Where-ever I lay my hat

We arrived in Plymouth at 6.30pm on Tuesday 5 August and took ages to get through passport control and various diversions but eventually got down near St Austell to look for a campground. It was raining and we couldn’t find any of the dozens of campgrounds marked on our map so we ended up in a nice wee B&B. The lady heated up our tin of cassoulet for us for our dinner and then it was bedtime.
The weather was still not great on Monday morning but we had our full English breakfast and headed to the Eden Project. The Eden Project is a group of huge bio domes that have been built in a disused quarry to showcase the plants and environments of rainforest, Mediterranean and temperate climates. The temperate section is outdoors and the gardens are fantastic. Because Cornwall is in the Gulf Stream they can grow an amazing range of stuff including chillies, tomatoes, palms and a huge range of vegetables from all over the world. They also had really interesting information about using plant products and how plant products can be used to improve the sustainability of our existence on the planet. The rainforest bio dome was really hot and had fantastic displays of rainforest and culture from all over the world and again great information about food production and sustainability. The Mediterranean bio dome was also interesting but not as fabulous as the other two for us. We spent pretty much the whole day and learnt lots although we got a bit wet in the afternoon outdoors. By the time we finished it was tipping down with rain and the forecast was terrible for tomorrow too so we phoned Lisa and Rob and asked if we could come to them a couple of days early rather than stay in a B&B again and have a wet day at the lost gardens of Heligan. It took us three hours to drive up to them including a stop for fish and chips and a Cornish pasty while we were still in Cornwall. We were very impressed with the fish and chip shop as they had 3 sustainable fish on their menu and we had Pollock, which was delicious. We had a nice quiet evening with Lisa and Rob and got a good nights sleep.
On Tuesday we pretty much just relaxed for the whole day but with a wee shopping trip into Nailsea. We saw a fabulous dolls house shop and spent some time at the library reading and then had bangers and mash for dinner and a wee chocolate tasting with Lisa and Rob.
Wednesday was another very quiet day. We puttered about and then met up with Liz for a walk in a woodland, which turned out to be a badly signposted mud trail. We had thought it was an ecocentre but it had been inaccurately portrayed in the paper and there was nothing much of interest there except some very beautiful, if muddy, woodland and a good crop of blackberries. We had coffee at a garden centre and went back to watch the Olympic opening ceremony.
On Thursday we had another quiet day just relaxing and watching Olympics and went into Nailsea for some shopping and to read some books at the library for a while. We had a curry and blackberry crumble for dinner and Lisa and Rob went out for dinner and left the boys with us.

I went with Lisa to see to the horse she looks after on Saturdays and had a walk around in the countryside tehn the two of us set up for the day to watch the equestrian at the Olympics and Steve went out with Rob and the boys to the library and to a castle on the top of a hill and to the museum. We all had take out curry for dinner and a relaxing evening.
We left fairly early on Sunday morning and got across the Severn bridge to the toll booth when we realised we had left something behind. We got escorted from the toll booth and round a secret road to get back onto the bridge going in the other direction.and we went back to Lisa and Rob. We decided to skip the toll and drove up through England and to Hay on Wye, which is famous for its bookshops. We spent a few hours bookshopping and got a good selection of books for good prices to go in the shipping back to NZ. Then we carried on to the coast of mid Wales to the CAT centre and set up our tent in the compground next door. We got the tent up dry although the ground was wet and we could feel it through the bottom of the tent. We got some dinner cooked and were finishing off eating when it started raining again and we had to adjourn to the car for the rest of the evening. fortunately we had plenty of books to at and then went to bed and listened to the rain.
We woke in a puddle and a tent full of midgies on Monday and made coffee by running from the car to the cooker and back in the rain. We spent the day at the Centre for Alternative Technology and there are heaps of displays to look around and it took us from 10 till 4 just to do the audio tour and read the stuff we were interested in. They have displays about all sorts of technology like solar, wind and water energy, eco building, waste management and composting and transport management. We also had a look in the bookshop but resisted buying full price books. We had decided it was miserable for camping and we headed a day early to Welford. We were supposed to have camped for 6 days and have managed one because of the weather. Its pretty miserable summer weather and I think the weather is about the same in NZ’s winter at the moment.
Tuesday was wet again and we were pleased to wake up dry and have a tele for some Olympics. We drove into Birmingham for someone to look at the car and he bought it so we were pretty happy about that, and got the amount of money we wanted too. We also got a few other chores done then went to my old work to visit with folk and get a lift home with Lynnie at the end of the day. It was lovely to see people and it actually felt not too terrible to be back in Birmingham.
Without a car we had a good excuse to do nothing for a few days except watch Olympics and a few chores and get packed. Wednesday was wet and miserable but Thursday was nice and we walked into Welford village and along the canal for a while. I went to the doctor at the village hall where they run a rural surgery and we were really impressed. It was really friendly and everyone was chatting while waiting and the doctor was very thorough and they had their own little pharmacy so you didn’t have to go to a pharmacy separately and all the villagers came in to collect their prescriptions and chatted. Friday was also fine and the moving man came and packed up all our stuff for shipping. Jay also came over from Cambridge to visit and we had a very pleasant afternoon. The evening was just the three of us and lovely to catch up a bit with Lynnie.
On Saturday Celia came up to visit and we had a lovely day just taking it very slowly, chatting, watching Olympics and went for a walk along the canal at Foxton. We had lunch in the garden of the pub first overlooking the canal and the sun even shone a bit. We walked up the staircase of ten locks and watched the boats going through and chatted with walkers and boaters and a fisherman with a very cool rod. He was doing well but the fish is not edible and none of us could understand the idea of fishing if you don’t at least end up with your supper. We stopped for a drink in the pub garden again on the way back then just chilled for the afternoon at home and got finally packed up. Lynnie cooked dinner and the family and dogs came by to say goodbye.
We left at 6am on Sunday 17 august and Celia drove us to Gatwick. The drive was fine and we got there on time and found out our flight was delayed till the afternoon. So we sat in the airport for the day until we finally got going. It was a 9-hour flight to Calgary and then another hour on to Vancouver. You get what you pay for and the flight had been cheap and our sound systems didn’t work so only one of us could listen to one channel of the movies and they messed up our meals and the silly hostess tried to tell me that if I wanted a meal without aubergine I should have ordered a vegan one! It was a pretty turbulent flight in parts too and we were inside the thunderstorm on the last bit to Vancouver, which was fairly bumpy but it was otherwise uneventful. We got in at 7pm and then had to get the local bus down to the ferry at Tsawwassen to go across to Vancouver island and another bus down to Victoria. Fortunately the hostel waited for us and we finally got to bed at 12.30 local time, which was 7.30am British time after a 26hour day with only naps. Needless to say neither of were exactly cheerful by then, but at least we made it which we thought earlier in the day we wouldn’t.

On Thursday 24 July it took us ages to find the house in Plevin but we eventually arrived with Dan and Ann on their smallholding. We had a look around the property and sat and lay on the nice shady lawn and read books then had a glass of wine and homemade kir till dinner. The food here looks like it won’t help us to lose weight either as dinner was pretty good. Dan and Ann are really nice and they have three kids and are all fluent in French except the 2year old girl. We are staying in what will eventually be the bathroom of the big old stone house they are doing up. Consequently the table in our room is actually a bathtub.
We had a more thourough tour from Ann in the moring after breakfast and they had written a big list of things we can work on. We can just pick anything off the list and do that and they showed us all the tools and stuff and what needs done for everything so it was really well organised and we can easily just get on with things as suits us. They are a well set up smallholding and have plenty of veges that are all just coming on now, 2 geese who just failed to hatch and set of eggs, 2 sheep for the freezer, a sow with 11 piglets who are for sale and for the freezer, and some chickens. Two of the chickens are broody and sitting on lots of eggs of all different ages. They take away any chicks and hand rear them so the hens can carry on sitting. They make their own sausages, pate, and other charcuterie from the pigs and have a smoker, and make their own jams and stuff too. We started with fencing a couple of vege gardens that the rabbits had got into. Then Steve mowed under the electric fences around the sheep’s yard and I mucked out the chickens and geese. We got called for lunch and sat out in the garden in the sunshine for the afternoon reading books. We got a scything lesson from Dan as they don’t have a strimmer and there’s stuff to be cleared. He prefers it as its quiet and peaceful and a more natural way of doing things. He also showed us the book on how to scythe so we could get more tips. There are visitors here now too and increasing daily as all the English friends and relatives come out to France for their summer vacations. Dan's sister and husband are very nice and have 2 more kids and are here for a week. So dinner was a bit more hectic but still delicious and one of those great French meals that just drift on forever, although they don’t eat in courses like the French do.
On Saturday morning we started with the scything of the sheep yard, which is a bit of a huge chore. The field is really too big for two sheep and consequently they can’t keep the grass down and now there is grass as tall as me and huge dock plants going to seed. We took turns at scything and collecting out the dock seedheads and by the end of the morning were starting to get the hang of the scything a bit. We also got a bit more done on the mowing and another wee fence built. They have a great system of fencing, most of the fences are just electric movable ones driven by solar packs. The chickens and geese have a permanent enclosure and the fences for the vege gardens are just rabbit height chicken wire on portable posts. It makes it very easy to manage the fencing. We spent the afternoon after we finished work just relaxing. Its nice to be somewhere where they don’t actually expect you to carry on working after your hours are done so we can have some time to relax and the garden is lovely except for the flies and lots of children at times. I read the scythe book a bit and picked up a few more tips including that’s its much easier to scythe before sunrise and much harder after the dew is gone so all scything should stop then. More guests arrived so we were 8 adults and 8 kids at the dinner table but it was very pleasant and we ate outdoors. We had aperitifs and then a bbq with plenty of different pork things and starters of langoustines. There was plenty of wine and tisanes after along with some local drinks that we eventually concluded were a quince fortified wine and a local apple brandy.
I got up early on Sunday to try out the new scything tips and it really is a very pleasant workout. The book likens it to tai chi so I've decided it’s my morning exercise and it certainly is much easier then. Steve did a bit more after breakfast but by 9am it was too hard so we quit and went on with collecting hay and then using the push mower on the sheep enclosure. That was fairly hard going and it was a pretty hot day and I retreated out of the sun by 11.30 and weeded a nettle patch and got stung all over. There were some roses buried deep in the nettle patch. Its also a nice break to give the pigs a shower and they really like it so we filled up their wallow and tried to shower the baby pigs but Lulu, the mum was having none of that and wanted all the showering for herself. She is a very smart pig but is also getting s bit sick of her 11 babies and wants the attention back on her. She is a Tamworth, an ancient breed of pig that’s really hardy but doesn’t have much ham on it so the babies are half Gloucester old spot and have nicely developing wee hams even at 3 months old. We had been told that Tamworth’s are aggressive but she is certainly not and is a great mum too. One particular piglet stands out and is more curious than the others and keeps trying to chew my trouser leg till I squirt it with the hose and it squeals and runs away but is back a minute later for more. Steve discovered that you can make the piglets go to sleep by rubbing behind their ears and had 2 piglets fall over in a heap on top of each other. They just closed their eyes and fell over! The pigs also get fairly spoilt with their food as once a week they get the leftovers from the patisserie and even though its old it looks delicious. They ate more patisseries in a week then I have in the whole time we’ve been in France, but at least they are fairly discerning and go for the best bits first. Our lunch was outdoors again and pleasant and long then we relaxed for the afternoon in our room out of the heat and in some quiet and out on the lawn before dinner.
On Monday morning we both got up early for scything and to start digging a pond (finally someone who thinks it’s a good idea for me to dig them a pond!!!) for the geese to be able to swim. The geese are really nice and were very curious when we were digging and stayed close watching us and occasionally came for a good look. They are the friendliest geese we have met. We are getting ok at scything too and I have an 8foot arc and Steve has a 9-foot arc and we make quite nice straight lines with pretty stacks of hay at the side, although we are still pretty slow. It is a really interesting activity and I find it quite enjoyable particularly when you have those occasional moments of Zen scything when it’s effortless and goes beautifully. It was another hot day and we were pleased to have started early so we could finish at lunchtime to get out of the heat. Just as we finished lunch it started training and the rain basically set in for the afternoon. We had a quiet afternoon indoors and looking at books on farming and cooking until dinner.
On Tuesday morning we went with Dan to the market at Rostrenen to buy some more birds. They wanted some turkeys to fatten for Christmas so we got 4 turkeys and since there was now a pond we also got 4 little ducks and now we were on a roll so got a couple more geese. It was a nice wee market and we were really early before anything much opened so got the pick of everything. We also got some interesting veges and some nice bread. It was really nice to go to a market where we were there specifically to buy things rather than just to look around and it was especially fun to buy the birds. The bird man had a little dog who liked to sit on the birdcages and tap the birds on the head with his paw if they were misbehaving in his eyes. It was really cute. We got our birds home and popped them in the house for the morning so they’d know where to go home to at night. We carried on with work for the morning and let the baby birds out in the afternoon. They took a bit of persuading but were ok once they got out. It was hilarious to watch the big geese because the babies quickly decided they were the parents and started following them round. The big geese thought they were being chased by aliens and ran away so the little ones chased faster. They went round and round and the poor big geese didn’t know whether to attack or run and usually chose run, and the babies couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to be mum and dad. The turkeys were above all this activity and instead decided I was mum and followed me around and whenever I wasn’t right beside the fence they just stood there crying. Fortunately they have bird brains and after I left them for an hour they thought they’d never seen me in their lives before and I was terrifying. They all discovered the pond and the ducklings led the way in going in. it took the baby geese a bit longer and the adult geese just fell in in a very undignified way and immediately got out again looking embarrassed. Later in the day the girl goose fell in and started pretending she’d meant to which was just as funny as shed look up and around in an embarrassed way then fluff her feathers and have a paddle about. We relaxed in with the birds for some of the afternoon and had dinner outdoors again. Dan got his smoker going and put in some mackerel we’d got at the market and some cheeses to see how they went. It’s a really simple smoker with just a firebox outside the barn and a pipe from the box into a tall wooden chamber that you load from the top with a ladder. Its cold smoking so you leave the food in it for a really long time and just occasionally top up the fire so it keeps on smoking and it just got left overnight.
We had a day off on Wednesday and after feeding the animals headed south towards the coast. We went through Pont Aven and to the coast at Belon and walked along the coast to the rocks. We were all kitted up with oyster knives and bags and spent a couple of hours collecting mussels and oysters off the rocks. It was a bit tricky to start with but when we went around the beach a bit further we could just pick the oysters off the beach or small rocks. The odd one broke as Steve was prizing it off the rocks and so he had to eat it there and then. He ended up eating 2 dozen just on the beach. I had a couple but I’m not a big fan of raw oysters and they were pretty salty too so I stuck to collecting. We ended up with about 5 dozen oysters and 110 mussels and felt rather greedy but we did have potentially 7 adults to feed. We headed to the beach afterwards but stopped in Pont Aven for a wander around because it was a really pretty town with lots of stone buildings and flowers everywhere. It was pretty touristy but that meant that the biscuiteries had lots of free samples so we helped ourselves and had quite a decent snack as well as a good education on the different biscuits and cakes of Brittany. Biscuits are a speciality here and they are pretty good at them, but unfortunately don’t have lots of recipe books to share the recipes for them. The beach was nice but certainly not somewhere would choose to go on holiday like the hundreds of English tourists there. The beach was nice enough but there was lots of seaweed in the water and the water was certainly not warm, probably because it’s the Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately the weather was really warm and after we had a swim we lay in the sun and had some lunch while we dried off. We headed back home again to get the shellfish out of the heat and then had to get cleaning them. We opened a dozen each of oysters and mussels and put them into the smoker, which was still going. Dan's sister was cooking them a special meal so they didn’t want to have any shellfish tonight so we left them in their shells to have the next night. We had dinner outdoors with the children and then stayed outdoors cleaning shells and watching the baby birds for the evening. They had a pretty good night and were up late and drinking quite a bit in the kitchen through our wall so we didn’t get to sleep till fairly late.
They also had to get up early on Thursday morning to go and get a ferry back to England and everyone looked a bit shabby. We got started on more scything and collecting hay. Steve also started on trimming the hedge and clearing around it. We spent a fair bit of the afternoon shelling the oysters in the barn because the weather was not very nice. In the afternoon Dan picked up a new WWOOFer to share the oysters etc with and she turned out to be vegetarian so there was only four of us to eat all that seafood. We had an extensive aperitif menu of smoked oysters and mussels, oysters gratin, ceviche, and wrapped in spinach in a butter sauce. Then we had moules mariniere as a starter and I really enjoyed the cooking and especially getting to try out some recipes form my French cookbooks. Dinner was fairly time consuming and very pleasant.
Friday was an uneventful day with just work and then resting in the afternoon as I’ve got a cold again.
We had another day off on Saturday and started off going to the market with Ann in Carhaix. It was a fairly small market and the weather was damp so it was even smaller than usual. We also stopped at the supermarket and a wine shop for Steve to get a few bottles of wine for while we are camping. We also stopped at the boulangerie/ patessierie and we got a few macarons just to taste them as we’ve now heard so much about them and never tasted real ones. They were really good and worth all the fuss. We tried a citron, chocolate, pistachio, and raspberry one and shared them round us all. It was about lunchtime when we got back and then we went for a walk along the Nantes-Brest canal, which is just along the road from the house. There were some pretty lock houses and we also managed to collect some flowers for making tea. I also helped make gnocci to Dan’s Italian grandmothers very strict recipe and it was one of those fun activities for a group of women around the kitchen table and also a good learning experience. Ann made Bimbimbap for dinner, which is a Korean dish of leftovers – rice, vegetables and an egg fried on top with Korean hot pepper sauce and some beef bulgogi. It was really good and a great way of using up leftovers.
We were going to have a day off on Sunday but the weather was not so nice. We had planned for the whole family to go collecting oysters again and go to the beach but it was really not beach weather so we worked for the day and got the scything in the field finished and plenty of weeding and hedge trimming. We had slept in so worked for a bit of the afternoon too. Then we went with Dan to go and collect a baby boar for Lulu. It was an hour’s drive to Jan’s place and we got coffee and fresh scones when we got there and a free consultation on pig breeds and what’s going to be best for us. Then we got a tour of all her pigs before collecting Dan’s baby Gloucester/ large black pig. She breeds rare and ancient breeds of pig and we learnt heaps from the short time with her. Getting the pig away from its mum and into the car was interesting and then it kept trying to escape for the first part of the trip home so we kept having to hold it down in the back compartment of the car. Once it was home we got a nice cosy enclosure set up in the barn for him and he settled in quite well. We had pork mole for dinner and tortillas, which just about completed our tour of world cuisine while we’ve been here. Ann also bakes cookies or brownies pretty frequently so there’s always a full American cookie jar.
It was a bit clearer on Monday morning for our day off and we planned to head out for the Crozon peninsula. But first we had to introduce the new pig into the existing family, which went pretty well. Lulu certainly didn’t see him as a desirable suitor but just a nuisance to be chased off and he just wanted to play with the babies. He’s not big enough yet to do the job anyway and might have a bit of a rough time for a while. By the time we got to the Crozon it was lovely and sunny but not too hot and there was a cool breeze. There was a good viewpoint from the highest ‘mountain’ in Brittany, which was about 300m. It was quite pretty with views of the coast in several directions and we watched some learner para-penters and hang-gliders for a while. We stopped at a beach for a walk and ended up staying ages because it was a gorgeous beach and we collected mussels and clams for dinner then went for a swim. The water was not too cold but not exactly warm either but it was lovely to sit on the rocks in the sun to dry off. Then we carried on out the peninsula, stopped at a couple of biscuiteries for free samples for morning tea and lunch and went into the town of Crozon. It’s a quaint wee town and very typical of the area with wee white cottages and stone churches and really all quite Celtic. We got a baguette and cheese and had a galette for lunch and looked in a kitchen shop, which as often happens, was fatal for our budget but we got a good bargain on a bilik, which is the thing on which you make galettes. We headed to Pen-hir at the end of the peninsula for an amazing view of the cliffs and coastline with beautiful white of gold sand beaches dotted between steep and rugged cliffs. It was really beautiful and so much to explore and wander around that we could have stayed a week. There were also lots of rock climbers, which must have been fun in such a spectacular location. There was also a stone alignment just along the road and we stopped for a look about and some bread and livarot cheese. The alignment is interesting and peculiar as its not clear at all what its there for but was originally 600 stones and similar to Carnac. Now there are just remnants but its still pretty cool. By then it was time to head home and we got home just in time to clean up our mussels and make moules mariniere for dinner, which we had with galettes and cider – a real traditional Breton feast. Our galettes were with bacon cheese and egg and were delicious. Of course there were sweet crepes to follow with chocolate, crème de marron or jam. I got to have a go on the serious bilik and it’s really not as easy as it looks at all. We ate out in the garden and had a very pleasant evening. The new little pig seems to have settled in nicely and although he is still being chased by Lulu he’s getting right in to dinnertime warfare with the piglets.
We got all packed up on Tuesday morning and said our goodbyes and headed to Roscoff to get the ferry back to England. We did a bit of shopping on the way and got dinner and some stuff for our kayak trip from a sale at a sports store. The ferry crossing was just long and tedious with far too many loud children and not enough seating space for everyone. We found a quiet spot in a nice civilised bar for a while and had some lunch and spent our few remaining euros on coffee. There had obviously been a music festival in Brittany because there were lots of musicians on the ferry and we were treated to a wee concert for an hour or so. Other than that we read and planned our farm and made the decision that we’d like to try and go totally off grid for power – a big commitment, but partly funded by not having to dig 250m of trenches and install cables for the same distance. We arrived in Plymouth at 6.30pm and took ages to get through passport control and various diversions but eventually got down near St Austell to look for a campground. It was raining and we couldn’t find any of the dozens of campgrounds marked on our map so we ended up in a nice wee B&B. The lady heated up our tin of cassoulet for us for our dinner and then it was bedtime.

It only took just over two hours to get up to the next farm near St Lo in Normandie. We were a bit anxious as we hadn’t heard back from them in a month but they were expecting us and the farm looks great. They are fully off grid for power and have solar and wind power. They are building a straw bale house and have a small completed straw bale house and a mud brick building in which they run a restaurant a few days a week. The petite maison is an exact model of the new house and was built as a practice for the bigger one. They have pigs and a small garden and bake bread and the wife is a trained pattisier. There are 3 other WWOOFers and we are staying in one of the son’s rooms until the Aussie WWOOFers leave on Saturday, then we can move into the yurt (a Mongolian tent). We had a trip into the garden centre to buy some flowers and then chilled for a bit before dinner. Philippe speaks excellent English but his wife and mother don’t so we get a combination of French and English.
Friday (11 July) morning started at 7am to go and help Ashley, the British chef, sort the meat to make sausages later in the day. We had breakfast and then went with Sam, the Aussie WWOOFer to feed the pigs. Then we helped out in the grand maison for a bit, Steve and Sam put up a wall and I did some plastering. I helped (or probably actually hindered) Ashley to make the sausages and the start of a pate de tete by getting all the meat of the pig’s head that he had cooked earlier. Lunch was roast chicken and potatoes on the deck by the pond and it was great. After lunch we started looking with Philippe at our project, which is to put straw bale walls on a wee building that they will use for a kitchen and bathroom for WWOOFers and which also has the electricity centre for their wind and solar power. We looked at the building then sat and looked at some books about straw bale building then discussed the plan as Philippe is going away for 3 days so we need to ask all our questions now. They also have an auberge (farm restaurant), which is open on Friday, and Saturday nights so we helped out a bit in that in the evening. Unfortunately they kind of abuse the concept of WWOOFing with the auberge because it is reliant on the WWOOFers to run and is therefore denying local people jobs which is a thing that is making the French government reluctant to allow WWOOFing. It is supposed to be just to help out on the farm but not with stuff that you would otherwise employ people to do. In France that’s considered just a way of avoiding tax. Also it means that we don’t eat till after the guests are finished and that doesn’t work for me. We had said to Philippe that I would work till 9pm (which made 7 hours for the day and they ask for 4) but that hadn’t been passed on so when I finished there was no food and I went to bed very tired. However Eku (Philippe’s wife) was horrified and promised Steve that it would be better tomorrow. Steve worked till 11.30 and had dinner after that. We are not too keen to work in the auberge because it’s against the principles of WWOOFing but otherwise its quite interesting. I got to cook the sausages over the open fire and watch the bread oven being used and prepared for cooking the meat and potatoes, and Steve helped with the dishing and presentation of the food.
On Saturday things started slowly again, we had breakfast and fed the pigs and said goodbye to the Aussies then got started on our straw bale house. It took most of the day to get three bales up by the time we sorted out how everything was to be done, went searching for old scraps of wood and built a wood frame, and finally put in some bales. We met JB (Jean Baptiste) who is the solar guy working on the grand maison and speaks excellent English and travelled a lot in Australia. We chatted with him about eco building and he invited us out to his place to see their project so we arranged that for Sunday afternoon. We had aperitifs with everyone and then had our dinner while they started work in the auberge and we got an early night. Having aperitifs with the staff before the dinner service starts is a really nice idea (even if the staff are volunteers).
We got a bit further with the building on Sunday and the bales went up a bit quicker and so did the wood frame. We went out to JB’s place in the afternoon and it was a very worthwhile trip. He showed us his pellet burning central heating system and his neighbour’s woodchip one. They have a whole little community who are all doing eco building things and they use the community for teaching about eco building so each house has slightly different systems. We saw several different methods of earth, straw and lime building and there is a demonstration wall, which has different substances and different quantities of the various mixes to show the different effects and properties. The best things to use seem to be a combination of either lin straw (from linseed plants) or hemp and earth and lime. It makes a great soundproof, solid and dense wall that has great thermal mass. We also saw their wind turbine, which creates 10kw of electricity and some different solar ideas including a very cool solar cooker. They are also growing a field of hemp with special permission to use for insulation on one of the houses. We were there for about 3 hours and learnt heaps. The main thing about building with natural products is to make sure the building has good gumboots (wellies) and a good hat (i.e. its protected from water from below and above) and then what you do in between doesn’t matter so much. That gave us a slightly new perspective on how we look at the building we are doing at the moment and also our own house. Philippe and family had gone on their holiday so we had a quiet dinner with just us and Robbie (another British WWOOFer who speaks great French) and Noriko (a Japanese WWOOFer who speaks French about like ours.
Monday was Bastille Day and I was sick so we did nothing to celebrate. We had hoped to go to Mont St Michel but couldn’t find anything on there anyway so we just stayed home and carried on with the straw bale house. It was a nice warm sunny day too so we got the yurt opened up and the mattresses out to dry as its rather damp and cold in there, which we don’t think it should be but it wasn’t well put up and it leaked a lot last week. The straw bale house is starting to progress quite well now and a decent chunk of one wall is done. We had to change tack and build the walls and window frame and line the ceiling before going any further and were quite proud of ourselves for building a wall. The straw bales are going on the outside of the building rather than the inside so the walls are put up first to fix the bales to. It was a lovely evening and we had dinner outdoors on the deck by the pond and discussed climate change and sustainability. It is really interesting to have French as the common language and to try to explain things only in French. Apparently in Japan there is not much talk about climate change and Noriko knew little about the concepts of greenhouse effects and things like sustainable farming and the threats to rainforests. It is very pleasant to be able to sit outdoors in France drinking homemade cider and eating good farm produced food and discussing the world’s problems in French. It is also fairly far removed from the worlds problems and although we felt like we are on the side of doing good by being in a place that all the food is organic and they use solar and wind power and build with natural materials, we also recognise that just by being here we are contributing to the problems by flying to France and driving a car.
Tuesday was a bit damp and we got a bit more done on the house in the afternoon. I had a relaxing morning trying to catch up with life and also buying books on amazon. There are as couple of French cookbooks I would really like and I wanted to see if I could get them in English before I go and buy them in French. It is possible to get them in English but you pay twice the price that they are in French. I did however find some of the other books we want at good prices and we ordered a bunch of books that we will use a lot and would cost us a lot more to get hold of once we get back to NZ. That was a bit of a concern because our money situation is a bit dire and we now have only 200 pounds to last us the rest of our trip. That means the NZ credit card will be in a bad way when we get back. If we can sell the car things will be a bit better and we do have some money that was a gift to go out to dinner or we might buy French cookbooks with it so we can continue to experience good French cooking. We had more lively discussions over aperitifs and dinner and got to bed relatively early but I had a terrible night coughing so was pretty exhausted by the morning.
Wednesday morning was wet and since I felt awful we had the day off. I rested and got things up to date on my computer. Steve got the car tidy and took photos to try and sell it. We were invited to Philippe’s mothers house for lunch and got fed rabbit from the farm that had been killed yesterday. It was a very nice lunch and we are getting rather used to this French way of life of eating a 4 –5 course lunch of really good food. The sun came out a bit in the afternoon and we relaxed and chatted to the pigs. One of the pigs is really cute and whenever she sees you coming she trots from the other end of field, with her ears flapping, to see you. She is also a very talkative pig and grunts and snorts away at for ages. She sees us coming every time we walk from the auberge to the yurt so we keep having to go for a chat since she has run all that way. We decided she needs a name and have named her Gloria. We thought it shows greater respect for the animal when you eat her if you can say these sausages came from Gloria and remember what a great pig she was.
Thursday was back to work on the straw bale house again and we got all the bales up on the wall and Steve started the foundation on the second wall while I hand stuffed all the gaps. I didn’t do a great deal as I’d had another lousy night and was just getting more and more tired. Between us we did our 10 hours work but Steve did far more than half of it. Philippe had returned and seemed relatively happy with our project so that was good. We talked with him about wood ovens and how to build them and he showed us around his brother’s farm and the huge bread ovens he has. He bakes bread for the market and does the whole process from start to finish organically including growing the grain, milling it and mixing and baking the bread. It’s a great setup and was really interesting to look around. They also have a couple of mobile bread ovens that they take to markets and fairs on trailers and they were really cool. Apparently they had been built after the war when bombing had destroyed so many homes and all had previously had their own bread ovens. The French without bread is a thing nearing the end of the world so they quickly set up mobile ovens that could go round all the homes and villages so they had bread again. These ones have been restored and are great. We learned heaps about cooking in bread ovens and building them and saw quite a few different designs. Ashley, the chef, was back and we think someone had sneaked some e-numbers into his food because he was off the wall and Steve just wound him up so the two of them had a riot of a time. He’s a really sweet guy and we really enjoy his company and the kitchen is a fun place to be when he’s there. There was another new WWOOFer from Sweden who hasn’t been on a farm before and doesn’t speak French and looked terrified all evening. Although there’s only two people who are actually French (and 5 English if you count us, and 2 Japanese), French is the common language so most of the conversation is in various versions of stilted French with bits of English thrown in. it must be pretty difficult to arrive into.
On Friday we continued with the hand stuffing which is an odious chore, but then finally got to use the strimmer to finish the wall ready for plastering. We can plaster once we have the second wall done so Philippe offered us two helpers on Monday to get it done so we can plaster on Tuesday and Wednesday. JB was back again and he showed Steve some things about plumbing and joined the melange at the lunch table. We had dinner separately in the evening, as the auberge was open again. At 9.30pm we went for a look at the bakery and actually got to join in and help. We saw the whole process of the bread being made and it was really interesting but doesn’t help at all in learning to make French bread as the recipe starts with 100kg of flour! We worked on the loaf table for a couple of hours and I had a go at each part – cutting and weighing the bits of dough into 1kg blocks, shaping the loaves (which is actually pretty difficult and took me four tries to get my first loaf right), and then arranging the loaves on trays of 20 to rise. We did about 18 trays of 20 loaves while we were there, as part of a team of 7 and it was rather fun. They are really relaxed and have a good time while they work. Robbie carried on working for the night and said in the morning that there was anything really different happened to what we did in a couple of hours so we were pretty happy. It’s the biggest artisanal bakery in France that uses wood ovens.
We had a day off on Saturday and did very little other than eat meals, which takes a big chunk of the day anyway, feed pigs. The weather was miserable but we went into the market in Saint-Lo anyway and took the new Swedish WWOOFer who came to work on farms in France without a raincoat and without any old clothes because she says she didn’t know WWOOFing was on farms and she doesn’t like farms!!! The market was big and pretty nice – certainly one of the better markets we’ve been to but when you’re not buying anything it’s not as interesting. There is not much local cheese but lots of local seafood and all three bread stalls were wood oven bread.
On Sunday we decided we should do a bit of sightseeing and after a late start headed towards the coast with Robbie too. We stopped in a small town for a stroll around their street market and have never seen so much junk in one place before, then continued to Pirou plage which had a proper market and we had to buy some fruit so it was much more interesting. I also found a pair of really cheap shoes, which I’ve been looking for for ages so was pretty happy. We had a wee look at the beach but it was pretty windy so headed down the coast a bit further to a place Philippe had recommended. Lacale is a very cool wee restaurant in a shack on the beach. They cook meat on an open fire and also do cheap seafood. We decided to have lunch and just shared one serving of moules frites and 6 oysters and 6 cockles between 3 of us. It came with bread of course and there was actually plenty for three. It was a gorgeous setting and we sat in the sun with our toes in the sand and the food was great. The view of the coast was really interesting too as there were oyster farms everywhere and the tide went out really fast while we were sitting eating lunch so all the oyster beds were exposed. We went for a paddle among the oyster beds but the sea was nowhere to be seen so we couldn’t swim. There was also a bit of a chill with the wind and we worried that if we walked the kilometre out across the sand to the water and swum the tide might come in again just as fast and we’d have a kilometre to swim back!! We took a scenic route on the way back and stopped for views of a few chateaux that were quite nice but all were private houses so we couldn’t get very close, apart from one where we drove in through the middle of a game of boules and then had to drive out through the game a couple of minutes later. Interrupting a game of boules in France is a terrible thing. Sunday evening meal was going to be fend for yourselves but we ended up having a Japanese dinner, which was fabulous. We had miso soup, delicious Japanese potatoes and veges and some crumbed sardines with ginger and tamari and for dessert one of the patissiers had made a great cake and Eku made a traditional Normandie rice pudding that’s cooked in the wood oven. It was quite caramely and really rich and delicious.
On Monday we were to get on with the house but there were all sorts of hold ups waiting for the water tank to be moved before we could put the wall up. We had Robbie for help but not the second person and we didn’t get it done so there was still more to do on Tuesday and we were starting to worry that we wouldn’t get to plaster. I did a bit of stuff in the kitchen including chopping up a chicken so I tried out Michele’s technique from the farm in the Drome, and it was very easy and quick. Dinner on Monday night was an interesting event with Swedish chicken, Japanese chicken and followed by English bread and butter pudding that I made and a New Zealand dessert that I made too. There were a couple of Parisian visitors who were quite Parisian and she disturbed me because she looked very much like she needed to go back to her psychiatrist to have her medications sorted out properly. It was a bit daunting to serve desserts to patissiers but they went down rather well and I learned a bit and gained a lot of confidence for cooking.
Tuesday was just a long day of work on the wall and we finally got the straw finished and started on the first coat of plaster after lunch. I had a wee outing in the morning to go with Eku to collect a flower that I had been asking about that they use in tisanes. I still don’t know what it is but at least I can recognise the plant. It was a lovely outing with 4 girls in a field collecting flowers in the sunshine with nice baskets and chatting – very civilised (if you ignore the nettles, thistles up to your head and high possibility of snakes. We stopped very briefly on the way back to pick a handful of wild strawberries. It was a hot sunny day and we had lunch on the terrace and decided to have a BBQ dinner. Robbie and I made a couple of bits and pieces after lunch and then we got a layer of plaster done on one wall before dinner. Dinner was great. I had made gazpacho for aperitifs which was great on a hot day and the BBQ was fabulous including bbq’d Camembert just in its box which is a Normandie special to chez Philippe. Robbie had made fruit kebabs for dessert which were fantastic and then we had a version of macarons from one of the patissiers which had not worked because there was not the right type of sugar but they tasted pretty good anyway and she had made grapefruit and basil icecream and some hazelnut crème to go with them. We all just stood around in the kitchen eating from the bowls and it was really nice. The kids and Eku had decide to try out this idea of setting fire to the lake by stirring up the leaves on the bottom so they rise up and release the methane gas and then putting a candle to them. It was fascinating to watch and we were all surprised when they actually achieved a flame a couple of times.
On Wednesday morning it was really hot and we finished the plaster on the second wall and then started the second coat on the first wall. We had to work under a big tarpaulin in the end because the sun was too hot for the plaster. It got us out of the sun but in a wee sauna instead. We got a small section of the first wall finished and it looked pretty good and we were happy with our work. It was certainly a rustic look and there are a few things we would do differently if it was our place but it was excellent experience to have done it. We had Mamy’s gallettes for lunch which was an amazing meal with all the leftovers from the last few days and a few things made especially for the gallettes. We must have eaten about 8 each, as there were huge stacks on three different plates. After lunch we just chilled out for a while and showed our photos to Robbie and Noriko and then got packed up slowly. We left at 5.30 and went into St Lo to the second hand bookshop and got a cookbook of really good regional French food then headed towards Mont St Michel to visit Ashley for the night. He was a bit poorly but we had a really nice evening chatting with him and Caroline (his partner) and Robbie who had come with us. We went for a walk along the river just beside their house after dinner and you can see Mont St Michel from just across the street so we watched the sunset light at Mont St Michel although it was from quite a distance it was very pleasant.
We had a very gentle start on Thursday morning and headed to Mont St Michel. We parked on the land side of the causeway and walked across to avoid the high parking costs but it’s also a very pleasant walk. It was pretty hot but not hideously busy and we had a stroll up through the shopping streets and back down around the ramparts. It’s a pretty stunning place and the streets are really cute with medieval buildings but its extremely touristy. We watched the restaurant of la mere Poulard making their famous omelettes in their famous copper pans on an open fire and then headed back across the causeway. We had some free sample cookies for a snack then dropped Robbie off and headed to Brittany. We found a rest area for lunch that was not too bad and at least had some shade. It took us ages to find the house once we got to Plevin but we eventually arrived with Dan and Ann on their smallholding.

We arrived at John and Karen’s late afternoon and had a drink in the garden then just absorbed into the chaos. We had to get the caravan set up for us to sleep in and it was full of stuff and there were 2 visiting Labrador puppies to be walked and their bed organised and 5 collie puppies to be played with. Karen had got back from 15 nights straight work in England about 3 hours before we got there and there were guests in the cottage so all was chaos. Fortunately its comfortable chaos as we know the deal and can just let the excess chaos wash over us. The caravan was comfortable to sleep in and we had clean sheets and can have our own work schedule and good adult company.
On Thursday we got into the work. The cottage garden needs cleaned out and there’s lots of strimming to do, animals to be fed and of course all the puppies have to be played with regularly. We spent a while getting the 8 month old labs used to the 2 month old collies so they could all run round together and its hilarious to watch the huge labs whimpering when they get chased by a tiny collie. Its lovely to see the goats again and there are new baby goats too. It took us quite a bit of time to get the caravan moved to its intended new site and the awning set up. Having never been inside a caravan awning it was a bit of a mission to set up but we got there in the finish. The ground is too hard for the pegs to go into so we are going to have to use a drill to make holes in the ground! We also got a whole lot of nettles collected to make a nettle fertiliser for the garden and some of the garden weeded and watered. We pretty much worked all day but none of it was hard work and there were plenty of interruptions to play with baby animals. We had a really pleasant evening in the cottage garden with a couple of bottles of wine and chatting with Karen and John and friends of theirs and another of John’s homemade cheeses which was fantastic again. The sun doesn’t go down till about 10.30 so we are tending to stay up late because we’re outdoors.
Friday was ongoing chaos with puppies and one of the labs learned to chase a stick and the little puppies started trying too. Sam, the dad collie loves to play stick and whenever you throw the stick for him the whole 9 dogs start tearing round the yard yelping and chasing each other and trying to stop Sam from getting the stick back to you. Steve did lots of strimming and I did lots of feeding the animals and searching for eggs and a bit of weeding and hedge trimming. It was a very relaxed day but with plenty of unexpected interruptions like the chickens in the top field needing checking because the cockerel was very agitated and we think a fox had been by in the night. We also moved the buck goat up to the top field and later had to intervene between him and the ram who was not happy about having a new male in his territory. We had a pleasant dinner out in the cottage garden and sat around having a few drinks till it was nearly dark then did end of day chores of walking the labs, closing up and feeding animals again.
On Saturday amid the ongoing chaos, Steve strimmed the front lawn and I raked up the grass so Karen and I could set up the eight-man tent. That took a wee while with lots of help from puppies, but we got it done and found mattresses and beds and some kitchen bits to kit out the caravan. Steve found a couple of snakes while strimming the car park area, which added a bit of excitement, one of them got turned into worms by the strimmer. I went up to the top field to get some eggs and check on the state of warfare between goat and ram and somehow got stuck between the two of them both wanting my undivided attention. Although they weren’t aggressive to me they certainly were to each other and there was one on either side of me. It was actually pretty frightening and I decided it wasn’t smart to go up there on my own any more. The crying from this great big ferocious buck was quite pitiful as he is just really lonely and particularly if he hears Karen’s voice he cries like a baby.
Sunday was our day off and after feeding animals very slowly and playing with them lots we just chilled out. In the afternoon we all left eventually got on the road to St Suzanne to go to the jousting but it was much more expensive than we had thought so we decided not to. We cam back to the house and got my painting things and went and painted the wind in the willows scene from below the chateau. Then we had a stroll around the village below St Suzanne, which turned out to be a great decision as it was one of the most beautiful villages we have seen – kind of like the Cotswolds but French. There were even little huts beside the river for washing clothes. We picked the others from the jousting and it sounds like we didn’t miss much. We all went for a stroll around the cute village then and Karen thought it was the prettiest place she’d seen in France. We went home and got things for a picnic and went to the Gue de Selle by the lake for a big picnic dinner, which was very nice and relaxing.
Monday was back to regular chores and we moved the geese from the pig compound, which was an interesting experience. It involved me and Karen running around the enclosure trying to catch and herd geese while Steve guarded the gate and hoped the pigs kept eating their breakfast. Karen and I both got covered in mud and I also got a good face pack from geese flapping into the pigs wallow. However they got there in the end with actually a minimum of distress to them. We also let babe (the baby boar who likes to be tickled under his chin - that could be entertaining when he weighs most half of a ton!) out of the small enclosure he’s been in waiting for repairs to his last lot of damage, and he had a great time and even did a dance up on his hind legs because he was so happy. The weather had packed in a bit and in the afternoon it really rained and we had to retreat to the caravan. It still wasn’t pegged down properly because the ground was too hard and we needed a drill to get the pegs in. Unfortunately the rain didn’t soften the ground enough but everything and everyone stayed dry including the tent and the puppies, who shelter in the caravan awning whenever we are there or from the rain or sun. We let Spot the dog into the field while we were herding the goats to get them to bed and he turns out to be a natural and has really good instincts. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen this tiny eight week old puppy herding the baby goats. It was even more funny because Spot didn’t quite understand what I wanted and he thought the goats should stay in the field so as fast as I could chase them out he chased them back in.
On Tuesday morning after animal feeding we went into Evron to check our email and look at the bookshop and get bread for lunch. We had a fairly quiet afternoon but got the holes drilled for the caravan awning pegs and finally got it firmly in place. Steve took Spot the dog up the top field with his dad, Sam (who is a great dog and really well behaved but a complete wimp when it comes to sheep). Boy, the ram headed for Steve and Sam sat behind Steve when told to stay here but Spot went and stood halfway between Boy and Steve and barked at him till he backed off and went away. We were really impressed, particularly because Boy is a huge ram and Spot is only about the size of his head. By the time the animals decide to put themselves to bed it is rather late so we got to bed late again. That’s also added to by very pleasant evenings sitting having dinner in the cottage garden and a couple of glasses of wine and just chatting. Its not quite as relaxing as it sounds because periodically pandemonium breaks out in the yard and we go to check what puppy is doing what to the kittens, dogs, geese, chickens or other puppies.
On Wednesday we finished off tidying the cottage garden and getting the tent finished so everything was ready for the new guests and WWOOFer. I built a stone wall inside the tent to try and stop the puppies getting in and using it as a playpen but that only means they just use the door instead of all sides. Then we started on the compound for the chickens in the bottom field and got all the holes drilled for the posts and two corner posts in the ground. We took the dogs for a walk after lunch and the smarter one was a brat all the way. Then we made a trip into Evron to get Karen some groceries, quickly check our email (to find out I have a job and Steve has been asked to apply for one) and pick up Vicki, the new WWOOFer. She is lovely and we spent a while orientating her. We took Spot the dog up to the top sheep again and this time he nearly got trodden on by Boy who decided to charge him. But then Boy ran for it and Spot took off after him so still won the day. What a brave little puppy! We had a nice BBQ dinner with Vicki and the guests and finally got a slightly earlier night.
Thursday morning we woke a bit early and got animals fed and had breakfast with Vicki then got to work on the chicken compound again. We got all the post in and the trench dug and then called it quits for the morning. Karen came out with coffee and cookies so we had a tea break to sustain us while we packed up until lunch half an hour later! We said our goodbyes and got on the road about 1.30. It had been really nice to see Karen and John again and also to be back at the same property two months later in the season and see how things had changed. It only took just over two hours to get up to the next farm near St Lo in Normandie. We were a bit anxious as we hadn’t heard back from them in a month but they were expecting us and the farm looks great.

We arrived in Pierry, outside Epernay in Champagne about 6pm into a fairly weird situation. There were already 3 WWOOFers there who were American kids and rather rich. The guy who runs the farm was leaving in a couple of days as his grandfather had just died and so we would have to use our car to get to the farm which is 8km from the house. They didn’t have a bed organised for us so moved one of the other WWOOFers out of a room for us to have but we didn’t get clean sheets or anything. We eventually had dinner at 9.30pm and I went straight to bed, as I was shattered. We did get a wee glass of champagne with our dinner that was made by Mathieu’s father, which was pretty cool.
We were supposed to start work at 8am on Monday but the American kids didn’t get going in time and we only left at 9am. It was pretty hot and the work was fairly heavy but also fun. We were cutting down a wood of hawthorn and dog rose so we got scratched to bits. There were eight of us working so we got quite a bit done. However it got far too hot for me and by the time we finished I wasn’t feeling very well and just went to sleep when we got home for a few hours. I probably had a bit of heat stroke and was still feeling nauseous and headachy later in the afternoon when I got up and we had to go out and do some more work in the small garden at the house. We were supposed to do 5 hours work in the day but actually did closer to seven and I had to stop before the others did. They had said that was fairly normal and dinner is usually very late. I had to go to bed before dinner so really hadn’t eaten anything all day. Steve eventually got his dinner sometime after 10.30 and wasn’t very happy either.
On Tuesday Mathieu left and we were responsible for getting the American kids to and from the farm. We had said we were starting at 8 but there was a lot of whingeing and we felt like we were babysitting teenagers. They had been partying till 1am and took a while to get going. However we got lots of work done again and cleared a new path through the property and a big area at the top of the path to be made into vegetable gardens. We finished at 12 and went back for some lunch and a brief siesta then out for a drive to make the most of being in Champagne. We tasted at a couple of places and had a nice drive around in the countryside although it was rather hot. We decided we didn’t really want to stay and baby-sit teenagers and also the schedule really doesn’t work for us with late starts and very late meals. We made a couple of phone calls in the evening to Lisa from Provence and to John and Karen from our first farm. John and Karen were having a hard time and said they would be very happy to have us back so we decided to leave in the morning.
We got going at 7.30 on Wednesday and virtually drove all day to get halfway across France to Karen and John’s. We stopped for a glance at the chateau at Fontainebleau and discovered it was free to get into the grounds and they were lovely. There was a big lake which the chateau reflected in and several other ponds with fountains and really good landscaping of grassy areas with pretty flower gardens and architectural trees. We also stopped briefly at Chatres to see the labyrinth in the cathedral. There was a thunderstorm while we were there and we got rather wet so didn’t look at the town at all other than the run from the car park to the cathedral and back. The cathedral front was covered in scaffolding although it is supposed to be rather beautiful. The inside is quite nice with a big rose window but its very dark and hard to see much. The labyrinth is covered by chairs and the centre has been removed so you can’t see much of it, never the less we are pleased to have been there and seen it and even more pleased not to have made a big trip to do it. We arrived at John and Karen’s late afternoon and had a drink in the garden then just absorbed into the chaos.