Voltaire voltair and alien antenna

I finally got out of the house today!  It doesn't usually bother me to stay at home, but when i left the house for church this morning i realized how good it was to break free!!!  After yesterday i needed to get out of the house.  Think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.....actually maybe it was more that my face woke up on the wrong pillow!  Not my soft squishy one, but my journal, having fallen asleep writing the night before.  I was doing everything half halfheartedly yesterday basically, plus baby sitting in the evening.  It's a good job the family have an amazing DVD collection to occupy me when a storm is raging outside!

The DVD wall............

There really was a storm raging outside all though the night and morning!  The wind was strong enough to lift the trampoline clean over the garden hedge and across to a plot of land on the other side of the road.  I reckon it's broken now.  The storm meant that the sun had decided after 4 weeks of constant shinning it would give my squinting eyes a break!!!  I've been missing some good English weather, which means hoodies, socks and a first outing for my coat!

I didn't have to sit in morbid silence as i understood nothing of what was being said in Sunday school today!! Yay!!!! Firstly, because there was no YSA Sunday school, so we joined the grown ups.  Secondly, because I got to wear a pair of fetching headphones (along with a couple of other English speaking people) while somebody translated the lesson into English through a microphone which fed into the headphones.  Snazzy huh!?  I know!

The alien antenna........

Of course i looked and felt like an idiot wearing the stupid thing...people looking at you like your mentally deranged is not good for your ego.  I got to understand sacrament meeting too the same way though....it's a good incentive to make me try REALLY hard in my French lessons, which start tomorrow.  I think it's my worst nightmare come true doing these French lessons.  Ever so slightly petrified is how I would describe the feeling that takes me over when I remember that i am signed up to learn French!!!!  Can I strike off No.49 'Do something that scares me' when I've taken a few?  Ah the Greta 'French test' from Monday.....A women spoke to me in French when I arrived to sign in, she saw the look of complete and utter confusion on my face as she spoke and said to skip the test.  I knew taking the test was going to be pointless!  So as I said, I am in the bottom 'beginner's' class.  It's two two hour sessions a week (Monday and Thursday mornings for me). Good luck to me with that!

Onto the little adventure of today then!  A fellow Au pair from Gex ward took me with her to visit the little town of Ferney Voltaire.  This weekend is some kind of celebration, so all the museums and gallery's are open with free admission.  Perfect for keeping the sabbath day holy! HA!  We walked around the town a little to see some points of interest, learning more about the town's founder and famous philosopher Ferney Voltaire!  Who really feels the need to name a town after themselves?!

The two statues....

The sunday market (which is of a far better class than one you would find in the car park of Asda)....

The local church......

A war memorial........

The memorial has something to do with some children getting taking away in the night from all over France?  There was another one inside the chapel too, so there has to be more to it than that.  Sounds a bit too much like the 'Pied Piper' to me though too.  However I we'll endeavor to find out the full story so that i can enlighten you all, and not think that the French base their history's on fairy tales.

Chateau De Voltaire........

And his privet chapel..........

The special commissioned painting........

This painting was the most interesting aspect of Voltaire's house, and i think it says a lot about him.  We learned (form a french girl who was obviously not comfortable speaking English, but she did a good job!) that Voltaire had this painting done as a portrait of himself in a way.  It's based on the Greek Mythology in Rome.  He is depicted as the old man in the middle with two heads as a mortal with his 'Muse', being given a crown by Apollo to make him immortal, a God.  To the right of him and towards the back his bust is being made to be put in line with the other great masters of philosophy, outside the memorial temple.  His enemy's are to the front left and his friends to the front right, being protected by somebody from the evil of the world. So all in all I got the impression that he wanted to be remembered, but not just by his family and friends, by everyone as a master of philosophy.

The sun came out after, so we could take int he grounds.........

However these bugs were EVERYWHERE..........

And finally the view from the front of the house of the garden and the alps (when its a clear day)......

Now I have sussed out this town it's on to the next one!  Don't know what one, but I'll find one!

I'll fill you in after the dreaded French lesson tomorrow!!! Eeeekkkkkk!