Where-ever I lay my hat

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.