End of July/ Beginning of August - Bretagne - 2012

We stopped by Nantes to visit with Cath and Livo and check out the city of Nantes.  We stayed for 2 nights and had a fantastic time.   We sampled some of the local foods, rented one of the city bikes, went for a nice run in the park next to their house and saw the cheapest brocante store ever.  

Afterwards, we took a 1-day tour of the region.   This area is where Fanettes mom's family is from, so she spent a good amount of time here growing up.   She's been excited to visit this area and show me around since we arrived in France.   I must say it is quite beautiful.   It was one of those days when there just didnt seem to be enough time to see all the cool things there were to see along the way.   We stopped at a cool little sea-side town, as well as visited some cool monoliths from the neolithic period. 

Then we headed on to our next farm, where I am writing from now.   Its near a little town called Pleyben.   They have sheep, goats, horses and one cow.   We arrived on sheep shearing day - which is a pretty long day for the woofers, but we arrived half way through it, so it was ok.   Most days here center around the 2x a day goat milking.   Other than that we work in the garden, trim back the fence line going around 100 acres (which seems like the type of job that once its finished, its time to start again) and bake break on Fridays (we made 40+ loaves today).   

There are currently 9 woofers here and another arriving tomorrow.  Wayyyy too many if you ask us.   It seems like a woof factory.  All the woofers are quite nice and we get along with them, although it doesnt seem like the hosts are well set up to co-ordinate quite so many people.  There seems to be quite a lot of confusion over who should be doing what at times.   So that, combined with the fact that one of the hosts is a bit too bossy for our liking, we've decided to leave a couple days early and take a more extended tour of the area and arrive back in Paris a day early to avoid the sunday traffic.   The best thing about this farm is that its the most french speaking place we've been yet. 

Photos to come.

End of July - Paris - 2012

We spent a few days in Paris taking care of some paperwork we needed to do.

Mid July - Rupt sur Moselle - 2012

We took an assignment at a place that was not a farm, but rather a gite (french for villa or bed-n-breakfast) because we really liked the email from the people running the place and the work sounded fun.   They were rehabbing their gite with all natural methods, like using hemp and lime to fix walls and make walls, and mixing their own paint.   In the end we had a ton of fun, and got along great with the hosts.   One of them was a runner so we got some good runs in as well.

Photos to come.

Early July - 2012

After going to the Jean LeMoine farm we visited some friends and family.  We spent some time in Belfort (france) visiting Fanettes grandmother, some time on Besancon (france) visiting Fanettes dad, then some time in Munich (germany) visiting Marcel and Kathi with the unexpected surprise of seeing Keith and his mom, then we headed to Salzburg (austria) to visit with Darren and Ally.   All in all a quick but great trip.    We really wanted to visit everyone while we were nearby.

Photos of the visits with friends.

We also spent some time driving around the region between farms.

Photos of the region and the museum we stopped at.

Again, its been a month since our last update. In an effort to get this blog updated, I'm going to list each farm we've been to with a short description, in reverse chronological order. Then a link to Fanettes photos.

Sorry - we seem to be very bad at updating the blog.   We had this idea that we'd do weekly updates, but its turned out to be far fewer than that.  Finding the time to sit at a desk and type is not so easy when your routine changes a lot.  

Since the last update at Les Costils, we've moved around a bit.   Before leaving Les Costils, we had a visit from our friend Amanda who we worked with in Thailand.   She still lives/works in that part of the world, but came home to the UK for her sisters wedding, and decided to pop over for a quick visit.   And when I say quick, I mean 2-days quick.   But we packed a lot in to those 2 days including a full tour of the farm, a walk over to see Lucilles goats and a night in the Latvian sauna.   Reimons had made a home-made sauna by stacking up a pyramid of rocks and building a fire inside and letting it burn for 2-3 hours.  Then he throws a large plastic tarp over the wooden framework he built around the rock pyramid and dumps scented water all over the rocks.  Viola, instant sauna.   We stay in for a few minutes, the go jump in the freezing lake, then back to the sauna. 

Our last day at the farm was special.   Raimons also made a nice big BBQ on our last day which we were able to enjoy outside on one of the few non-rainy days we'd had so far. 

After Les Costils, we went off to Paris for a couple days and saw our respective dentists and doctors and and then headed off to the east of France.

Fanette really wanted to take a couple assignments out in this part of the country so she could visit her dad and her grandmother, as well as be able to show me the area of the country she grew up in.    We found a farm which had goats, which made it an instant hit with us.  

Jean Le Moine is the name of the farm and it could best be described as a hippie commune, although I hesitate to use that terminology as it makes it sound like I'm making fun of the place.  But in reality its a cute little place on a hillside in the middle of the country.   The house is about 400 years old and built on top of a natural spring, so when we want fresh water, we go in to the basement and fill up a bottle with water so cold it feels like it came out of a fridge. 

The main house is quite large and is accented with almost all recycled materials.  For instance, the fireplace has a mosiac made out of bits of tile and plates, all of the faucet handles come from different places so none match, most of the mirrors have little cracks or imperfections - all little things that would cause most people to get rid of things when they still have a lot of useful life left in them, and when you put them all together, it makes a really incredible house with something new to see around every corner.

The owner Matthais has collected all sorts of stuff to be used for various projects.  There are a ton of old windows around, many of which have been used in some interior rooms, a sun room, or ones waiting to be used for other projects.   In fact, there is so many things around to be used for projects, I could be in heaven staying here for months just building stuff with whats on hand.  

The room that we're staying in is not part of the actual house, its what looks to be an old circus trailer parked out front.   It's made completely of wood (except for the tires) and has a bed, a desk, a wood stove and a front porch and thats about it.   Although it is just the right size where we hung up a sheet and used the mini projector to have movie night in there last night.   Theres also an old truck parked on the land which Matthais arrived here with 17 years ago.   Its used to house volunteers now, but its occupied at the moment so we're in the front trailer. 

Aside from Matthias there is one full time resident, one part time resident, one other volunteer/intern and a few random friends and family members which are here from time to time.   Life on the farm is pretty relaxed.  The goats are milked in the morning, the garden is weeded a bit in the afternoon, and the rest of the time we work on various little jobs around the house.  I was told that there were a few building projects I could choose from, and I decided to tackle building a roof.   All the wood and roofing tiles were here, I just had to find it all, get it all together and get it all up.   Not wanting to leave it unfinished I sort of powered through the job in the first few days so I could make sure it got finished and then took it a bit easier. 

The farm has 3 peacocks on it, 2 of which are male and like to go on the rooftops.   So its safe to say I had my worked checked quite regularly by the birds who gave it their stamp of approval.   It's actually quite cool - all my experiences with peacocks thus far in my life have been seeing them at a distance at zoos - they've never been something I've needed to step over to get inside the house.  

Fanette and I took a half day off yesterday to explore the area seeing as the roof was finished.   We drove around most of the day just checking out all the little villages and farm houses.  Fanette had recently found some new features on her camera which she didn't know about before which resulted in some really amazing photos. 

We'll be leaving here tomorrow, off to spend a few days with Fanettes dad and grandma, and then off to Germany to meet up with friends. 

Photos from Jean LeMoine Farm

Partying with the Latvians

Wow – nearly a month has passed since our last update and the only explanation I can offer is this. You know when you're having a great meal and no one speaks because they're all too busy eating. It's kinda like that. We've been at Les Costils farm for over 3 weeks and its all just been so fantastic that we either haven't had time to write, or we've been having too much fun to write. 

We arrived here in mid-May with plans to stay for 2 weeks.  Les Costils is an organic dairy farm.   The main thing they produce here is organic milk from about 35 cows.  The first thing you notice about this farm is how well-loved all the animals are.  If you watch enough documentaries about how factory farming works, you begin to think that places like Les Costils don't exist.   But they do and they're wonderful.   The cows are left to graze in their pasture all day long, and are brought in twice a day for milking.   Alain, the owner, talks to his cows and cuddles them a little bit too.  He said that when he was learning the ropes about dairy farming, he was working with a guy who really knew what he was doing, but wasn't affectionate towards the cows.   His partner wasn't mean to them, but for him it was just a business and that was all.  Then Alain noticed that on the nights he would do the milking (he and his partner would take turns) the milk production was always higher.  Over the years he has found that the cows absolutely give more milk when they're in a better mood.  It shows when new people start milking, regardless of how gentle they may be - it's still something new to the cows which makes them nervous.  But it's just so wonderful to see a farm run in this way.   

And its not only cows - on the farm there are about a dozen chickens, 4 pigs (and 2 piglets), 2 goats, a bunch of horses, 4 dogs, a cat and a goose who is in love with our car.   Beatrix the goose lost her mate not long ago, and she has fallen in love with her own reflection, which she can see on our dark navy car.  3 of the dogs are large setters, used for helping get the cows in at milking time, and the other one is just large enough to see with the naked eye.   She's a chihuahua mix, which is normally the type of dog I don't like much, but she's great.   The piglets are about the size of kittens and are super cute. 

And all of this provides for some of the best food you've ever had.   We have milk straight from the cow every day.  Rather than going to the store, we tell who ever is on milking duty to fill up a bottle and bring it back.   We've also made fresh cheese and fresh cream from the milk.   The eggs we have are also a day old.   I wanted an omelet the other day, so I went to the coop, grabbed some eggs and made an omelet using the veggies from the garden and our cheese.   We as volunteers have many duties, but the main thing the volunteers do is look after the garden.   It was one of Fanettes main jobs for our first 2 weeks.  Its a nice large garden, just big enough that one person could maintain it, but it would be a full time job.  It's actually better for 2-3 people to maintain it.   The garden isn't used to grow anything for sale - only to provide fresh food for the people on the farm.  We have a huge salad for lunch everyday, usually picked right that day.   There is a never ending supply of the freshest meat you could ever find.   Now, Fanette and I have been trying to cut down our meat eating for the past 2 or so years, but that's mainly because we are against the practices of factory farming.  With this meat, we've been eating more meals with meat in it because we can eat it guilt-free.  :)   Speaking of meals, we have been having some amazing dishes prepared by Rebeka, Alain's wife.  She does some amazing cooking, and using all ingredients which are in-season.   I remarked the other day that a certain dish might have been better with potatoes and she replied that they're not in season.   I think it really is amazing that she cooks such good and varied meals using only whats available locally at this time.   Also, every Friday night is Pizza and beer night.  Rebeka makes some home-made pizzas with hand-made dough and fresh cheese from the farm topped with some greens from the garden.  The beer is a local brew which comes in a bottle with a cork and a hand-drawn label.   It's about as tasty as it is potent.  :)  Fanette is not a beer drinker, so she brought over some wine to drink while we had beer.  Well, when the beer was finished, we attacked her wine.   The Rebeka offered us some of the local liquor called Calvados (it's a type of schnapps).   Once that was gone, Rebeka suggested we get a bottle of wine from the cave.  Now, we had just talked about this wine the day before.  I noticed it while getting something else, that there was a full rack full of wine bottles covered in dust.  When I asked about it, she said it belonged to Alain's parents who lived on the farm before them, but now neither of Alain or Rebeka were big wine drinkers, so in the 10 years which they've lived there, none have been opened.   We decided to try one.   We opened and took a sip - and it was without question, the best wine I've ever had in my life.  We all wondered how old it was, as the year was not on the label, which had fallen off the bottle as we took the bottle out.  I picked up the cork and read it, "St Emeilion, 1960".   1960!!  I was drinking a wine bottled before me.  And I'm old!  We found the old label and although it was very faded, it did in fact say 1960.  Deciding we should not open yet another one, we went back to our little house and finished our $5 box-o-wine and called it a night at 5am with our Latvian friend.

Which leads me to my next two points.  Our house, and the Latvians.  There are 2 guys from Latvia here, one of who came here as a WWOOFer a couple years ago and liked it so much, and was so well liked, that they worked out a way to have him here permanently.  Later, he had a friend come as a woofer and he also stayed, then a couple more came and went, but never more than 2 at a time.  So there is always a Latvian or two here working.   They're great people.  Very fun and very hard working.  They'll stay up until 5am, and then go off working the next day.

And our house.   One nice (and rare) thing about Les Costils is the accommodation.   Les Costils is made up of a few buildings.  The main house where the family lives and where we're invited for big meals, then there is "the loft".   The loft is where WWOOFers normally stay.  Its a big space above the main barn which has been beautifully converted in to a loft space capable of sleeping maybe 8 people.  It has a kitchen, bathroom, and a huge party area which normally has a ping-pong table in it.  As the Latvians were in the rooms there, that meant if we were to go in there, we'd be in the main room with no privacy.   So Rebeka suggested we go in the Garden House, so called because its adjacent to the garden.  It's where the groundskeeper used to live, but he left a year ago and the house has been slowly painted and refinished as people had time.   But as we were a couple, it sort of fit us well.  And we LOVE it.   Its a cute little cottage-y type building, built in the style of the Normandy house.  Not sure how old it is, but maybe about 200 years old.   The main house is 300 years old, so this one is probably not far off.   Rebeka gave us a tour of the house and pointed out some of the work she wanted done.   The floor was poorly painted once with wall paint and was not doing well.   She suggested scraping and re-painting.   I suggested tiles.  They discussed the idea and figured if they have a volunteer who knows how to tile, why not take advantage of that fact and do it.   And there was my big project for my time here.  Scraping the old paint and tiling the main areas of the cottage.  

Earlier, I said our house was 'rare', and that's because at many WWOOF sites, volunteers are given a room in the main house.  Which is just fantastic, but it's not as nice as having a place of your own.  The garden house suits us perfectly.  We all get to see each other all day long and at meals, but in the evening, we can all have our private time.  We liked it so much, we decided to come back for more.   We had some appointments come up in Paris at the doctor and at immigration, around mid-June.   We planned to be in the east of France all of June, but that would mean making a 6-7 hour trip back, rather than a 2 hour trip back, so we changed our plans and stayed here for 2 more weeks.  And we may be changing our plans again.   One of the Latvians is getting ready to go home for an extended stay, and we've been offered the position to replace him.  This will be starting in August.  So from that point on, instead of moving around the country, we will be here for the next year or so.  Its a huge change to our plans, but one we're so happy about.   There is still so much work to be done on the garden house and all around the rest of the farm.  So I will be working as a handy-man mostly, and Fanette will be a farm hand.  She goes milking at least once a day, and tends to the garden or helps with the meals at the other times.  There's always animals to be fed, let out, or put away for the night.  There's aways a lot to do.  And at the end of it all, we sometimes relax in the home-made Latvian sauna, which is another update for another time as it's getting very late here.

WWOOF in Normandy - 2