Charron

          Hello! Today I will tell you about the place we discovered about 1.5 years before moving back to Poland - Charron. It is a small coastal and estuary town and a small seaside fishing port, especially known for the production of mussels that are the pride of this city. After finding this town, I regularly went with my parents on Sunday walks along the shores of a pebble beach, where we could find a lot of shells of St. James.

The photo shows the place (I don't know what it's called) from which the mussel nets were planted.

Very often you could see all-day outflows in this city. At the time, my sister and I were running around in galoshes and looking for the prettiest shells - and how many were those that were closed and at home it turned out that there was still life inside, haha

The photo shows a fishing boat that got stuck ashore before the tide

In addition to the beach, which stretches along the shore, you can also visit the castle and the church of St. Nicholas. Unfortunately, I did not go deep into the knowledge about these monuments and do not have their photos, because somewhere they had to be mixed with other photos and I do not have them, but I saw them live, and they really make an impression. I put two photos from the Internet here:


          The town is quite small, but very charming. From what I remember, most people sat in restaurants and tasted fresh mussels, instead of walking or bathing in warm water, so the crowd was not there so you could relax in the sound of the waves. I recommend you this city 😎

Maillezais

          Today I will write briefly about the place where I was with my parents - Maillezais. You can associate this place with literature classes. Does the name François Rabelais tell you anything? Yes, he was the author of "Gargantua and Pantagruel" and he was the secretary of Father Geoffroy d'Estissac in the abbey of Maillezais.
          Maillezais is famous for the ruins of its Gothic abbey called St.Peter Cathedral. I remember the ruins were huge. Very high and extensive. When I was in this place there were a lot of people, tourists, so you can easily conclude that it is worth seeing this place, because in addition to these ruins there is also a park surrounding this place, a meadow on which you can sit in the sun and relax and...

...and the path next to which are huge body parts. These are broken sculptures depicting Gargantua, in honor of Rabelais, who, as I mentioned above, was very connected with this place. I think it is a great attraction for people and especially for children.And here I will show you how big these sculptures are - in the picture I am 9/10 years old. 🙈👀

If you ever have the opportunity to visit this place, don't hesitate a minute, it's really worth it!

Photos in the post, contrary to appearances, also come from my parents' album and they are not taken from the internet.

To the next! 😄

Fontenay-le-Comte

          Hi! Today I will describe to you the place that I have already mentioned to you last academic year on the occasion of a story about family shopping - Fontenay-le-Comte. I don't really know if today, in adulthood, I would go to Fontenay if it would still be such a big city as I thought in my childhood - it was huge then and for me this city had no borders.

          Apart from the huge number of supermarkets, Fontenay-le-Comte has in the center a very large church built in the Gothic style. This is the only church in the area (within 30/40 km) where masses were held every Sunday, sometimes exceptionally every 2 weeks. It really was like that - in the town where I lived, the church was used in cases such as funerals, and this was not always the case, because very often there were funeral only in the cemetery without mass.

Next thing - I remember that the roundabouts in this city were very original decorated - a car designed for scrap metal and planted flowers in it, or a washing machine drum also filled with flowers - something beautiful and original. Each roundabout in the city was somehow decorated so that it would not be boring and please the eye.

My mother likes greenery and nature, that's why I remember from my childhood that we often came here to take a walk in the park / well-kept small forest with various flowers. Something I just remember the most about Fontenay are flowers, lots of flowers wherever the mayor and people could put them.

          I hope that this type of posts will be interesting, instead of just telling stories I will upload photos (I sorted them from CDs for two days to find the right photos, haha) which will illustrate what I'm writing about. By adding photos from the family album I want to show you how pretty this city is. Perhaps for you this city is like any other - ordinary, but when I see these pictures and I write to you what is on them I have a flash in my eye and it bring back many wonderful memories.

          Of course, there were many events in the city and many other things could be found to go sightseeing like a museum, but I will write in these posts only about what I remember from the time I lived there and I will write about what I saw and not all possible information from internet, Wikipedia.

A short introduction to start with

          Hi everyone again. I hope that the holidays, which unfortunately passed quickly, were pleasant for you. The new academic year equals new ideas for creating new blog posts. This time for the next dozen or so posts you will accompany me on an unusual traveling through my memories of the time when I lived in France, but they will be a little different from what I have already published.
          Until now, I have been describing stories from my childhood in every post. This time, I would like to devote my 15 posts to traveling around the French cities I visited, whether with my family or on a school trip. For four years, several such places have accumulated, and I'm not talking about such famous cities as Paris, Marseille or Lille, but about such small towns with a small number of inhabitants but being very charming. Cities in which you can participate in various events, or in which the famous castles of the Loire are located. And who knows, maybe I will open the old archive of family photos and I will show you photos taken by my family from these places. 👀😅

See you in a week, then I'll come with a description of the first place. 😉

Let's finish this history

          And this is the moment - the fifteenth post, my last post in this semester in English. I was very pleased to be able to discover some of my history, my memories, before you. It was hard for me to choose 13 memories that I will describe to you so that you can imagine. I have so many memories that my head is small but I could not describe them for a long post because it's usually funny, short situations and not some events. But I think I've done the job. I did it? Did you like the posts? I hope so.
          In none of the posts I did not use photos from family albums, because I think firstly, I would humiliate you (I did not always look like I would like to haha) and secondly, they are private, my family wouldn't agree to share our photos, unfortunately photos from the internet never disappear.
         Every post was written from the heart. At this point, I would like to thank my boyfriend, who reminded me of these posts and motivated to write them, because I often had no strength to write anything and think how to put it in words, and he motivated me to do it.
         I hope that there were not so many mistakes in the posts and that they are fairly legible. I tried to make everything transparent and I tried to don't write off that the posts are not too long and too boring. Well, but enough - I'm won't justifying myself, to you evaluate this blog. 😄

See you someday!

Bye France !

          Hi again, unfortunately, I didn't make a post yesterday. The amount of learning now at the end of the semester is overwhelming on all sides so that there is no time to think about anything else. However, today I make up for it, especially I woke up this morning to be able to write this post. Do you know what? Today is the penultimate post already, how quickly it passed. The first memory was about moving to France, so I will make a compositional brace and I will finish the story on moving to Poland.
          The decision to move out was unanimous to the whole family. My mother had a problem with settling in France for the entire four years (she was away from her parents, siblings, etc. and she did not know the language), I with my sister, we missed our grandparents left in Poland, I also missed my friends, for everything which was Polish, and my father agreed to our complaints and did not try to convince us to stay in France.
          We have agreed that we want to finish this chapter in our life and that we want to come back to Poland. To this day I remember the truck that came to us for our belongings (my uncle worked in a logistics company and after consulting with his company he came to help us in moving). After loading everything from the house that fit into the truck, many things were still waiting to be taken with them. Fortunately, Dad puffed up all bears, toys from our rooms to our car (which I would do without a teddy bear named Sebastian haha). I do not remember leaving the house for the last time and the trip itself, because I was supposedly so torn between - let's stay in France, here my school and friends and let's go to Poland, to grandma, to friends and Polish shops. 
          However, I perfectly remember getting off the car, in Poland, at my grandma's house. My joy at that time was indescribable. And even though we were traveling for three years on vacation to France, to grandparents who stayed there, we have not stayed there for more than a month. I live in Poland and although in my soul I regret a little this return to Poland by taking myself the opportunity to learn in French schools, I don't regret so much, because in Poland too many good things have happened to me.

Île de Ré

          Hello to you ! I am sorry that I am adding this post so late, but learning to write and pass all the exams absorbs my time in 100% and my day becomes too short to make up for everything. That is why today's post will not be so long as usually is.
          Today, I will tell you about the most beautiful French island I've ever been to - Île de Ré. This island was located 60 km from my place of residence, so as you can see I had a place to live in a great location - close to supermarkets, close to the Atlantic Ocean and close to Île de Ré. Many attractions to visit in the free time, that's is why we used this privilege with my parents as much as possible. But returning to the island, when I recall images in my memory from this place, the first thought is a long bridge connecting the French land and the island. My parents like long walks that's why our car was then on the side of France and their decision was to cross the bridge 3 km on our feet. This walk itself was exhausting, let alone visiting the island. What I remember from that time is the Atlantic Ocean on our right and left side, washing the breakwaters which protect the island. On the island, what I remember in my aesthetic soul are blue shutters, pink mallow and a lot of people, tourists. And the most important is leg pain. This island is very pretty and aesthetic, perfect for artistic souls. We spent the whole day walking and visiting this wonderful place.
          Today, without writing a long time about this topic, briefly and succinctly - I recommend to you all to see Île de Ré, and at the end of this post I will give you one more picture of the island from a bird's eye view:

To the next Monday ! 😎 

Snow? It is a catastrophe.

          Hey everyone! Today it will be a bit shorter post than usual (I hope that again I won't write a story that it will bore you 😅). Today, I will tell you about a story that happened in the winter (I don't remember what year it was, but certainly still in France haha). 
          My parents went to work at 7:30 am, so unfortunately I had to go to the common room before school, it was nice there but since I have always been a sleepyhead, I'd rather sleep longer. That day, it was probably December already, the snow fell. Yes, it is an event of the year because in France, in the areas where I lived, it wasn't snowing, winter was cold when there were 3 Celsius degrees on the thermometer, and here it was suddenly bam! Snow on the street. For us, for Poles it's nothing new and as every day my parents drove me to the common room and they went to work. After an hour, there was time for lessons at school. It seemed strange that there were a lot less children in the school than usual, but after a while everything was clear - snow fell, many people stayed at home, did not go to work or children to school. A bit absurd, right? But it really was, the headmaster came out of school and said that the lessons would not take place through the snow and he would call our parents to pick us up. When my parents came for me, it turned out that they also had such a situation - the company was closed due to snow falling. I don't know if after 10 years the French got used to the occasional snow, but then we were all sent home, everyone took a photo of snow. It was strange for us, but you don't even realize how many cars stood in the middle of the road through the snow, 3 or 4 cars were in the ditch - I would only say that the road wasn't so slippery, if it was at all. It turned out, after talking with Jacqueline that when the snow falls in France, the French don't know what to do with their life, they can't cope with a white can on the street and it is at this time of year that most accidents happen.
          Well, the French were stressed that day and we rested with the family at home. I said it would be shorter, I hope it's okay 😅

The Atlantic Ocean

          Today will be about my family trips to the Atlantic Ocean - yes, because there were a lot of them. Maybe I will start from the beginning - our town where we lived was super localized, because they were close to walking sticks, 20 km away with all supermarkets, all other churches and mosques in the other direction if someone had to pray, and in another direction we had 25 km to La Faute-sur-Mer, i.e. one of many towns that had access to the ocean. That's why Sunday trips to the beaches were the norm for us. Whether it was winter or spring or early summer when it was not raining and we wanted to start the car, we were going to the ocean. That is why in this way, for 4 years living in France, I visited a really large stretch of the Ocean (if I can call it that).
          Usually it was a Sunday, then my mother fried sausages, she prepared bread to be able to eat in the form of a dinner on the beach already (in France for a long time no Sunday is not commercial - I mean I do not know how it is now, but those over 9 years back the stores were closed ) and my and my sister's task was to dress up in swimsuits, make all the toys for sand and all inflatable animals into the water, and my dad, hmm guy like a guy - make a car for the ride. We usually left around 10 am so as to be early and did not have to squeeze between crowds of people, so usually before 11 o'clock we were in place.
          Usually it was a Sunday, then my mother fried sausages, she prepared bread to be able to eat in the form of a dinner on the beach already (in France for a long time no Sunday is not commercial - I mean I do not know how it is now, but those over 9 years back, on Sundays the stores were closed) and my and my sister's task was to dress up in swimsuits, make all the toys for sand and all inflatable animals into the water, and my dad, hmm guy like a guy - make a car for the ride. We usually left around 10 am so as to be early and did not have to squeeze between crowds of people, so usually before 11 o'clock we were in place. We always sat down by family at noon (usually we went to the beach with my grandparents and my uncle and his family because they also lived next to us in France) and we ate dinner prepared at home, and then until the evening we lay on the sand or bathing in the warm oceanic water.
          One of the greatest memories from the period of riding to La Faute-sur-Mer is when I received an inflatable mattress from my grandparents on the occasion of my child's day. He was so shiny, green ... He was because my dad lent him and went to lie on him, only no one foresaw that his brother, my uncle will swim to him and throw him off the mattress for a joke ... The mattress in the blink of an eye disappeared from sight, and I did not even enjoy it.
          Oh, I remember this time very well when we were going to the ocean, when I had a tan all the time, and not like now, I'm pale and I have to go 5 hours to the sea. I can not wait for the holidays and this sun and sea water, mmm. Surely you too 😄

Puy Du Fou

          Today I come to you with a post about the Puy Du Fou amusement park. It is in the department where I lived - in Vendée. It is an amusement park with historical theme, that is to say that it puts on stage spectacles happening during the time of the Vikings, Romans, the Middle Ages. I was in it as part of a school trip in the third or fourth grade of primary school. I remember that we left early in the morning not to be able to get there but to be able to see everything because there are so many attractions. 
          As you can read on the site of this amusement park: "The show takes place on a stage of 23 hectares with 1,200 actors, 120 riders, 100 technicians and 300 people for the reception and security of the public, but it is also 8000 costumes, 800 fireworks, 2 500 projectors and 150 jets of water 30 meters high." It's impressive, right?
          I will tell you that for someone who does not like to learn history as much as I do, this park gives a huge impression. Thanks to him, you do not have to imagine the situation, just see it because the actors will present it very realistically.
          I will tell you briefly about the two performances that were most memorable to me. The first is "The Fearless Birds Ghosts". It is staged in a ruined castle, where you can see hawks, vultures and owls. More than 150 raptors are needed for this performance; eagles, owls, vultures, buzzards, condors ... I remember this performance the most because these birds really flew over our heads - and I'll tell you better - I kept one owl in my hand, because it was possible. Everyone who wanted to, reported and then every of us got a special glove on which the owl came. I remember that she was quite heavy 😅
          And the second performance is The Vikings. Yes, being in this amusement park you can feel as if you were an eyewitness to the return of the Vikings. The town that is burning in front of our eyes, these clothes, gestures of these Vikings, something really impressive.
          I really recommend this amusement park, if you will ever be in France and want to feel like in the Middle Ages then you must visit Puy Du Fou. I promise you will not regret spending money on tickets. At the end I give you a "trailer" of what you can see there:

Happy Easter!

          Hi everyone ! Today I come to you with a post about ..... Easter. Yes, maybe not very original, but we have the Easter holiday, so the subject of this post came to my mind automatically. 
          At the beginning I wish you a holiday celebration filled with family, friends, peace, love and happiness. Happy Easter to everyone ! (I know, I know it's almost over haha)
          To start, in France, holidays are celebrated like in Poland - there are also Holy Week, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. With the fact that Sunday is the most celebrated, and on Monday it is an opportunity for the French to enjoy the spring and whole families organize picnics in the open air. On Thursday to Saturday, church bells no longer ring in mourning. The children are told that the bells leave for Rome to be blessed by the Pope. On Sunday at the end of Easter Mass, they start ringing again. This tells the children that the bells, back in the churches, flew over the gardens, fields, parks and dropped chocolate eggs. So it's the bells that bring the chocolates to children in France! The children then go hunting for eggs, but also chocolate chickens and chocolate rabbits. Easter is today synonymous with chocolate.
          And it looked the same in our town. On Sunday after breakfast, the children in my town ran to the gardens and looked for sweets hidden everywhere. Jacqueline also hid many sweets for me and my sister as well as for Vanessa. She called my parents every year so that we would come and have fun in looking for these chocolate eggs and many more. As I recall, 10 chocolate chickens, 15 chocolate bunnies and many chocolate eggs were hidden all over the garden. One such chicken was the most memorable for me because it was hidden....on top of apple tree. Fortunately, this apple tree was quite low and my dad could get me down.

Each year it was a funny time of looking for this chocolate.

To finish, once again I wish you all the best for Easter and to the next post, bye ! 😊

Shopping? Why not...

          Today, I will tell you a little about the shopping madness which lasted in my family. As I have already written, these are my memories so for you it may not be an interesting post :)

          Let's start from the beginning - we lived in the small town of La Taillee, which was located about 20 km from the nearest town with shops. Yes, in the region where I lived with my family, no smaller town had shops, even private ones. After moving, none of us could get used to this fact, because in Poland we have shops on every corner, and even if you forgot to buy one thing on purchases, you could go to a nearby store and buy what is missing. And in France it was over. 

          In France, we went shopping once a week, on Saturday. And it was then shopping madness. Throughout the week, we were doing a shopping list to return on Saturday with the whole food rack, which had to last for the entire next week. Every Saturday, we all woke up at 8 o'clock so that at 9 o'clock we would go to Fontenay-le-Comte, where there were shops. Shopping always lasted all day, so all day every Saturday we went shopping and we bought food haha. Just do not think that it ended on one market, no no, we went from the store to the store. Fontenay-le-Comte was for me, for a 7-year-old child a huge city and between one and the other store we need to have to overcome quite a long way. I'll show you what I mean when I say drive from the store to the store. In Lidl we bought bottled water, in Hyper U / Super U we bought fruits and vegetables, and in E.Leclerc all the rest. I don't mention all the needs of RTV and household appliances because we didn't buy it every week, but if it was time to buy it, we were leaving the house earlier to get everything done.
          I remember till today, when my sister and I notoriously got lost in stores, they were so big for us. All-day shopping always ended with a snack - i.e. bread roll and sausage, my sister's favorite food, which she loves to this day. We always made hotdogs cold, dry without ketchup (which we do not like today). Thanks to the fact that my parents didn't teach us to eat junk food, we never shouted at them to go to McDonald's or pizza, we needed a sausage with a roll to become the happiest children in the world, because it was reserved food for shopping Saturdays - we didn't eat it at home because they didn't taste the same haha. I miss all-day shopping with my family. It was so boring but also very interesting what this time we stretch parents to buy us haha.
          Oh no, it was supposed to be a shorter post today and it went out as long as all the previous ones. 😂 Well, what can I say, to the next one! 😎

Strange outdoor games

          Hello everyone, today I will tell you a little bit about my and my sister's imagination to make up games, or rather very strange fancy games hahaha 😄 As soon as I remember these games, I am laughing at us. We had to look funny from the perspective of our parents or our neighbors who were looking at us stealthily. Let me begin with the fact that these games are already after moving from a bungalow trailer to a single-family house to the village next to the previous village where I lived. This house had a huge garden with a ditch at the end of the plot.
          So, the first game that comes to my mind is "horse racing." Where did it come from? Well, because with my sister at that time we loved the movie "Racing Stripes", about the animals that spoke. There was the title zebra who raced with racial horses. After watching the movie several times, we came up with the idea that we are the horses and that we will race. That's why we chose 3 horses that we were - I must point out that at this moment the strength of the leader turned on me and I always chose the strongest horses from this film and I was always the "jury" in these competitions, racing with my sister alone, so I don't think I have to say who always won - of course I am. And then I had to explain to my 4-year-old sister that it's not my fault and I'm not more agile but this is due to my horses and that's why I win. I still wonder what I had in my head saying it to her constantly. HAHAHA 😂
          The next game will be our imagined game, hmmm rather to kill time. I can not even tell where it came from. Well, along with my sister, we loved ... jumping through the aforementioned ditch. Yes, we did it by thinking that crocodiles are swimming in the ditch and we have to jump from shore to shore. My mother still remembers that we could do it for 3 hours. After all, if I think about it, it must have looked funny - two young girls jumping aimlessly from the shore to the shore of the ditch ... while shouting that my sister would help me to pull me out before alligators eat me when there was a risk of slipping into the ditch (empty, without water) .
          The third and the last, is a mermaid game. Again, after watching the series "H2O: Just Add Water" knowing the entire story from the beginning at the end by heart, we invented that we will be sirens in the imagination and we will have such a magical spring as the mermaids in the series, as well as their magical powers. Just like the girls in the series, we pretended we were swimming with sirens tails running on the grass, waving our arms as they did in the show using magic power. For us it was very realistic but again, for everyone around it had to be very funny.
          As soon as I remember all this, it makes me feel warm and I miss my childhood and carelessness. Very happy and without shame today I come back to the movie "Racing Stripes" and the show "H2O: Just Add Water", please do not judge me, it's my childhood and half of the time I spent happily outside. 😂😂😂

Friendship with Vanessa

          As promised, today I come to you with a story of my friendship with Vanessa. I'll start by introducing her person. She is a girl a year older than me, who is currently 22 years old, and then she was 9 years old. She is a Portuguese who speaks French perfectly. We were in one class. As I mentioned in the post about the school, we sat in one bench. At that time I did not know that she would become my friend :) 
          Our friendship is strongly related to Mrs. Jacqueline from the previous post. Because I went to Jacqueline every day after school to do my homework and learn French, after the first day it turned out that when I went stressed to her, a moment after me came ..... no one else but Vanessa. It turned out that she also went to Jacqueline to do her homework and learn French, because the fact that she speaks so well inthis language is the merit of this old lady. Jacqueline quickly introduced us and explained that from that day we will work in three and that's why we can go to her together. The vision of walking with a strange girl to a strange woman was terrifying. In addition, it turned out that Vanessa and her family are Jacqueline's neighbor, so she goes in that direction every day. So I decided that I wouldn't pretend I didn't know her and would agree to this proposition of walking together. So it started with going to Jacqueline, of course in silence. Then, sitting at Jacqueline and doing homework together, and then after learning having fun together in the garden of a woman. We often walked together around a fig tree in the garden and ate figs. As I remember Jacqueline's house and garden, in front of my eyes I have many games, conversations and hiding from my parents so that they do not take me home so quickly. Very often in the autumn rainy afternoons we sat in the guest room at Jacqueline and we played a lot of games, such as Triominos, Rummikub or French card games.
          Just as our friendship began in the second grade of elementary school, so we went to college together and long after my departure to Poland, we had contact. Our relationship was funny, because Vanessa also had a sister who was my sister's friend - they were the same age. In addition, her parents worked with my parents and they were also friends. Therefore, outside of school and classes at Mrs. Jacqueline, we often met at her or at my house. 
          I could write about this acquaintance for a long time, about every memory, about every stupid, funny photo, but I leave such things for myself and Vanessa. Today, I briefly described to you how the beginning of this relationship was at all. :)

Meeting with Jacqueline

          Today, I will tell you about my first meeting and acquaintance with Mrs. Jacqueline. It is a continuation of stories related to my school. Let me start by introducing her person.

I share this photo, just to read this post
in the future, have a real memento
of this woman.

          Mrs. Jacqueline was a woman who was French, but her favorite occupation was learning foreign languages. Despite her age - when I met her, she was 85, she was self-taught and she loved traveling. In addition to her native French, she spoke Polish and dealt with: Spanish, Portuguese, German and attention ... Chinese. She impressed everyone very much. She was a beloved woman because, unfortunately, last year, in January she died at the age of 94. Today's post will be a very big memory for me and evoke strong feelings in me.
          Let's start with meeting with Jacqueline how it happened. As I wrote in the last post, I had a huge problem with the language at school. My tutor quickly noticed and invited me and my parents for an interview - I did not understand anything but my father as much as he knew French, understood that the teacher gave us contact to another teacher who knows Polish and French and can help me deal with French. So my parents quickly made the decision to lead me to this lady. I remember that I was stressed how this meeting would look like. We came to her house, her dog "Smaki" welcomed us at the gate, and after the bell ringing, I saw an older woman leaving the house. I could not believe that a woman who could be my great-grandmother has to teach me a totally strangeness language. She invited us to her home and when I heard her speak Polish well, I could not believe that the Frenchwoman could speak so well in a difficult language like Polish. She explained that she would like to meet me every day after classes, because the girl from the neighborhood also goes to her for lessons - it turned out that it was mentioned from last post - Vanessa.

          And so the story began - I got along with Vanessa, Portuguese perfecting her French and every day after class we went together to Jacqueline, where we did homework together and then, she taught me French. Every day I understood this language better and I was able to communicate with other children.
          My learning began with the establishment of a notebook in which every day Jacqueline saved me from 30-40 words written out of school textbooks, and I had to teach them the next day and so on. She helped me and Vanessa in every task and at the same time she fed us. To this day I remember the taste of this cocoa drink and cookies, which she gave us every day and we always wanted more.
         Thanks to her, I learned French for half a year, learning it 24 hours a day for 24 hours. I learned this language so that I could communicate like native people. At this point, despite the fact that she can not read it anymore, I would like to thank her for everything she has done for me - for learning French, thanks to her I am where I am, for the time devoted to me, for those delicious afternoon teas and new acquaintances that I was able to make up.

Thank You Jacqueline for everything!