Off to the next WWOOF………….

We are off today to St.Etienne d’Albagnan in Herault for our next WWOOF, which we think (you can never be completely sure!) will involve picking various plants and making herbal teas (mainly drying and processing to make a product rather than brewing and sipping).

We have had a great last couple of days here, with amazing weather. Would like to say that it is like summer at home, except summer at home seems to be wet and cold these days, so it is not like summer at home at all! Anyway, we are leaving behind blue skies and warm sun, and hopefully moving on before the snow gets here.

Our greatest achievement in the last couple of days is probably the making of a plessis – the border/small fence thing for the sort of terraced garden they have here in the Pyrenees. We have no idea if we are ever going to be able to use this new found stick weaving technique, but it was fun doing it. The hardest part was probably driving an iron bar into the ground to make the holes for the stakes – my arms are still aching now! Below are some photos which hopefully will make sense of what we are talking about.

Xavier (our host) and Helene mid plessis making

Andy filling in the earth.

The finished job! Just add plants and voila………

Tegan has had a few more chances to explore and has been loving the sunshine. She has perfected her French to include merci, bonjour and bonsoir – not bad. We have added a few more words to our vocabulary, mainly connected to tools and gardens, I’m sure we can worry about the grammar later!

Tegan and Elise (our mini host) soaking up the sun.

Week two of the WWOOFING experience

 

We are clocking up experiences pretty quickly at our Sarrancolin base. Things are also becoming a bit more intuitive as we get to know our hosts better. The weather has not been as good as it was, but we still think we are doing quite well for October, and had to apply sun cream at least once during the week!

So, activities and new experiences accomplished? Lets see…………………I made edible bread for the first time all by myself. This is actually a major achievement as despite careful explanations by a load of different people I have systematically failed to ever make a decent loaf. Ha! Ready to open a boulangerie now though.

Andy seems to have been doing a lot of different things with wood, starting with shifting an enormous pile of dead chestnut tree wood from the middle of a field to near the house and ending up cutting points with an axe on chestnut tree stakes to make them into, well stakes. I tried this and suffice to say that I hope I don’t get stuck on a desert island with only an axe to use, couldn’t get it to chop properly at all – maybe it was a duff axe. In between there’s been unloading of a truck of wood which we have both done, dragging branches of hazel trees down from the field into the garden – these are for “plessis” – no idea what the word is in English but they are for little fence like things around the veggie patches. Andy has also been hacking down a load of broom trees that have handily been growing right in the middle of one of the fields, think this may have been one of his most onerous tasks yet! I think him and Xavier have also finally finished adding barbed wire to the fences in the field – something I did some of last week – not that easy as barbed wire is quite difficult to unravel and hurts!

I have been doing some more in the garden – planting hazelnut and elder flower trees, putting donkey dung on strawberries and picking various vegetables. We have still got Tegan hard at work collecting apples (she won’t make much of a farmer though as she eats most of the apples she gets her hands on). We have both been doing some DIY – mainly helping put in a marble work top in the kitchen which looks rather cool, although there were some quite surprising techniques employed, including sticking panels of marble to the wall with silicone sealant. I also got the job of sanding down an old cupboard that was in the barn – an activity that proved to be short lived due to a lack of sandpaper. There are just some things that cannot be hunted for in the forest! 

Most exciting part of the week has to be a trip to a spa in a nearby town. This was an impromtu afternoon off as it was raining and our hosts were both busy with other things so they suggested we go there. After weighing up the work vs play options for a millisecond, we gladly went in hunt of the bubbles and sauna at Balnea http://www.balnea.fr/. This proved to be an amusing venture even before we hit the jacuzzi as Andy was forced to buy a pair of Speedo trunks at the entrance as his normal swimming shorts were deemed “interdit” on the grounds of hygiene. This fashion was indeed prevalent throughout the pool inside sported by quite a few blokes who just shouldn’t have been allowed to wear such skimpy swimwear - hygiene obviously doesn’t include psychological trauma to the eyes! Tegan had a fab time though and lasted a whole hour playing in the bubbly pool and bobbing around in the “escargot” (snail) pool - plenty long enough for the parents to chill out.

Tegan has by and large had a good time so far, and loves being outdoors, having different things to play with and is eating her way through loads of things we have never tried her with. However, living with two other kids older than her and not belonging to us has definitely had it’s pro and cons. We have tended to work one of us with the host and one of us looking after Tegan and often helping with the kids or doing activities that are compatible with looking after Tegan (such as collecting apples). It is quite fascinating to see how other people look after their kids (especially ones that are home schooled) and also quite amazing to discover how this can be so different from our own ideas of what Tegan needs. There seem to be a whole load of stresses though associated with home schooling children in an isolated environment that mean there are plenty of opportunities for tantrums.  We did begin to worry that Tegan may think such episodes may have had something to do with her – so we have been taking her off for some Tegan time, (often taking her in the backpack for walks), which she seems pleased with. She is very keen on the idea of having her own walking stick and with her oh so cool Mothercare (boys) ankle boots looks the proper trekker! These are experiences that we feel sure she will benefit from, and most importantly enjoys. While she loves watching what Elise and Lucian do, it is hard to tell someone else’s kids off, and difficult to work around the “progressive” attitude to letting kids play with fire and knives for example, when our intuition is to say “no” and “that’s dangerous”.

We had another day off today and went to visit Spain, as you do. It just being down the road we thought we would go and check it out and went to a couple of different villages to have a look. Stopped at the last village in France on the way for some lovely gallettes (pancake things) – Tegan decided to have a bit of a excited toddler moment in the restaurant and we made a fairly hasty retreat! We drove up and down some pretty amazing passes and valleys and took in the lovely scenery of autumn trees and Pyrenean towns. I think the fog somehow added to the ambiance, although did stop us getting many good photos or any nice views from the top.

Generally speaking we have had a great time here in the Haute Pyrenees, although there has been a fair amount of housekeeping work this week (rather a lot of washing up and cooking) and the interesting activities and things that are new to us seem to be drying up. We thought we would stay here for 2 weeks to start with and then see, and we have decided that we will stay ‘till mid week next week and then move to our next venture! I am not sure what we have learned, but we have had a good time and seen that our hosts while fairly unusual for France share some of the values we do and have proved to be interesting people. It is also good to remember that learning also includes finding out more about things that you do not want to do in the future or embrace in a big way. And appreciate that we have a pretty good life in Bristol! 

A day off in the mountains

Tegan trekking through the Pyrenees

 

Helene and Tegan having a snack

 

Beautiful scenery up here

The laid back approach

A few photos from week 1

The end of week 1

So, we have survived week one of the WWOOFING experience, intact, happy, rather relaxed and even a bit sunkissed! It feels like we have got the hang of the place we are living in, have got to know the family and how the house runs which is probably the key to making sure the experience is a good one. The old rambling house turns out to be one full of surprises - Xavier had his own marble business and in fact the kitchen and bathroom have some amazing bits of marble "furniture" (sinks etc). There is also an amazing power shower (also in marble) and Wifi in the house, two things that just seem to make life a little nicer. Also makes me realise what I consider to be some of my own comforts (Andy has just said he didn't really notice the shower). The food I would say is unusual and things are often eaten day after day until they are finished, a bid to not waste anything, which in general had not been a problem as there are usually several things on the go at once. I think I am rather lucky being a veggie as the French are not renowned for embracing vegetarianism, but it has not been an issue at all here. So it is a little bit like a womble palace where nothing seems to get thrown away or wasted (hence the stuff everywhere type feeling - yes, and I am one to talk!) but also with quite a few creature comforts. The central heating doesn't work, but there is a lovely log fire. And we have been so lucky with the weather - lovely and hot every day (except the first one where I spent the morning gardening in the rain). We also have the room above the kitchen above the fire which makes it quite cosy. The bed is warm and I think generally we have everything we need. Our hosts are easy to get on with and we have discovered that they are happy to share a glass of wine with us (lucky my aunt and uncle gave us a box of wine to take with us!). We have spent a couple of evenings chatting to our hosts after the kids have gone to bed and getting to know them a bit better. It is a really good feeling to break the ice over a few glasses of wine and make each other laugh (even if it is often over our use of each others' languages). I get the impression that for France their choice of lifestyle is way out there, but actually from a UK perspective they are not so unusual, apart maybe from living in such an isolated space. So, what have we actually been doing? Well, between us Andy and I have harvested green beans, parsely, mint, apples, walnuts, chestnuts; collected a load of fire wood; erected a few hundred metres of various types of fence - wire mesh, barbed wire, electric wire. There are 2 donkeys and sheep on the land - these all seem to have the function of mobile lawn mowers and generally seem to take care of themselves. Andy and Xavier also built a wood shed for all the firewood. We have also washed up, cooked (I did a Nepali curry yesterday) and generally helped round the house and looked after all the kids(sometimes pretty hard work). Tegan has been mostly playing (with/alongside or without Elise and Lucien), but also helping us to gather fire wood, apples and walnuts. She has had her monents of feeling a bit insecure and hasn't had so many daily sleeps, although has been sleeping well at night. She can say merci and bonjour and despite the fact she calls Lucien "Lucy" and Elise "Ellen" she seems to get on reasonably well with the children. We found time for an afternoon off yesterday afternoon where we went down the 14 hairpin bends to the local village of Sarrancolin and the village up the valley of Arreau. Both very pretty places, particularly so in the sun. In fact the majority of the week has been bright blue skies and in this weather the mountains and view from here looks absolutely amazing. We have the whole day off tomorrow so we may go exploring a bit further afield. It is definately not that easy living in someone else's space, but it seems like we have worked out how we fit in to a greater or lesser extent. Tegan seems happy with the large amount of places to play and things to do and is starting to settle into the way we are managing out time. It is quite different having so much time to spend with her, but definitely a positive thing. We showed her photos of all her grandparents today and she named them all without hesitation, and didn't seem upset, so it probably feels a bit like another one of our crazy holidays to her. And onto week two..........

The first experience of WWOOFING

We left Orleans the next morning for a couple of days with my Grandparents in the Lot et Garonne. They were most excited to see Tegan (and probably us) and gave us a comfy bed and familiar surroundings for a couple of nights. The weather was amazing - suddenly had to excavate all our summer clothes we had brought just in case. Tegan loved the space (they have half a field as a garden) and discovered apples, hazelnuts and figs to chomp on - a good sign for encouraging harvesting activities at first destination. So we travelled the further 4 hours or so almost to the border of Spain to Sarrancolin in the Haute Pyrenees. Finding the village was pretty easy, and finding the road to the house was pretty simple too, but those 14 bends - they weren't wrong! We turned right out of Sarrancolin town up a steep and bendy road and saw a few houses - looks nice I thought, but we had yet to count a bend. We started counting, and stopped when the road turned into a track which we bumped along in a steadily upwards direction. Were we really going to be staying at the top of a mountain! Well, nearly......we turned the last corner to see a house with a cliff behind it and two adults and two small children hovering about in front of it. These were indeed Paula and Xavier, and their two kids Lucien (4 next week) and Elisse (6). This was an amazing, top of the world feeling - surrounded by space and the most beautiful views. Paradoxically, we felt constrained. It seemed as if our travelling on the open road through France had come to an abrupt halt in an old stone house at the top of a mountain. This was also "it" where we now had to face up to what we were about to actually do. Once we had exchanged pleasantries in a mix of English and bad French we placated Tegan (again pretty tired) with the selection of cars and various other bits of toys that Lucien was playing with in the grainy sand pit in front of the house. We also gave the family some hazelnuts that we had picked at my Grandparents house, which Lucien loved and seemed to be a good ice breaker. We went inside to look at the room which was up a rather rambling set of wooden stairs and contained two futons, two lamps (the main light wasn't working), a ropey chest of drawers and some bits of cardboard box stuck to the ceiling (I'm still not sure what for). The rest of house was similarly rambling, cluttered and unfinished looking. I do remember a slight sinking feeling at this point (even our house felt organised and tidy by comparison!). We were given a tour of the gardens and explained our main WWOOFing duties, which seemed to vary from picking and collecting various items to digging up repairing others - could be interesting. We quickly discovered that the flowers in the garden (and quite a few other things) were not just in fact weeds but got eaten, and that pretty much everything had a purpose. Keeping an open mind I agreed to the idea of eating some of the blue flowers in a salad for dinner! Andy started his first bit of work by picking beans while I looked after Tegan. I was feeling pretty tired by this point and keeping Tegan occupied seemed to be turning into a daunting task. But then we were served some lovely moule paella and flower and leaf salad (not to sure what the leaves were!) with all the family and Tegan on her second round of moules for the week sat in a thoughtfully provided highchair seemed quite at home. We put Tegan to bed and then sat up by the open fire for a bit before hitting the futon at about 9pm - the earliest I have been to bed for a long time!

On we go 8th October 2009

The only downside to this expensive hotel (which we were happy to splash out on thanks to a pretty generous leaving present from my work colleagues) was the 17 Euro buffet breakfast (each)the next morning – how much for a few bread rolls and mini croissants?! Should’ve gone back to last night’s bar and the boulangerie opposite it– note to anyone reading this (I hope there are at least a couple of you) – breakfast is a rip off (the rest of the hotel though is lush). Once packed up (we have a LOT of stuff so this takes time) we started off down south, me driving, Andy navigating. Noticed a slight groaning from the car as we went into LeClerc supermarket to get petrol, Andy mentioned something about bearings (pretty sure he wasn’t talking about his sense of direction), but I am sure it will all be fine.......At least the weather is all nice again. Felt a bit like I was in Lincolnshire as it was all flat, but with pointy houses. All very nice and picture postcard, for a while at least until Andy pointed out the “Salon Erotique” (or something like that) billboard on the side of the road– not sure if the villages around Lille have some hidden secrets or if this was just the work of some over excited entrepreneur who hadn’t done his market research very well. Onwards and southwards, pit stop at an overpriced Aire (Tegan found some snails to play with so was happy), and a quick call to the first WWOOFing hosts to check in and get directions. Apparently she told Andy something about 14 hair pin bends, I shall wait to see exactly what this means.....I got a call form the ditsy estate agent at home asking whether we had a gas certificate (the one that she has two copies of, somewhere, I hope) – hope this is not a bad sign. Our next bit of joyful travelling took us round Paris,..........I devised a careful route around the outside, thought I had a good idea of the road numbers and Andy tried to follow my directions. Tegan amused herself by saying goodbye to everything she could see “bye mummy coat, bye plane, bye Teggie sock” and so on. Amazingly we only took one wrong turn, but what a nightmare! Do French town planners have a part of their job description that entails randomly changing road numbers, and in collaboration with the map designers start one road, make it disappear and then reappear on another part of the map. The whole journey round Paris was a complete mystery to me, and I had the map. We eventually decided Orleans should be the place to stop for the night and found ourselves a nice basic Formula 1 “hotel”. Bit like an aeroplane in it’s compactness, but did the job. And there was a nice place serving moules frites across the road. Tegan had her first taste of moules and seemed to love them (soft , squishy and not that dissimilar from snails I suppose). She is also showing a bit of a passion for French bread.....

Off we go! 7th October 2009

We are finally on our way! The white cliffs of Dover (or rather the soggy grey lumps of hillside) are beginning to fade into the distance in a meaningful way. I would like to claim a kind of nostalgic feeling for this moment once aboard our hopefully trusty SeaFrance vessel. However, as it was drizzling hard and Tegan was threatening to climb out of her highchair in search of entertainment beyond the salade nicoise it sort of passed in a “there goes England” kind of way.One hour or so later we are in an even wetter Calais – how come the French always get to complain about our weather! Torrential is the best word to describe the wet stuff coming from the sky as we surfed our way along the Autoroute towards Lille, and our posh hotel for the first night.Andy had the onerous task of taking the wheel, while I thought about the next place to do a nappy change as Tegan had thoughtfully waited until just before getting in the car to pop out a triumphant whopper of a pooh. Alas, she had fallen sound asleep while I considered the options, and only woke up just before we arrived at “La Howerderie http://www.lahowarderie.com/.So, we arrived at our plush pad of luxury with one rather tired and irritable toddler, complete with very sore bum. Not quite the “at last we’re here” fall on the huge bed with a large beer kind of moment I had imagined! However, all was soon solved by discovering the “Au Calice” bar and pizzeria down the road. We rejected the posh restaurant at the hotel in favour of the “not real pizza” described to us by Madame at the hotel. The pizza turned out to be excellent and washed down with a couple of Belgian beers each, we were warmed up and calmed down enough to try our French on the locals. The bar man and woman (who had twin 5 year old daughters) seemed to understood what was needed for a small, travelling and pretty tired Tegan, and the two blokes at the bar were probably too drunk to notice our agrammatical French anyway.We left there an hour or so later to put little T to bed and go and drink champagne in the bath (what a treat!).