Where-ever I lay my hat

We got to St Christophe around 5pm and met the family and the guests (they have B&B). Everyone speaks French and we had a fairly tough evening, particularly beign tired and at dinner there were 12 people which was simply too much to understand. There is a kiwi guy here who speaks brilliant French and helped us out a bit, and we chatted with him about travel and WWOOFing in English. They serve a proper dinner that begins with homemade aperitifs on the lawn at 7.30 and carries on with salad, homemade local specialities, cheese (some of it homemade) and dessert then finishes with a tisane about 10.30 – 11.00. The food was fantastic and they even do all their own meat products so we have great hopes of learning lots. We had to clean out the car as we found lots of ants again and another batch of eggs so we hovered them up and then found their current nest which was in Steves boot!! He picked up the boot and ants just swarmed everywhere so they must have only moved in there in the last two days because you couldn’t have not noticed and he was wearing the boots two days ago! It took about 5 minutes just to hover the one boot! Yuk!
We have a room up in the attic above the family and share the bathroom with the children. Guests live in a separate house with 4 bedrooms or in one of the room in the main house and they eat in the main house.
Tuesday 10 June started slowly and our only chore for the day was to drop Dan off at the train station in Romans, in return for which Isabelle shouted us all a visit to the international musee de shoes. It was actually really interesting with stuff abouthte making of shoes, history, shoes around the world and recent fashion and the great shoe fashion houses of the 20th century, many of which were based in Romans. There was also a small museum of the French resistance which had a major centre in Romans and that was also interesting although also quite disturbing. Today had been designated our day off so we continued and went over to the Rhone to the wine region of Tain l’Hermitage which makes some pretty famous stuff. Steve tasted at Cave du Tain and Chapoutier and was pretty happy that thye taste most of their good wines as well as the average. We drove a bit further along the river and had a very late lunch on its bank then headed back home. We are absolutely terrified of the next two weeks being fully immersed in French but it will be very good for us. Dinner was with guests again but only two and it was much easier, although we still really didn’t understand much. Again it was fabulous food and five courses so we will certainly not starve here.
Wednesday was our first day of work and Steve worked with Noel in the garden and with the animals and I worked with Isabelle in the kitchen and cleaning the rooms of the chambre d’hote. Both of them are very patient in communicating with us and we both managed ok although felt extrememly exhausted by the end of the morning and wondered what we have done to ourselves. The work is not hard at all and for me, I’m also getting constant private French lessons. Isabelle corrects my French and tells me better ways of saying things and really encourages me to just talk regardless of making mistakes. We had some time off in the afternoon and went for a walk in the forest and hills behind the house for an hour. We found some mushrooms which we took back for approval before we actually collected any in case they don’t use them but they were very happy so tomorrow we hope to go collecting. We got caught in the daily thunderstorm and got drenched on the last bit of the run back to the house. There has actually been a thunder storm every since day for the last 4 weeks and rain every single day, except one, for the last 6 weeks. Dinner was for us and 5 guests and was difficult again but we are starting to just tune out when we can’t cope any more – like shortly after we start eating!
Thursday was more of the same work – Steve feding animals and basic garden work, and me cleaning the chambre d’hote. Isabelle was away for the morning so I worked a bit with Noel and a lot on my own. We went for a walk to collect mushrooms after lunch and found 4 good big cepes and quite a few girolles. Its fantastic to just wander about in the woods poking about for mushrooms and actually knowing that what we’re collecting is edible. We found lots in the first hour tehn nothing for an hour then just as we were finishing another two really nice cepes. It is a bit of a tedious activity when youre not finding anything but so much fun when you do that it makes up for it. We also saw the mother of all cepes but she was old and we left her in the woods. The final two cepes Noel and I prepared for aperitifs just raw with salt, pepper and a bit of walnut oil, and they were great. They went very nicely with some homemade saucisson. Dinner was quite nice as there was the two elderly gentlemen still and they are really warming to us and chatting a bit although its difficult with the language thing. They commented how much better our French is already though. There was also a family from Belgium but although they speak fluent French its not their first language and they don’t really mange to chat. I think the ability to chat and to maek jokes means you can actually communicate with people and I’m just starting to manage that with Isabelle, which is really nice. Steve went out with Noel to get more milk to make cheese from the farm down the road and whey for the pigs from the farm opposite that make goats cheese. The daily thunderstorm only came after we went to bed so that’s a big improvement. The other bonus about the weather is that there are not usually cepes at this time of year because its too dry so that makes up for some of the rain.
Friday started with usual work and I made icecream and then omelette with the remaining mushrooms for lunch. It was fantastic and definitely makes up for the tedious bits wandering in the woods. We had a wee siesta as its pretty exhausting still with all the communication being in French but it is improving every day. Steve is reading a French comic book, with the help of a dictionary. The dictionary goes everywhere with us and one of the elderly gentlemen called it ‘le bible’ so that’s what it now is. There’s also a second bible, which is a French book of plants so we can identify what plants are that come up in conversation and we don’t know the French name for. I think our vocabulary of French plants is probably better now than most peoples in English! After siesta we went for a walk to collect more mushrooms and tried a few new places and spent 2 hours finding nothing. Then we went back to the same trees and found lots of girolles again and a couple of cepes. One of the cepes was good enough to make aperitifs again and the rest for lunch tomorrow. There was a Belgian couple staying and they were struggling a bit with French as it is only their 4th language and English is their 2nd so they were very keen to speak in English with us. I actually found that really difficult because there were too many sounds in my head and most of the table was speaking French and I’d been speaking French all day so hearing French in one ear and trying to answer in English from the other ear was really difficult. In the end no words came in either language and bits of German kept coming out again as they also speak Dutch between themselves which is a similar sound. Three languages in my head at the same time was too much for me. I don’t know how the Belgians manage to jump so easily between languages. The meal was great again with aperitifs, a salad and fromage tarte, farm porc casserole, fromage, and apples with my icecream. However I was shattered and even Noel noticed I was staring blankly into space and not hearing anything. It was actually only 10pm when we got to bed but felt more like midnight for me (which is really really late).
Saturday was a busy baking morning for me as the guests were really slow in having breakfast and leaving. We made mint and cheese cake, chestnut and chocolate cake and started a brioche. There was actually only one room to clean and then lunch to be made. It was fantastic mushroom omelette again with leftover tarte. In the afternoon we had a lesson on conjugating verbs from Isabelle then I had a wee siesta and Steve went for a cycle into Hautrives to look at the Palais Ideal which is a folly built by some important guy but not that great from the outside so he decided we probably wouldn’t bother to go in. We had dinner by ourselves in the evening so just had leftovers form last night but it was nice to be able to relax over dinner and not concentrate so hard to understand and also not feel like I needed to be looking after the guests all the time. We didn’t have to eat so many courses so finished in time to go for a walk. It was a gorgeous evening and we could see the cliffs of the Vercors (a national park area) and a nice sunset. We had a quick look for mushrooms but there were none under the same tree. We think maybe because it hasn’t rained today and it was fairly dry there. That might mean the end of our mushroom hunting unless it rains again so we are a bit torn. Its certainly nice to have had no rain or thunder for 24 hours.
Sunday was a day that all the guests changed so we started work later so they could all have breakfast and leave and I could start on cleaning rooms. So we had breakfast and then went for a walk before work. We finished at lunch and had a few hours break before animal and guest feeding times, so went for another walk. This time we took a different route and went across the other side of the valley where the goat farm is that our chevre comes from, and we were looking back across at the house. It turned out to be rather a long walk although very nice through the woods and through farmland and old stone cottages. After feeding time we had our own dinner separately again although did have aperitifs with the guests. A couple of other French ladies were eating their own meal in theother kitchen too so we chatted with them a bit. Apparently at dinner there were more people who preferred to speak English than French so for me it was good we were’nt there as it would have confused things even more. We also managed to get an early night.
On Monday all the guests changed again so I cleaned rooms but there was no evening meal preparation as it is the couple of days off for Isabelle so if guests are here they cater for themselves. That also meant we got the evening off and Steve had worked a long morning helping to weigh all the young sheep to see which ones could go to the abattoir. That involved lots of chasing, tackling and lifting sheep. After lunch we went for a drive into Tain l’Hermitage again as we’d found out that the Valhrona chocolate factory is there and do free tastings. It was easy to find and we ate rather a lot of chocolate. We could just taste their whole range of estate chocolate as well as pralines and other chocolate things. The smell on the street was also gorgeous – not a bit like the Cadburys smell but much more rich and sophisticated. We went for a walk afterwards and strolled across the Rhone to Tournon and around its old town a bit. It probably would have been very pretty but it started raining properly and we got drenched as we didn’t have coats. We stopped in the tourist office and when the man spoke to us in English we even asked him to speak French to help us learn and got treated very differently to the English people who came in after us and spoke to him directly in English. The church in Tournon was really pretty with old medieval arches and iron chandeliers and very simple but attractive lines and décor. We stopped under the arch of the old bridge in the middle of the Rhone on the way back and discussed education (!!!) for fifteen minutes and in the meantime the rain eased. By the time we got back to Valhrona we were soggy but not drenched and we tasted a bit more and bought a couple of bars of chocolate and got given a huge handful of bite-size bars as well. We got back to the house still rather soggy and got into dry clothes for a very simple dinner with the family and an early night.
Tuesday was the first of our two days off and the weather looked like it was lifting a bit towards the hills so we got organised slowly and got sent off with picnic lunches and dinners and headed to the Vercors. The first part of the drive just got wetter and we nearly called off the trip but it still looked a bit clearer in the hills and we eventually drove into them. We were fairly pleased we did because although the scenery was not as grand as it could have been the cliffs were moody with clouds hanging over them and rather pretty. We’re sure the views along more of them would have been magnificent but we couldn’t see it. We went in to a cave called Grottes de Chorance and decided to pay the money for a visit as it was not a great day and the caves looked pretty cool. It was actually the best cave we can remember visiting. The stalactites were incredible as they were just tiny threads hanging down all of uniform diameter but different lengths up to three meters. They were white and glowed in the lights and there were lots of them. There were also some regular stalactites and an underground river and a couple of lakes that were all lit up beautifully. We walked along a couple of bits of the river, which were also lit really nicely and up a wee rapid to a higher chamber with another lake. We arrived there in the dark and they did a sound and light show to show off all the features of the chamber and it was really spectacular. The river looked like the volcanic terraces in NZ but surrounded by amazing cave formations. It was certainly a very worthwhile visit. After the cave we strolled down to the waterfall which was also beautiful and through a cave underneath it, and to another underground lake, which was pretty but not like the ones on the tour and was open to the general public. They also had some good displays of the archaeology and artefacts found in the caves and the geology of the caves and the local area. Another great thing they had was decent toilets – flush toilets, with toilet paper and basins with soap. Usually the public toilets in France are ghastly and I try to avoid using them. At the farm with the composting toilet we just got very used to having a pee in the bushes and that is certainly preferable to the toilets which are basically squat platforms that are open below and always stink and are surrounded by millions of flies. As a consequence we ‘find’ ladies rooms in all sorts of places I’ve used some pretty spectacular ladies rooms – with views of the snowy tops of the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean, lavender fields, Provencal villages, flamingos in the camargue. However it was so exciting to have a proper toilet that we had to use it twice. It was too late for a boulangerie to be open (everything closes between 12 and 2 for lunch including boulangeries) for bread for our lunch so we carried on sightseeing. It was a shame really because this is one of the first areas in france we’ve seen that has decent picnic areas. Actually they seem to just randomly drop picnic tables in lots of places, often in the middle of wildflower meadows, with some basic pull-off area from the road. We drove through the Gorges de la Bourne which had some lovely steep cliffs and interesting roads under and through cliffs. However I think we are getting a bit blasé about gorges as we’ve seen some amazing ones now. We headed to La Chapelle en Vercors and looked at campgrounds and the weather then drove to a viewpoint from which we could see nothing and back to a quiet campground outside La Chapelle. The weather actullay lifted and we sat and enjoyed the sun for a while and had an early dinner/ very late lunch. It was a good thing we ate early because we saw the weather coming in and just as we finshed dinner reckoned we had about 15 minutes before we got wet so cleaned up and I got into the tent. Steve was still away doing dishes when the storm hit. He says he has never seen rain like it including in the tropics. We had moved the tent under a tree so I didn’t get hit with the full force of the rain but it was quite loud and there was enough thunder and lightening. Steve was worried about me after it had been raining like that for 20minutes and it eased a little so he only got wet getting back to the tent not drenched. It carried on raining normally for a couple of hours then cleared up a bit and when I got up at 3am I even saw the full moon although couldn’t see much at ground level for the fog. The people in the other tent down the track told us in the morning they had a foot deep of water in the tent overnight and had to move.
We slept in till 8.30, we must have had fairly fitful sleep with the drips from the tree all night and occasional rain although we think it was better to have been under the tree than in the full force of that rain like the other people. Steve went off to the boulangerie and got bread and croissants for our breakfast and we headed away about 11am. We drove up the valley again and it is really pretty – nearly the quintessential alpes with meadows of wildflowers, pretty chalets, cows with bells on and, although not actally mountains, huge hills with impressive white cliffs. They didn’t all coincide for the perfect photo unfortunately but it was still really pretty and very green everywhere. We climbed a couple of mountain passes – the word ‘col’ always makes us think twice about driving there but we invariably see plenty of cyclists at the top. The road down from the Vercors passes through one of the most stupid roads in the world. There are three other ways of getting to the same place so its absolutely beyond me why they would build a road on the edge of huge cliffs and have to blast lots of tunnels and tack on sharp corners. However the trip was fantastic and the views down off the Vercors plateau and along the cliffs were incredible. There was still plenty of cloud around so we couldn’t see far but it was still amazing. We stopped for lunch by the river in St Nazaire en Vercors and had a nice picnic table beside the lake and I painted the viaduct and town while Steve strolled around it. Some French ladies came over and asked to see my painting and I managed to have a conversation with them in French for a while which I was rather pleased with as a week ago I would have looked blankly at them. After that we drove back to the house and went for a walk to look for mushrooms again but found absolutely none. There was only the family for dinner so it was another quiet evening. it was dry and sunny and we managed to get all the camping gear dried over the fence.
Thursday dawned a gorgeous day and we had fairly gentle chores to do (weeding and cleaning the kitchen) and finished at 1pm. After lunch we just lay in the sunshine and watched all the tractors up and down the valley frantically cutting hay. They are all very concerned because its very late for the hay as its been too wet and will mean a very difficult season for them. We went for a walk up the valley a bit, crossed to the other side and past the farm our chevre comes from. The views of the Vercors were perfect and barely a cloud to be seen. We could actually also see past the Vercors to the Alpes with snowy peaks – what a shame it wasn’t like that 2 days ago! The whole valley here is lovely with pretty farms and nice green fields (the farmers don’t think that’s good) and wee herds of grazing cows and goats and the backdrop of the white cliffs of the Vercors. We had a restful afternoon and evening with only the family for dinner again.
Friday was the day the young cockerels got the chop as they were starting to try to crow in the mornings and waking the guests. Their attempts at crowing were pretty funny at times but apparently there are 13 more cockerels than are needed! So we had a day of processing chickens. Noel kills them very humanely and quickly and efficiently and also showed me and I did the last one. Steve and I were on the plucking table and fairly quickly after they are killed they get plunged into hot water and immedatlely plucked. It certainly makes the job of plucking a lot easier. After the plucking they are processed and I joined Isabelle at that afterwards. The heads and feet are cut off and thrown away, tehn we gut them and keep all the good bits like livers and hearts and gizzards. The skins are fired with a heat gun to get any last feather buds out and tehn they go to the kitchen to be butchered. It took basically two people from 8am till 1pm to process 13 chickens to be ready for butchering. Isabelle had a friend come round in the afternoon to do the butchering. Michele I think used to work as a butcher and just wants to keep his hand in, but it was certainly impressive to watch him butcher a chicken. In the afternoon we just lay about in the sun, which had finally come out with some vigour. We had a stroll to look for mushrooms later on and found absolutely none although some of the old ones we had picked were budding. We joined everyone for table d’hote and had another busy evengin and fairly late to bed.
Saturday was a fairly quiet day too. We had regular work in the moringn although Isabelle got me doing mostly stuff in the kitchen rather than cleaning rooms which was nice. She had a friend come to help out with the rooms as there were lots to do and she was really busy with 14 people for dinner. I made a chicken liver terrine and a couple of cakes. In the afternoon we went into Romans to get a map of Switzerland and then went to Chateauneuf-sur-Isere to have a tasting at Paul Jaboulet Aine and I got to taste as well. The wines were lovely and the caves were really impressive where they cellar the wine. It was hot outside again and lovely and cool inside. Summer seem to have finally arrived with a vengence. The temperatures have changed from being in the low 20’s to suddenly high 30’s and the sudden change has given everyone headaches. The farmers are out cutting hay as fast as they can and there is the constant hum of tractors around the house from all over the vballey. We can sit outdoors and watch the landscape changing around us. The fields look different every day and the barley is ripening really fast. Noel comes in from his tractor in time to serve aperitifs and he is nearly black with sun and tractor grease. We decided not to join the huge dinner in the evening but just had a quiet dinner ourselves and since it was also solstice we went up the hill to watch the sun set at 9.30.
Sunday was our last day and we had decided to leave a bit early so our drives wouldn’t be as big the next day. We did a bit of work in the moring although they had said we didn’t need too. They have been really generous to us and we have had a fantastic time and it was very sad to leave. We got sent off with a care packeage of farm produce we got away about 1pm after a substantial lunch of leftovers from last night. The liver terrien was great and we also had a chocolate marron cake for dessert which was lovely (and of course some chicken and rice, a fromage course and a salad course!).