BnB fun

It[s been a while since I wrote, a week maybe? Work's pretty tiring here, although I have the afternoons off to do as I please - saying that, I have been doing a lot of translation stuff out of my work hours because Jan needs her new website to be up and running, so she's making the most of my language skills. Her next helper, who'll be here next Sunday, is a website manager, so hopefully that will make a big difference.
It's really lovely here, I love it. The work in the mornings is DIY jobs. This week's tasks have included: varnishing a stone table with linseed oil (it's what you use for porous surfaces), plastering cracks on the staircase, removing old gluey stuff from the roof and scraping it clean (now we're trying to figure out how to use the glue gun to fill in the gaps), putting up a bed curtain in one of the rooms, organising leaflets into different categories (sports, art, wine, etc), weeding the garden, hoovering...
And we're also doing a lot of cooking. Stuffed peppers, onion soup, chicken with avocado in peanut-butter and coconut sauce, loads of delicious salads (veg is so fresh here), risotto, ice-cream, bread and butter pudding, rhubarb crumble, and the list goes on. Jan is making strawberry jam at the moment, she made some banana and date jam this afternoon too.
So to burn off all thse calories, I try to do something active active every day - although the work here can be quite physical. I either cycle somewhere or go for a walk. There are loads of walks in the area, we have some leaflets with different walks, their level of difficulty, number of kms etc, so I'm trying to go through them. Today I did a 13 km one that was meant to take 3h45mins but as I got lost three times it took me about 5 hours. My worst mistake was probably when it said to cross the river and I took the wrong turning and saw there were no stepping stones or anything, so I took my boots and socks off and crossed it, water up to my knees. Then realised it was the wrong route completely, and had to cross back. But it was really nice anyway, the sun was shining, and there was plenty to look at.
We've just had dinner outside and finished with some walnut bread, cheese and really nice wine. Could I ask for more? Feeling pretty lucky at the moment. Trying to do some reading amidst all the translation - Jan has loads of good books. I'm reading To Kill a Mockingbird, finally, but also reading bits about this book about Lewis Carroll (remember my presentation on his photos of children?) and one about Oscar Wilde. It's great, although I don;t know how, time just flies here, so the days end without me realising and I just want to stop time.
I've booked a hotel for 3 nights in May, cause I've left a week out of work to chill out and visit Provence, which is meant to be beautiful. But before that I;m working at a vineyard near Bordeaux, so probably more branches needing attaching!
I've been meaning to send postcards but we hardly ever leave the village - we went to the cinema the other night and it was such a culture shock, we were surrounded by masses of people and teenagers, and when you're living in a more or less isolated village you just forget that civilisation exists, it's a very strange feeling. But, sitting out in the evening listening to the birds and the frogs.. I wouldn't change that for the world.

Surprise surprise

Well, it's been a while since I wrote, and I'm happy to announce, I'm back on an English keyboard, yay! Only thing is, I've kind of gotten used to the French one but anyway. So, lots of news! I'm now in a new place - a really cute BnB called Colours of Pays Cathare; it's in the minute village of Verzeille near Carcassonne, so haven't moved too far. It's still beautiful out here, only it's not as flat, so the vines are planted in slopes which offer some wonderful scenery. The lady who runs the BnB is called Jan and she's from near Milton Keynes, but moved here 6 years ago and started the Chambres d'H^otes from scratch. She's decorated the whole place herself and done the manly jobs such as the plumbing, tiling etc, amazing. She's really kind and cooks really well, so I'm definitely going to get fat. Plus, when there are guests here the breakfast consists of croissants and pain au chocolat, so you know what's gonna happen with any leftovers.
So my job here is to help her with preparing breakfast for the guests - but there aren't that many at this time of year so I'll be helping with DIY jobs and decoration around the house. There's some painting jobs to be done which I'm looking forward to. What I'm working on at the moment is sandpapering some wood bits on the upstairs room and varnishing them - it's nice to be doing something different from pruning vines, and living here feels like luxury after being at the farm.
So, on Friday I visited the nearby town of St Hilaire, which has a very impressive abbey, and which is said to be the place where Blanquette was first discovred. Now, Blanquette is a kind of local sparkling wine made from a particular type of grape only found in this area. It's really delicious and the sweet variety tastes a bit like cider, only a bit more refined. I'm going to be using the bike a lot because there are loads of beautiful villages scattered around the area and the roads are pretty quiet. So I came back, had dinner with Jan and started getting things ready because there were some guests arriving that night, from Spain. I was going to be able to use my Spanish, Jan said. So, at half 9 in the evening I hear the gate, look through the window, and I see my Mum walking up through the garden. Ha. Yep, it was my parents coming to pay me a visit - pretty convenient that I was staying at a BnB! So that was lovely and I was in a state of shock for most of the weekend. They enjoyed being served by me at breakfast, although I did sit down with them and pinch their pain au chocolat. We had a really nice weekend although I felt guilty not working for Jan at all, since we were out all the time, but I'd get the weekend off anyway. So we went to Carcassone to the food market and that was great; bought loads of fresh fruit and veg for a very reasonable price. Had lunch in The Cite, which is the old part of Carcassonne, where the castle and the old city walls are. It was nice to be out not worrying about spending money, and also having some company! After that we drove for a while trying to find a Cave (wine cellar) where we normally buy Blanquette from, and they bought some cartons to take back to Spain. That night we had dinner at this nice restaurant on top of a hill, and the views were super, and there was a beautiful sunset and some horses who wouldn't eat my biscuits. Today we went to another Cave at 10 am, and tasted another couple of wines... Then they took off, they had a long journey ahead of them.
It was great to see them, but I missed them for the rest of the day.
Jan and I went for a walk in the mountains this afternoon and there were beautiful views overlooking the hills, the vines, the tiny villages and the ever present electric windmills.
I'm really glad I'm here.

Matchpoint

I wasn't going to write today since it's late and I'm pretty tired but I don't like writing about 2 days in the same entry as I forget to write some of the things I've done. Today was a super active day. I worked in the morning, tidying the stables - the goats are arriving tomorrow. So I had to do some weeding. I had to clear a corner of the yard completely covered in thorns, that took me a while. It was nice working in the garden doing something unrelated to vineyard-work. We found an old washing-machine hidden under the thorns.
After lunch I walked to the nearby town of Laure Minervois - but got there at 3pm so everything was shut, and the Boulangerie doesn't open on Tuesdays anyway :(
So I walked back to the farm and picked some flowers on the way back for the kitchen. It was still really sunny; so I decided to get the bike and cycle to Caunes, where I knew the Boulangerie doesn't close on Tuesdays. I bought myself a croissant aux amandes (so so yummy and calorie-packed) and an apple pie for Marie and François. I also bought some tobacco for the guys, they smoke like chimneys. This is pretty much the only money I've spent since being here, incredible.
I cycled back and it was really great so be up on a bike again. When I got back Martin suggested a tennis match (there's a court not far from us) and that was really fun too. I haven't played in so long, so I made a fool of myself but Martin said it was ok because I kept laughing, and not getting angry instead.
So all in all it's been quite a sporty day - very much needed after all the bread and butter I'm eating here.
Tomorrow's my last day here. How fast time goes by.

Fil d'enfer

Today was a hard day, I worked all day. I worked with Pierre-Malaud (who I now call "Pima") and we had to insert the "fils de fer", or iron threading, all along the vineyards for support. This entailed a lot of iron handling which is really tough on your hands and a lot of walking to and fro to get the threading unloose. Poor Pima has aweful hands, all rough and dry from all this kind of work - I'm going to try and persuade him to put some hand-cream on. He's also really nice to work with, patient and understanding- but I feel so useless sometimes, I'm obviosuly not as skilled or "at ease" in this type of manual work. Had a lovely conversation with him while we had a break. He told me he studied Enginnering, and was in fact an enginner near Paris for a couple of years but realised he hated it and decided to turn his life around completely and start working in agriculture. He said the world of work is rotten by the notion of money and that he thinks it really sad to be doing something you don't really enjoy just to support yourself. So he's happy to be working here and learning about agriculture without being paid at all. It's kind of funny. To imagine him working as an engineer... you should see him _ he's got long curly hair and a very untidy beard, walks barefoot most of the time and weards tattered clothes. But he seems so happy doing this now.
Also; I drove today! I asked Pima if I could drive back from the vines and he did, and later thanked god to be alive. I dn't drive too badly, but the car is not diesel and has no "direction assistée"; so turning the wheel is tricky.
We had dinner early; tonight it consisted of boiled potatoes, with butter - and lots of bread. I find it pretty charming. There's always wine on the table though.
Good night

Oh le soleil

This weekend has been amazing weather-wise. Yesterday could have been a summer's day, it was really really hot and we had to sit in the shade at luncgtime for protection. I was pruning the vines yesterday, as well as I could. Then Martin, Pierre-Maneau and I went for what they called a "walk", but it was more like climbing. We went to this mountain rich in marble, with an extraction site and everything - is that what you call it? "carrière" in French. Apparently they used some of that marble to build some of the buildings in Versailles. We picked some wild asparagus on the way down - these people know all about plants and are always picking stuff up and saying "here; eat this, it's so and so..". Then we ate pizza for dinner thay Joseph, the youngest of the brothers had made from scratch; it was delicious.
So today was a really chilled out day. I spent most of the morning reading in the sun, after going for my morning walk in the fields - I got a bit lost today and saw a hare. Said hi to the cow, which we're calling "la vache" - she's getting used to us now and allows being hand-fed, not by me though. She loves to eat "algarrobas", don't know the word in English. And apparently she's pregnant but isn't due till September or something like that. So then we had duck for lunch (we've also bought some ducks and this week we're buying lambs) - I don't know why I'm saying "we". And in the afternoon we went to Thomas' house because he has a pool and then we went to church.
We've just had a lovely dinner, and there's already talk of me leving and how sad they're going to be without me. They've asked me to come back before I go back to Spain and today they said that if the new place isn't cool I can always come back. All this made me sad to leave them, although I have been looking forward to a change aswell. They've said they'll give me horrible jobs to do this week so that I'll look forward to leaving and so that I won't miss them too much.
I'm sorry if today's entry is a bit disorganised but I'm writing in a hurry.
Time for bed.

Spring

Todas was a perfect spring day. The sky was a perfect blue - it still is at 8 pm - and the flowers scattered the fields beautifully. A day like this made working a lot more tolerable, although the task was again reattaching the vines. My fingers this morning were pretty swollen and I have a big blister with pus; luckily Thomas found an ingenious way of wiring the branches using a long piece of metal to turn the attachments and give our fingers a rest. I'm probably not making luch sense in my explanations - for this I apologise.
The cow arrived last night at 1 am, I didn't see her til today (I normally go to bed at around 10.30... yes, I know). She's brown and quite small, apparently it's one of the smallest types of cow. She's still freaking out as to what's going on so you can't get all that close to her.
We had lunch outside (cold chickpeas again, so salad for me) and I went for a walk this sfternoon to the nearby town of Caunes Minervois, took me 3 to get there and come back. It was a nice walk, lots of vineyards and almond/cherry trees in full bloom. The town didn't have much of interest, aside from an abbey, but you had to pay 4.50 to get in and I was saving my money for something yummy at the Boulangerie. A man saw me taking photos ans started talking to me about all the photos he had, the famous people he knew, the pets that had died on him, his life in Paris, his friend's Ferrari etc. He was nice but it was like he came out of nowhere; I said I was in a hurry to visit the abbey and left him. He gave me his contact details in cqse I ever wanted to visit him and his family in his house in the mountains.
So I think me and Thoma are cooking dinner again tonight, Marie isn't in. I think we're making bolognese. And Martin and Joseph (2 of the sons) are coming back tonight to spend the weekend here.
Let the weekend commence.

Cake

Today I baked 4 cakes. There's often an excess of eggs in the farm so Marie likes to use them in baking - excellent idea if you ask me. So she let me bake on my own, and I made 2 plum cakes (with some alcohol we've found in the garage that is apparently 50 years old) and 2 olive cakes (these are savoury). I'm pretty sure the plum cakes are burnt - I left the butter on the stove too long, and I'd also added the sugar and eggs so there were black pieces of omelette-type mush floating around; but I got rid of most of it, although it still tasted burnt - but hey, they eat anything here. So that was nice!
This morning I continued reattaching the vines. Wasn't as fun today as
1: the weather's really shit, clouds everywhere and a very chilly wind, plus the grass is wet so my trainers get soaked and my feet get cold. Marie made sure I was all wrapped up and warm, sometimes I wonder if she's attempting to create a sort of fashion Frankenstein. I really looked ridiculous: woolly hat, 2 coats of acquired taste, blue plastic trousers, and my trainers. Oh, and fingerless gloves. Might remind my Mum and Dad of my costume when I did that play at school where I played a tramp.
Ok, and 2: the attaching instruments weren't nice white ribbons but pieces of iron that we had to twist to tighten. The result being a lot of blisters.
But I don't want to moan and it's definitely not a big deal at all. I'm happy to be here and this kind of thing makes the experience what it is.
Aside from that I sang religious songs with Marie - there was no escaping. And also, I tidied the boys' bedrooms as a surprise for when they come bqck - they've gone to pick the cow up from somewhere near Perigueux; they've already been gone 12 hours and they're still not back.. Cow must be heavy.
I haven't told you about Thomas, another guy who's also helping out here. We work together most of the time yet I know near nothing qbout him - he's very very quiet and always seems to be deep in thought. He never speaks at meal-times and there seems to be some kind of unspoken issue to do with his family. He was baptised the other day at the 3 hour church service but his family don't approve of his new-fpund faith or something like that. But he's one of the nicest people I have ever met; he's extremely thoughful and is always trying to help everyone out. Last night we proposed we make dinner together so we made a Spanish tortilla, and that went down a treat.
Today is Thursday - this time last week was my first night here.

Ants

Today I've been reattaching the vines again -it's pretty tireing work, but luckily it's only 4 hours per day so not that bad. The weather's being pretty shitty lately so going for walks isn't all that appealing, though yesterday I went for one and it was very pleasant indeed; there are so many vineyards, cherry trees etc. I've also started a drawing of the farm which I will give to the owners once it's done. I feel very grateful to them, they've welcomed me into their house like another member of the family and that really makes all the difference. Saying this, I'm finding travelling on my own really isn't that bad - I was really apprehensive about this before I set off, but up until now I haven't found it lonely or scary at all, I've been waiting for it to hit me but I seem to be doing ok. Travelling alone gives you a kind of strength and independence that you can never achieve when you're accompanied. Although, I hqve been around people most of the time so maybe that's it.
Other news... I think we're buying a cow tomorrow. Will let you know.
Also, I don't know how easy it is to comment on here, but if you hqve something to say drop me a line on Facebook, it always makes me very happy to see people are qctuqlly following this and I'm not just "talking" to myself - although it's probably good therapy.
Ciao for now!

France!

Hello! I should have written earlier but didn't know where the computer was. I blame any spelling nistakes in this entry on the weird French keyboard. So here I am. It's been great so far. The family I'm stqying with is very Catholic. I've been to church with them a number of times now, including a 3 hour service. Yesterdqy they all read from the Bible and then discussed what the passage meant to them, and this morning we sang religious songs in the open air. I don't usually partake in these activities, just kind of listen and passively participate, it's interesting "quand même", as the French would say. The farm is really pretty, and very rustic - you should see the toilet. But it makes a really nice change, no commodities, no technology, no fashion sense. It's been pretty cold up until now, so I've been wrapped up like the Michelin man; though today was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. I worked outside attaching the vines to the metal fencing which keeps them in place. I really enjoyed it; it was monotonous but still, just so nice to be outside in the sun, and the surroundings are really beautiful. Other little jobs I've been doing are: weighing chickpeas and packaging them, filling bottles with wine, washing jam jars and labelling them, pruning the vines (I didn't like this very much as I got the feeling I wasn't doing it correctly - there's a "simple" method to it, but complicated in my eyes). Other than that, the people here are very nice and very welcoming. There's always people around so I never feel lonely. 3 of the sons were here for the weekend - it was an important weekend, it being Easter, and there was a lot of talking about Jesus and ressurrection. François and Marie are the owners, and at the moment there are two helpers who are going to be staying here for 2 years! They're learning about "agroforesterie", which means something like planting trees amid other crops like cereal, or something like that - I didn't quite get it. The helpers are "Pilou" (Pierre-Louis) and Jean-Maneau; they're 21 and 27 respectively and I don't know what I'd do without them; I spend all my time with them when I'm not working - they're a real laugh. There's a pool table here, so we play everynight pretty much. Then there's Teddy the dog, and Michou the cat, and lots of hens - and some chicks were born 2 days ago and they're really really cute. So that's it for the moment, this keyboard is driving me lad. I went to Carcassonne today but most things were shut because it's Easter Monday, but I saw the old town and it relly reminded me of Montmatre, lots of expensive restaurants and shops, and lots of tourists.
Anyhow, à-toute-à-l'heure!