Jake & Miles' European Excursion

Today we head to the department of Valcluse to answer the age old question: “Which is better - Orange (Valculse, France) or Orange (NSW, Australia).

Theatres

The UNESCO-listed Théâtre antique d’Orange (France) was built in the 1st century AD and was described by Louis XIV as having “the best wall in the empire”. It is the best preserved Roman theatre in Europe, and still hosts events, with upcoming acts spanning all genres.

The Orange Civic theatre is very nice and will be hosting the Orange East Public School’s performing arts festival next month.

The stage wall (plus lighting equipment for tonight’s show)

Jake’s review

It was good. It was great. It was this old place where Romans built a theatre so that they could watch movies and plays. It is one thousand years old or so. I didn’t listen to the audio guide because it was too confusing.

Miles’ review

The theatre was really, really big. It used to have a really really big roof, but it got abandoned for a few years and then burned down. Then an inspector came and they started letting people see the theatre. So if you want to, come down and see the theatre and you can go in it and check it out.

The theatre wall also doubles as climbing equipment

Verdict

“I didn’t know there was a theatre in Orange, NSW” - Jake & Miles

France 1 - NSW 0

Museums

The Orange (France) museum contains artifacts from the Roman empire, including well preserved statues such as this cyclops:

I’ve got my eye on you

They also invite you to play the piano in a room full of renaissance art.

Miles’ review

This is something that is really special over 1,000 years ago. It was really old. If you go to the museum you’ll be able to see all the stuff that I saw.

Jake review

There was a bunch of weird statues from the ancient Roman times. Most of them had two eyes but one was a cyclops. I played a song on the piano. It was good and fun.

Still haven’t been paid for the last gig

Verdict

“I didn’t know there was a museum in Orange, NSW” - Jake & Miles

France 2 - NSW 0

Arc de Triomphe

It’s bigger than it looks in this photo

Jake review

This Arc de Triomphe has lots of weird little symbols. It’s on a roundabout because the cars can’t fit through the middle (the horses could in the olden days). They built the arch because they won a war. That’s why in English it’s actually the arch of triumph.

Miles review

It was great. It was smaller than the one in Paris and you can’t go up it but if you want to go there it’s still really really big and really amazing.

Verdict

“I didn’t know there was an Arc de Triomphe in Orange, NSW” - Jake & Miles

France 3 - NSW 0

Wine

We also visited Domaine Galevan for some spur-of-the-moment wine tasting.

Jake review

The winery was nice. It had good colouring in things. Daddy and Mummy were talking about the history of the winery. Miles did some good colouring in and I was spinning around on my chair. Then we left.

Miles review

It was good. I coloured in Mickey Mouse and then I started doing an activity book while my parents were drinking wine.

Another successful mission

Final verdict

Yes yes, Orange (NSW) has nice wine too. Sonia was unable to choose between the two so we’ll call this one a tie. Final score….

Orange (France) wins 3-0! Thanks for playing!

In Arles

In Arles we went to a really old town that was so old it was BC the Romans took over in 123 BC. In the town we found some little shops and in one of them we had some limonade (translation: cherrynade).

Try some. It’s tasty!

Exactly 80 years from now was when the allies shooed the Germans away from this town. There is a bridge near the old part of the town that got bombed by the allies because the Germans were using them to transport stuff.

You’d think that 80 years would be enough time to fix the only bridge out of town

I went to a museum in le Château de Montauban. I watched a bit of a movie about the places around the château. People were digging because they wanted to find some old horse shoes.

And then I drew a picture of a thingymabob. A lady showed me the an ancient creature from more than 1,000 years ago and it’s extinct now. Here is the picture.

Fantastic beast, circa 14th century, as interpreted by Miles

I went to this ancient city that was really really old, and it looked like it was going to fall on me. I saw some old buildings and a museum, but I didn’t go in the museum because I felt too tired. My dad and my brother went in it and saw Starry Night. Then we had some lemonade.

After that I went shopping and I went in the pool. And then I had some baguette, steak and tomatoes for dinner.

M	ountain biking
O	n a mountain
N	o way you could walk up
T	here is a lolly store!
B	eautiful
L	ovely
A	mazing
N	othing is better than it
C	old

	C	razily fun
	H	igh up
	A	nice place to stay
	M	ountain biking
	O	n lots of mountains
	N	ear other countries
	I	cy glaciers
e	X	treme paragliding