Opera

This morning we went to the Volksoper. The Volksoper is an opera house. My aunt and uncle got us a private box like the one that Lincoln got shot in. It even had a door with cushions. It was the last week of school for all the kids there so they went to the opera for their field trip.

The name of the opera was Fledermaus. Fledermaus means bat. (fleedermouse)

This is the chandelier in the main lobby of the opera house. The opera house was very red. Our whole box was red, ruby red. 

You can see the red I talked about here. You cannot boxes but we will see them later.

This is me sitting in the box. We had the top floor. If you look closely you can see the boxes across the way. The opera was about "REVENGE." It was three hours long. It had two intermissions? It was basically about playing a trick on his friend. After all, his friend did trick him first. There was a lot of lying, drinking, singing.

This was my desert. It was a truffle torte. First on top was icing then cake, then chocolate mousse, then cake again. It had a chocolate restaurant symbol and a chocolate crust. I do not mean like pie crust I mean "CHOCOLATE." I drank cider that was unfiltered with sparkling water. It was good.

Arriving in Vienna

Today we arrived in Vienna. We took it easy in the morning. After lunch we went out to see the city. First we went to fountain that had men that were " NUDE."

After we went to Heldenplatz. Platz means square or plaza. Hitler spoke his terrible speech here.

This is a greek temple that is in Vienna for no reason. It was in a rose garden.

This is me on a spinny thingie. The spinny toys in Vienna if you start pushing while you are sitting down or squnching, you can not stand up cause they have no control. There are no safety regulations.

After I went on the spinny thing we went into an underground mall with an opera bathroom. Opera bathrooms are public toilets with an opera theme. The music played was the blue danube waltz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CTYymbbEL4

On our walk back we saw TML. It is a place made out of steel that are speakers hidden in the steel. People hire sound artists to put a different sound in each speaker. As you walk through it you hear different sounds.

This is Mr. B. B stands for bugger. He tells you where to put colored glass and white glass. He speaks german and he always has a huge smile but he has no nose even though he comes from one.

Notice!!!

We are leaving Dad all by himself in Paris.We go to Vienna early in the morning to stay with Aunt Chelsea and Uncle Cyril for the next 2 weeks. There might be a post delay but we hope they have better email then we have had in Paris. Au Revoir for now.

Drinking Champagne in Champagne

Today we went to Champange.  We are on the train listening to music on the way.  Champagne is a place where they make Champagne in France.  If Champagne was not made in Champagne, it would be called Sparkling Wine. 

This was the first Champagne company we went to today.  It is called Moet and Chandon.  They are the biggest Champagne company in the WORLD!!  We learned all about how to make Champagne from grapes to mouth.  They have some california grapes in their champagne, they don't even mention it!!!

This is a chandelier made out of champagne glasses in the Moet and Chandon building.  Moet and Chandon were two people who came together and started a Champagne company.  The Moet and Chandon property is over 23,000 hectares of grapes. 

We got to go underground and see where they store the wine bottles.  It is very wet down there.  The walls are made out of chalk.  The tunnels expand over 28 miles. They told us the process of how to make champagne, and why it is bubbly.  They want the Champagne to taste the same every year.  They said first the grapes must be picked.  Then pressed very gently.  The reason Champagne is always white is because the inside of all the grapes is white.  The way red wine turns is red is they let the skin sit with the grape juice. First they make wine with three kinds of grapes.  It is not bubbly yet.  Then they make wine out of the wine and put a cap on it to seal in the bubbles.  After that, they put it in these racks and there are riddlers that spin the bottles. I don't mean that they tell riddles to the bottles, and the bottles solve them.  Every 4 days the riddlers come and turn and push up the bottles in their holes.  After they have gone through the riddling process, they put the bottle in an ice cold bath.  Not to clean themselves!! But, to freeze the sediment in the bottle, then after it has been sitting for 5 minutes, they open the bottle, from the cork, then the ice spits out, then a machine puts the cork back in and seals it. Then it has to sit for at least 3 years!

In the middle of our trip, we got on a tour bus and looked at the Charpentier vineyards.  We did not get any pictures of the Champagne tasting.  Just to say, it was good!

Ville Savoye

We went Ville Savoye today.It was made by Corbu .

If we lived in here this would be our living room. Very Nice!!This is my favorite of the Corbu houses I have seen.

This would be my office. It is connected to my room but we forgot to take pictures of the room.

This is my  parents bathroom connected to their bedroom. We forgot to take pictures of the bedroom.

I am lying in their bathroom.

Who is this explorer looking out into the far distance at Poissy?:)

My mom looks like a giant in comparison to the house.

Catacombs - Pantheon

We went to the catacombs today.  Half of it was not very good.  We had to stand in line for 2 hours in the rain. We are looking at a wall of bones.  I know that it is creepy, but that is what we saw.

While we were there, we saw some gravestones in the bones. All of these bones are from the 1800's and the 1700's.  They came from plague. It is a very deadly disease, the rats carried around. 

We went to the Pantheon after the catacombs.  Not the one in Rome, the one in Paris.  We got to climb up the dome.  It was very creepy. 

I am standing in front of Paris.  At the top of the Pantheon.

When we were inside the Pantheon, still on the top, we saw this.  It is very beautiful.

While we were at the top, we found a place to sit.

When we were going down, we walked through this dome shaped tunnel.  It was very dark, the only light was the lights and the sun spots.

Ville Roche

Today  we went to Ville Roche. Corbu designed this house.

This is the dining room.  quite fancy, huh?

When we go there, we had to put on booties.  So we call them Corbooties now.

If we lived here, this would be my parent's room.  It is quite big!

If we lived here, this would be my room on the top floor. I would repaint it. It is actually kind of big.

Library

We are at Bibliotech national.It is a library.There are four towers.The towers are shaped like open books.

These are the rocking  chairs in it . How do they rock?The metal makes it rock.

 We got to go were the books get brought from down stairs.

When we went to the top we saw a lot of Paris.

  I am at park floral Bois De Vincennes.There is a concert going on.

This is me playing on the thingy.

Vaux Le Vicomte

We are in the stable at Vaux Le Vicomte. I wanted to show you a picture of the castle but we are having problems.

This is one of the carriages that my mom loves.

This is another carriage.

We are in my favorite room in the castle.

We are in another room that we have no idea who it belongs to.

In the castle there are 2 bathrooms. This is one of them.

We are in my mom's favorite room. It would be her office if she lived here.

We went on the top of the castle. I do not even know why you are allowed up there. It was dangerous.

This is the view of the backyard from the top. I do not think it's big enough :)

My mom took a picture of us in the mirror. It looks kind of blurry as it is our reflection.

This afternoon we rode on a golf cart around the backyard. It's that big!

On our way we saw some drunk babies.

Whenever we got to the bottom of the hill there was another hill right behind it and we went up the hill and saw this statue. You see us in the background? That is how small we are compared to the statue. I guess a big yard needs a big statue.

After we returned the golf cart we found a snail. This is my finger compared to the snail. It is that big :)