On the 23rd of November we went into Paris. First we went to the Arc de Triomphe. It is massive! It has an eternal flame for the unknown soldiers that is re-lit every morning. Then we went up the Eiffel tower. There is 689 stairs to the top (that you can walk to). On the 1st floor, there is a glass floor! It’s very creepy standing on it. We then got a boat to the Notre Dame. We didn’t go inside because there was a huge queue but the outside looks really cool. We tried to get a boat to the Louvre but we missed it and so we walked. We went in through the glass pyramid. First we went to see the Mona Lisa via the Flight of Victory. The Flight of Victory is a statue of a lady with no head or arms but wings. She looks like she is being pushed back by the wind. The Mona Lisa is actually really small. It’s also not as cool as I thought it was. We then went to see the Venus de Milo. It’s a statue of of a lady with no arms found in Greece. We then went to see some paintings. Most of them were of people, but there was a few landscapes and a lion’s face. 

The Arc de Triomphe

The Eiffel tower

Notre Dame

Flight of Victory

Arc de Triomphe

The Eiffel tower looking up from the 2nd floor

Venus de Milo

The Mona Lisa

On the 24th and 25th of November we went to the Somme. The Somme is the World War One battle field. On the 24th we went to a museum in an underground tunnel that was used as an air-raid shelter. There was lots of things that were used in the war like guns, helmets and even a shaving kit! There were carved shell cases and models made out of bullet cases made in the war because the soldiers got bored. On the 25th we stopped at random cemeteries on the side of the road. At every one I put a flower at the big crossing the back of the cemetery. Lots of graves said “A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR, KNOWN UNTO GOD.” It means: Here’s a bit of someone, but we have no idea who it is. We went to a New Zealand missing memorial and signed the book and sang the national anthem. We then went to Thiepval. Thiepval is a giant arch that is covered in all the names off the missing of World War One. It then has heaps of gravestones and crosses at the back. By the first cemetery we went to, we looked in the ploughed field on the other side of the road. We found a live bullet, a shell case, bits of old pipe and bullets. 

Thiepval

A grave stone

Us at the NZ missing memorial

A shell case

A live bullet