So today is Sunday, my last day at Chateau Brandeau. To celebrate we're going to the beach and having magret de canard for dinner, yum.
There is ot much to report on the work front, I've been driving the tractor (or to use the correct term, doing "décavillonage"), trying to finish some of the fields as soon as possible - once it gets too hot the ground is so hard the tractor can't dig into it properly. I did some fertilizing on Thursday morning, that wasn't fun. They use organic fertilizers here and they stink, when I asked what it was made up of Phil told me it was mainly chicken bones, beaks and paws. When I crushed a piece to distribute it evenly, it was full of white maggots. That wasn't fun.
We've had the assistance of Alain for the past week, he's a French guy working in the wine industry as a sommelier (or wine steward, according to wikipedia). He came from Bretagne with his dog "Vitesse", which we called "Quickness". He was very funny and would laugh at the most insignificant thing, he especially loved it when Phil would kill a vine while doing Décavillonage, and would start singing dirges. He also couldn't say "crisps", which we found pretty amusing.
So yesterday we worked in the morning. We offered to do this, as the weekend should be for ourselves, but things are a bit iffy in this farm. The owners try to sqeeze as much work out of us as possible - doing 8 hours a day is already excessive, it should be 5 max for helpers. I don't mind it at all, because it's fun to work with the other helpers, but I do feel weekends should be for us to do as we please. But they make a point of us helping in the garden and they don't show any appreciation for it if we put in extra hours. It's been a big problem between Eddie and Phil and the owners - because they're staying here for so long, this lack of appreciation really gets to them. The owners can be pretty negative, and quite miserable too, so it makes the ambiance even harder to deal with. But Eddie and Phil have each other and live in a little house next to the main house, where they have a drink and a laugh and try to forget about the shism with the main house.
So anyway, in the afternoon we went to Chateau Montaigne, which is where the French philospher Michel de Montaigne used to live. He's famous for writing the first French essays - the nale of his book was titles "Essais", which would translated to "tries" or "attempts". He's also famous for being one of the precursors of skepticism, his famous quote bein "Que sais-je?" ("What do I know?") and mixing anecdotal with personal information in his writings. The tower is still intact, with its little chapel, library and bedroom. Some people had signed their name on the frescoed walls, some dating back to the 19th century.
So after that we bought some wine from the onsite winery and had a drink next to the vineyards. The walk back was beautiful, the acacia flowers dropping from the trees and the grass that translucent green that you get when the sun shines bright.
I better start getting ready, it's time for the beach!
sábado, 22 de mayo de 2010
lunes, 17 de mayo de 2010
Old McDonald had a farm
Today was a good day; my job for the last couple days has been to plough the vines to get rid of the weeds that grow at their base, to do this you need a tractor, a driver and 2 extra people that go behind checking that the metal propeller-type things don't chop off any of the vines. So my role in all this is to be the driver! Driving a tractor is really easy and quite fun, although I was kind of surprised when they asked me to do it knowing I'd only just passed my driving test and not driven since the exam. But I seem to be pretty good at it and it's no where near as tireing as hoeing and the sun came out today so it was great. It was also nice to have some quiet time after such a busy and drama-filled weekend:
So, on Friday evening all the helpers went out for dinner, nothing fancy, just bought some croaue monsieurs and some lambrusco and sat by the Dordogne river, listening to peacocks and watching rowers on the river. On Saturday we went to the market in St Foy and looked around the stalls and had a cup of coffee on a little terrace, then went back home to make a giant chocolate cake. Ellie, one of the American girls bought this festive cake book for 3 euros and we just had to make one, following french instructions. It took us pretty much all afternoon and God knows how much chocolate. We also paintbrushed some vine leaves with the remaining chocolate to create patterned chocolate, but it didn't really work out, the chocolate simply won't unstick. The house is pretty busy at th moment, a friend of the family is staying her for a few days with his 2 children so there's quite a lot of babysitting to do. We played UNO the card game with them and I made sangria again, which soothed us all a little bit.
Sunday was really the big day. We went to St Emilion for an hour at 9.30 to start the day off. It's a beautiful little town, said to be the wine capital of France - it's full of shops selling wine and the countryside surrounding it is breath-taking, never-ending rows of perfectly tidy vines and grandiose chateaux everywhere you look. After that we drove to Libourne, we'd been waiting all week for this: a giant omelette was to be cooked somewhere ion the city, made up of 3,011 eggs (it was trying to beat the 3,010 egg record). It took us about an hour to find it, first we went to the park where a canine show was taking place, then we were directed towards the stadium, where there was a car boot sale (or a vide grenier as the french call it, which translates to empty your attic), then we were told to go to the tropical gardens, by which point we were ready to give up, but luckily we saw a sign, confirming that the giant omelette did in fact exist. It was a sort of neighbourhood fiesta, we were the only tourists there, and it was fab. Another small scale car boot sale, benches, huge families, face painting, a little dancefloor and a man with an accordeon, bottles of wine for 2 euros, and a giant pan full of eggs which 5 men were stirring with giant wooden spatulas. The cooked omelette then proceeded to be place in big trash containers, yes, and then into medium sized bowls, and then onto plastic plates - 1 euro per serving, and the portions were huge.
You can imagine what the day turned out like, lots of drinking, dancing and getting our faces painted. The other helpers kept buying unnecessary things from the car boot sale, like an ash tray merged into a spinning wheel (2 euros), a smoking pipe (1 euro), metre-long straws (1 euro), and a pair of shoes because they spilled wine on them so they had to buy them (2 euros). Seeing them dancing in ridiculous second-hand clothes just bought at the stalls amidst the old couples on the dancefloor: priceless.
We then went on to Bordeaux, taking a couple of bottles of wine with us. Phil, the 50 year old Brit was driving, therefore not drinking - I felt quite sorry for him, having to deal with us! But he was quite amused anyway. In Bordeaux we went to a couple of cafes and drank coffee and ate croque monsieurs and watched the world go by. I had to wipe the paint of my face after a while, people were staring, we must have been quite a strange group really.
Tonight Ellie and I have been painting rose petals with egg white and sugar, we're baking another cake tomorrow since her and Jenny, the other American, are leaving on Wednesday. I'll really missed them, I've gotten pretty close to them and they're a good laugh. They're working in cheese farms in the south of France til July, so I might rejoin them at some point.
Let us eat cake.
So, on Friday evening all the helpers went out for dinner, nothing fancy, just bought some croaue monsieurs and some lambrusco and sat by the Dordogne river, listening to peacocks and watching rowers on the river. On Saturday we went to the market in St Foy and looked around the stalls and had a cup of coffee on a little terrace, then went back home to make a giant chocolate cake. Ellie, one of the American girls bought this festive cake book for 3 euros and we just had to make one, following french instructions. It took us pretty much all afternoon and God knows how much chocolate. We also paintbrushed some vine leaves with the remaining chocolate to create patterned chocolate, but it didn't really work out, the chocolate simply won't unstick. The house is pretty busy at th moment, a friend of the family is staying her for a few days with his 2 children so there's quite a lot of babysitting to do. We played UNO the card game with them and I made sangria again, which soothed us all a little bit.
Sunday was really the big day. We went to St Emilion for an hour at 9.30 to start the day off. It's a beautiful little town, said to be the wine capital of France - it's full of shops selling wine and the countryside surrounding it is breath-taking, never-ending rows of perfectly tidy vines and grandiose chateaux everywhere you look. After that we drove to Libourne, we'd been waiting all week for this: a giant omelette was to be cooked somewhere ion the city, made up of 3,011 eggs (it was trying to beat the 3,010 egg record). It took us about an hour to find it, first we went to the park where a canine show was taking place, then we were directed towards the stadium, where there was a car boot sale (or a vide grenier as the french call it, which translates to empty your attic), then we were told to go to the tropical gardens, by which point we were ready to give up, but luckily we saw a sign, confirming that the giant omelette did in fact exist. It was a sort of neighbourhood fiesta, we were the only tourists there, and it was fab. Another small scale car boot sale, benches, huge families, face painting, a little dancefloor and a man with an accordeon, bottles of wine for 2 euros, and a giant pan full of eggs which 5 men were stirring with giant wooden spatulas. The cooked omelette then proceeded to be place in big trash containers, yes, and then into medium sized bowls, and then onto plastic plates - 1 euro per serving, and the portions were huge.
You can imagine what the day turned out like, lots of drinking, dancing and getting our faces painted. The other helpers kept buying unnecessary things from the car boot sale, like an ash tray merged into a spinning wheel (2 euros), a smoking pipe (1 euro), metre-long straws (1 euro), and a pair of shoes because they spilled wine on them so they had to buy them (2 euros). Seeing them dancing in ridiculous second-hand clothes just bought at the stalls amidst the old couples on the dancefloor: priceless.
We then went on to Bordeaux, taking a couple of bottles of wine with us. Phil, the 50 year old Brit was driving, therefore not drinking - I felt quite sorry for him, having to deal with us! But he was quite amused anyway. In Bordeaux we went to a couple of cafes and drank coffee and ate croque monsieurs and watched the world go by. I had to wipe the paint of my face after a while, people were staring, we must have been quite a strange group really.
Tonight Ellie and I have been painting rose petals with egg white and sugar, we're baking another cake tomorrow since her and Jenny, the other American, are leaving on Wednesday. I'll really missed them, I've gotten pretty close to them and they're a good laugh. They're working in cheese farms in the south of France til July, so I might rejoin them at some point.
Let us eat cake.
martes, 11 de mayo de 2010
Ouch
I'm at the farm! It's in Castillon, near Bordeaux, and close to the town of St Emilion, which used to be and pretty much still is the wine capital of France. The scenery here is stunning, I have never seen fields more beautiful: vineyards everywhere and beautiful old mansions and chateux scattered around the countryside. This farm is pretty lovely too, it's got a wisteria covered terrace and a stone balcony looking over never ending fields of vines. Never ending vines that we have to work on! The work so far has been the toughest sinceI've been in France - next to this the BnB seems like a holiday! It's very physical work, tough on your back and your hands, I've got multiple blisters despite wearing gloves. So what we're doins is hoeing the vines, which means digging out the earth that separates them to get rid of weeds, and then we cut off the little leaves and branches growing at the base of the vines, because they're more prone to develop mildew, which is a type of fungus. Aaaanyway, I feel like I've learnt quite a lot about vineyard work so I'm hapy with that. So, we work 7 hours a day, which is really long but the food here is really delicious, lots of cheese!
Also, there are 4 other helpers, so that makes it really nice too. There are 2 american girls who've come over to learn about cheese-making because they want to open their own fromagerie, then there a guy from New Zealand who's gonna work here for 5 years; he wants to learn all about wine making and vineyard work because he wants to run his own vineyard at ome point and merge it with a hotel and restaurant to use his knowledge of interior design and marketing too. And then there's a British fella who's just taking a break from UK life and wanted to work out in the country, so a bit like me.
The owners are called Fearn and Andrea, he's from America and she's from London, and they inherited the property from their parents. She's also a teacher, and teaches english to teenagers near Bordeaux, and from what I've heard they're getting a bit tired of running the farm and would like to retire, but they need someone to take it on. They have a daughter and a son, she's studynig Neuroscience in Bordeaux and he's studying Philosophy at Oxford. Claire;, the daughter has told me she wouldn't mind runnin ghr farm but she's only 22 and wants to do some travelling and live her life a bit before settling here, because apparently once you start it's a full time thing, there are loads of things to do throughout the year and you can't take off and leave the vines.
So anyway, those are my news; I think on Sunday we're going to see how a giant omelette is made in one of the nearby towns; 3000 eggs!!!!
needless to say, I'm on a French keyboard again..
Also, there are 4 other helpers, so that makes it really nice too. There are 2 american girls who've come over to learn about cheese-making because they want to open their own fromagerie, then there a guy from New Zealand who's gonna work here for 5 years; he wants to learn all about wine making and vineyard work because he wants to run his own vineyard at ome point and merge it with a hotel and restaurant to use his knowledge of interior design and marketing too. And then there's a British fella who's just taking a break from UK life and wanted to work out in the country, so a bit like me.
The owners are called Fearn and Andrea, he's from America and she's from London, and they inherited the property from their parents. She's also a teacher, and teaches english to teenagers near Bordeaux, and from what I've heard they're getting a bit tired of running the farm and would like to retire, but they need someone to take it on. They have a daughter and a son, she's studynig Neuroscience in Bordeaux and he's studying Philosophy at Oxford. Claire;, the daughter has told me she wouldn't mind runnin ghr farm but she's only 22 and wants to do some travelling and live her life a bit before settling here, because apparently once you start it's a full time thing, there are loads of things to do throughout the year and you can't take off and leave the vines.
So anyway, those are my news; I think on Sunday we're going to see how a giant omelette is made in one of the nearby towns; 3000 eggs!!!!
needless to say, I'm on a French keyboard again..
miércoles, 5 de mayo de 2010
Brrrr
It's so cold it's unbelievable. We've got the fire going as I type, and it was snowing yesterday. It was 30 degrees last week and this week winter's come back. My parents took all my warm clothes back when they came to visit, so I've had to borrow some of Jan's clothes so stay warm. It's really annoying because this area is all about outdoor activities and the countryside, but we haven't been able to get out for a couple of days now. I've been looking forward to going on a sculpture trail in the mountains, but I don't know if we'll be able to do it if the weather doesn't improve. So we've been working in the house in the morning and chilling out in the living room in the afternoon. I've been reading loads, doing translating work and researching the region of Provence, which is where I'll be going on my days off at the end of May. We've been eating soups and drinking lots of tea and hot chocolate.
I've made a huge improvement in the garden, levelling the earth, weeding, digging flat stone slabs into the earth, putting permeable black plastic on the ground, and finally covering it with pink gravel, which turns dark red when it rains. Jan's really happy with it, and it's nice to have left my mark here. I think I've done pretty well with jobs here - she made me a list of things to get done before the next helper got here, and I've managed to get everything done, plus I've put in extra time to do the translation work. It'll be good to go to her website and look over the work I've done. The new helper got here on Sunday. She's Australian, 28 and works in IT, as a website manager - so Jan is really glad to have her here so she can help with her new website. But apparently it's proving pretty hard due to software or something... It's nice to have someone else here, we went for a walk on Monday and had a couple of glasses of wine by the abbey at St Hilaire. It;s been pretty sociable here this week since we had guests from Holland staying for 3 nights and some guests from the UK just arrived today. So, the jobs have been more guest-oriented: preparing breakfasts, clearing up, cleaning rooms - it makes a nice change. We get to eat what's been left over (this is better than it sounds), so I've been having pain au chocolat for breakfast, which is like the best thing in the world.
I was gonna leave for the new place on Friday but it looks like it'll be Sat or Sun now because my next hosts are out Fri night. This suits me fine, I really like it here and Jan and I get on really well. Also, I'd forgotten that the next place is a quote "working farm", and helpers are expected to put in 7 hours of work a day. I don;t really know what work I'll be doing since the vines should already be attached by now. But I'll have to wait and see. Their farm is called Chateau Brandeau and it's in Castillon, near Bordeaux, at the opposite end of the country! They've said "bring warm clothes", so I'm guessing it's not all that warm over there either.
So that's it for now.. Going wine tasting on Friday, to a proper wine school. I think they're gonna teach me how to taste it properly, and not just down it, as was the case at uni wine tasting sessions... Good times!
I've made a huge improvement in the garden, levelling the earth, weeding, digging flat stone slabs into the earth, putting permeable black plastic on the ground, and finally covering it with pink gravel, which turns dark red when it rains. Jan's really happy with it, and it's nice to have left my mark here. I think I've done pretty well with jobs here - she made me a list of things to get done before the next helper got here, and I've managed to get everything done, plus I've put in extra time to do the translation work. It'll be good to go to her website and look over the work I've done. The new helper got here on Sunday. She's Australian, 28 and works in IT, as a website manager - so Jan is really glad to have her here so she can help with her new website. But apparently it's proving pretty hard due to software or something... It's nice to have someone else here, we went for a walk on Monday and had a couple of glasses of wine by the abbey at St Hilaire. It;s been pretty sociable here this week since we had guests from Holland staying for 3 nights and some guests from the UK just arrived today. So, the jobs have been more guest-oriented: preparing breakfasts, clearing up, cleaning rooms - it makes a nice change. We get to eat what's been left over (this is better than it sounds), so I've been having pain au chocolat for breakfast, which is like the best thing in the world.
I was gonna leave for the new place on Friday but it looks like it'll be Sat or Sun now because my next hosts are out Fri night. This suits me fine, I really like it here and Jan and I get on really well. Also, I'd forgotten that the next place is a quote "working farm", and helpers are expected to put in 7 hours of work a day. I don;t really know what work I'll be doing since the vines should already be attached by now. But I'll have to wait and see. Their farm is called Chateau Brandeau and it's in Castillon, near Bordeaux, at the opposite end of the country! They've said "bring warm clothes", so I'm guessing it's not all that warm over there either.
So that's it for now.. Going wine tasting on Friday, to a proper wine school. I think they're gonna teach me how to taste it properly, and not just down it, as was the case at uni wine tasting sessions... Good times!
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