Continuing fruit trees and visiting Cathar country

Before the work continued for the second week we had a weekend off to explore a bit. This started by visiting the two Renees (there is Renees- Les- Bains and Renees-Le-Chateau). The former is supposed to be a spa town that apparently has been raided by the great unwashed who used the baths for a bit more than just washing (use your imagination) and led to them being closed for quite a while, and the commercial spa was closed for winter. The town was pretty dead when we visited although we were told that there was an internet cafe there (which is why we went). We discovered that this was in fact shut but were reliably informed by some helpful locals in a tea shop that if we sat outside a particular hotel in the car we could use their wifi – bingo! The other Renees is apparently the place that inspired the writing of the Di Vinci Code and while most of it was shut up for the winter it did have a Glastonbury high street type feel about it. I think it has become a hang out for all things alternatively weird and wonderful. It also had some nice views although the weather wasn’t that great and prevented us from seeing a lot.

The church at Renees le Chateau that famously (apparently!) inspired the Da Vinci Code

Tegan fairly uninspired by any air of mystery at Renees le Chateau

We also visited some amazing gorges – Gorges de Galamus and some Cathar castles. We went up to Peyrepertuse (apperently closed in January but you can still see everything that you would pay to see, but for free!) and spied a few others on the way. It was a shame that we didn’t have such nice weather as these castles were pretty amazing, all ruined and teetering on giant pieces of rock. We also did a fair bit of driving around the place just looking at the scenery, some of it really spectacular.

Crazy roads along the gorges

Tegan having a little leg stretch at the top of the gorge.

Peyrepertuse

Back to work again we went back to the orchard (or what will be one day). I never really thought that planting fruit trees would be such an involved process, but it seems that if ya want organic loveliness in your apples, apricots, plums etc ya gotta put the effort in! The new trees once planted needed surrounding with muck (horse pooh), leaf mould (that we had collected from the forest) and loads of straw, which was all quite fun to do. We then had to work on the 17 fruit trees that had been planted last year which involved weeding around them, adding muck, leaves and straw again. Surprising as it sounds this took us pretty much all week. It was quite satisfying at the end of the week to see our achievements (and feel our aching limbs – who needs to do aerobics?).

Hard at it with the straw

Moving the straw on the tarpaulin with a tiny helper (Fabien not Tegan)

The last couple of days of work though involved trying to clear the hole for the reservoir from brambles and clematis which have “roots of all evil” as we dubbed them. This hole was dug last year and has been work in progress for a while, but before any lining to hold the water can go in there need to be no plants to grow into it. Andy has been helping Ivan with the water engineering side of creating a functioning reservoir (I saw some spread sheets being talked about one evening) and I helped with the weeding. However it was decided after a few hours of weeding that this was a bit of a loosing battle and that a machine of some sort was needed to do some proper earth moving. Phew!

The digging did continue though on the terraces (or what will be terraces) with even more brambles and clematis (isn’t that what people grow up the side of their houses?!). I got the quite enjoyable job of slashing with a thing that looks like a machete (but with a blunt end) and I think is called a grass cutter. We managed to clear quite a bit of the ground before it was time to down tools and start to pack up for the next bit of our journey.

Slasher Jewell

Tegan has had a lovely time here and has spent a lot of time playing with Fabien both inside and outdoors. Often this involved Tegan bossily walking around and getting up to mischief and Fabien dutifully following. It was quite sad to say goodbye especially when Tegan gave him a lingering kiss and they looked like they were a sort of mini couple! We were also quiet sad to go as we had had such a great time with the family. All good things must come to and end and so it is off to Spain. Actually I am writing this from a hotel room in Girona so we are already here and off to Tarragona this afternoon. So far so good – watch out Spain!

Story time

Hiding under the table

 

Playing trains

How many pairs of gloves is it sensible to travel with?

We finally made it to our next destination in Aude after several days delay because of the snow. Having laughed at everyone at home in the UK under several inches of snow we had to stop smirking quite so hard when we heard that our host at Arques in Aude was snowed in. When we first heard this we stopped packing up and took a brief look at the weather forecast before realising that we too were “snowed in”. “Snowed in” is actually a bit of a relative term we realised as at my aunt and uncle’s home in the Lot et Garonne this actually meant hard icy snow on the road – bad idea to drive, but possible. In Aude this meant 1 metre snow drifts, making life slightly more problematic! Impatience eventually got the better of us and we set out towards Arques, managing to get to the edge of the village where our host Ivan came to pick us up in his not quite 4 wheel drive car, complete with all important snow chains.

We left the car where it was, hoping that any potential car thieves (not massively present in the middle of nowhere in rural France) would also be deterred by the snow. Fortunately it was still there the next day when we were given a lift down to get it, by which time we had settled in a bit and made friends with our new host family – a family of 5 from the UK, headed up by Klair and Ivan and livened up by three boys, the youngest of which is Tegan’s age. Tegan has taken to calling these three her boyfriends and seems to have slotted in fine showing up all her best tomboy qualities! The plethora of toy tractors, cars and things to pull, push and ride has made Tegan enormously happy, and consequently walking around the place has become a pretty hazardous activity.

Unpacking in our nice sized (but pretty cold) room has revealed that we have no less than 18 pairs of gloves – how can this be? We have between us 2 pairs of work gloves, 2 pairs of gardening gloves, 2 pairs of cycling gloves, 2 pairs of ski gloves (clearly we anticipated snow!), one pair of fingerless mittens, one pair of woolly gloves, two pairs of waterproof (or not as the case may be) gloves, one pair of rubber gloves (not too sure why), and five pairs of gloves that Tegan has and all but refuses to wear! I wonder if this is some kind of record………………….?

Anyway after 10 days of being here we can safely report that all is going very smoothly indeed, and that our hosts are not only really lovely and friendly but are so far people we have clicked with the best. We have spent most of the time preparing ground for new fruit trees which has involved marking circles in the ground (not of the crop circle variety), strimming the grass and then digging up the earth. This was made a lot easier by Ivan starting the job with his digger (oooh how pleased was Tegan when she saw that!?) and then we broke the ground up further with a mattock and greillenette. The greillenette is basically a two handled fork that breaks up the ground in quite a satisfying way as you can jump on it and push it and pull it, and it doesn’t break like a normal fork (at least not yet………..). This work took several days and is pretty back breaking but was worth it as the fruit trees have finally gone in today and we feel quite pleased with ourselves. I also built a fence around one of the trees (a mulberry, planted outside the main field) to stop the wild boar chomping it – haven’t seen one yet but apparently they are quite determined creatures when it comes to foraging for food. We have also collected a load of straw for said trees– we filled the back of Ivan and Klair’s van with it today. This turned out to be a lovely job as it was beautifully sunny and warm today (which also meant our first outside lunch for ages!). This is in contrast however to most of the rest of the time which has been a bit hit and miss weather wise.

Collecting straw

Trying to use the rake

The Mulberry tree in it’s new enlosure

The field of trees

We have managed to do quite a bit of work though – insulating the garage ceiling with some shiny bubble wrap (so that it looks a bit like a spaceman has been plastered to the ceiling), stacking wood and a bit of cooking on the rainy days. Collecting leaves (for leaf mould compost) and wood from the forest and picking and chopping parsley on the slightly nicer days. We have felt pretty productive here actually, which has a lot to do with the fact that Tegan is easily entertained by her new playmate Fabien. They seem to be very content to run around after each other and be watched by each others’ parents and generally share in the same mischief making. It is really nice to see Tegan with another 2 year old as she hasn’t until now had a chance so far to be around kids of her own age. Of course this means that there are two toddlers in the same space which can be a bit manic but there seems to be a sort of solidarity in the madness!

We plan to stay here for another week and then head to Spain. There are quiet a few things lined up for next week, including building some garden terraces and Andy and Ivan’s project to build a reservoir. Methinks that there is not really enough time to do all these things, which is a real shame as we have had such a good time here. We have also learnt a few things about gardening that we may try to take home with us (yes to our teeny garden!) since Ivan and Klair are market gardeners and seem to know all that clever stuff about when to plant things and what pots to use and how to prune things. Unfortunately the Jewell Ware combo thus far has only undertaken the type of gardening that involves dashing into B&Q in June and buying things that should’ve been planted in March but shoving them in a pot anyway to see what happens! This approach has not been entirely without success but watch out Bristol, we may actually become productive gardeners one day! 

Putting our feet up for Christmas and making plans for the next place…………

Happy New Year to everyone – a new decade, wow, how did that creep up on us?! We spent New Year’s Eve sat in front of a giant TV (with lots of remote control things at our disposal!) drinking champagne and seeing in both the French and then the English new year. Not because we especially wanted to see Jules Holland singing Aude Lang Sine, but because the champagne was crying out to be finished.

We have been staying at my aunt and uncle’s house for the last week or so while they have been back at home in the UK. It has been a real change to be back in a fully heated house, with all mod cons and so nice to have some space to ourselves. We have been mainly relaxing and not doing a great deal which is strange but a welcome chance to be a bit lazy.

We also spent Christmas at my Grandparents house nearby, which was also a nice break and great to catch up with the news (both family and world) and generally recharge the batteries.  We couldn’t help ourselves though when there was an invitation to burn some rubbish in the garden and to erect a new compost heap! Father Christmas brought Tegan loads of goodies and since it was her birthday too she has some great new things to play with, read and wear. We are now trying to work out how to fit all these nice new things into the already overflowing car………….

Presents!

We have also been doing a few small day trips around the area, including a nice day out to Limeuil in the Dordogne at the confluence of the Dordogne and Vezere.

 

Playing by the river

Medieval phone box………

The other thing about having this time and space is that we have been able to plan our next WWOOFing steps. We are off to a family near Carcassonne next for three weeks. After that we are not too sure and slightly torn between the idea of going to Spain for a month (just because we can!) and going further east in France. We did have a place organised for February back in the Haute Pyrenees, but have since discovered that the accommodation is not that child friendly. Our last WWOOF in March is all sorted, so it’s just a question of what we do in between. That is the nature of this WWOOFing lark, so many possibilities but it does mean that things change constantly which presents both challenges and problems and new opportunities. Tegan copes really well with the changes and different places and we always have food for thought for the type of lifestyle we have chosen for ourselves over these last few months. With this brief flirt again with “reality” and catching up with family and friends in the middle of our WWOOFing project we have discovered that while we feel less and less hippy -certainly in comparison to some of the true blue – purple? (what colour are they I wonder) hippies that we have met, we seem to be simultaneously making our friends and family think we are more hippy – strange world!

A few favourite photos……………

Reflections in the playground

View from the Col de Tourmalet

Strange clouds over Sarancolin

View from our picnic spot just down from Pic du Midi

Our beautiful plessis!

Pont de Herault

View over the Cevennes

Funky wood

Cirque de Navasalles

Carcassonne castle

On our way to La Fargassa from the steep and windy road

Red sky at night from La Fargassa

Harbour wall at Coilluire

Coilluire beach

Arty farty garden photo

Rocks on a walk up the valley nearby

View of the Roc de San Salvador

Driving down to Amelie les Bains after the snow