The Pantheon! It is considered to be simply one of the finest buildings in the world, and a place to experience true splendour, harmony nad elegance of Roman Architecture.

This 2nd Century AD pagan temple to all of the gods is 1900 years later still almost completely intact.
The different marble colours is striking. What surprised me was an open dome, as we were discussing whether or not it was open a bird flew in and answered our question.
As an aside -Raphael ( the artist) is buried here.
We continued to the main shopping street – To purchase here you must have the dosh, we are talking designer stores all the way. Gucci opposite Prada, Cartier, Armani, Yves St Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino,Fendi, Burberry, Versace, Jimmy Choo etc… The list goes on! I will reiterate – PURPLE, the only colour that counts. Italy is really the fashion capital and everyone else follows later on. You pass all these shops on the way to the bottom of the Spanish Steps. These are 18th century steps that lead to….a church! Not really steeped in history but tourists flock here and sit on the steps. Before the steps up is another……fountain!! We managed to find a spot to sit and watch all the designer shopping bags go by. This was the only area that had a nice floral display. I am guessing by the amount of photos taken per day with this back drop Rome would have to look after their image.