Just to say how I found La Giraudiere and it's working holiday in France and why I came here. I found out about it by doing an internet search. I came here as I wanted to get a taste of life in France before buying a property here. I also wanted to work some of the time, as I get bored on normal holidays. I am staying for four weeks and think in this time, I will learn much about life in France and hopefully improve my French language skills. Also it looked such a unique opportunity and an interesting project and it is!!!
Just to tell you about the travel details in case you come here and this might be helpful. I arrived at Bordeux Airport at 9.30am on Tuesday 1 June, I then went to Exit 7 at the aiport to get the 45 minute Jet shuttle bus to Gare St Jean Railway Station, this cost 7 euros. On arrival at the station, which is quite big, the ticket hall is down the esculator and there I bought a 13 euro one way TER train ticket to Angouleme, Charentes. The train stopped at a few places on route, and I got off at Chalais, the stop after Roche Chalais. That journey took 2hrs 30 minutes and Paul met me at Chalais station and brought me the half hour journey by car to La Giraudiere.
The nearest village to La Giraudiere is called Brossac Village and it is just under one mile away, it's a small, quiet, friendly little village. It has a few shops and a Bistro called St Bernard's. The walk down there is very pleasant. The air is so fresh here, the sky so blue and it is so picturesque and the stars are wonderful at night. There are all kinds of wildlife around; butterflies, deer, frogs, cuckoos and you can really hear them very clearly at night as there is no traffic or noise. The countryside is so pretty and the walks are really wonderful. Anyway, after only being here for 2 days, I can honestly say it is one of the loveliest places I have ever been to.
The group I am working with consists of Jim and Lidia, who are a married couple from Florida, then there is Brian, who is from Chicago, Rhian is a Welsh teacher and all have been so friendly, nice and great fun. Paul has even arranged for a French lesson every week for us and yesterday, I had my first. The teacher Linda was really excellent and I learnt so much, as we all did.
Jim and Brian are working on the ceiling of Apartment 4 at the house, Rhian is doing the housekeeping, although we are taking it in turns to cook dinner every night. I just saw Rhian and she had just finished clearing a drainpipe, I will post a photo of this!!! It was Lidia's turn to cook last night and she made a Cuban dish called Chicken Fricassef, which we ate outside and it was really good. Paul the owner of the house has asked me to write a daily blogg, take photographs of our progress and events and keep up to La Giraudiere's Facebook. Lidia did a really good job on cutting the grass and doing some weeding today. Her husband Jim or 'Indiana Jones' as we call him in that hat!!, also did some gardening.
The group are very easy to get along with and we are all helping each other and last night we all went to Brossac to St Bernard's Bistro for drinks, and this was really good fun. The locals all know Paul and he has introduced us to them. We walked back and even at night, it was pleasant. The frogs in the pond we passed were making so much noise!! I have forgotten to mention Paul's dog, Sydney, who is so cute and friendly and walks around checking on us all day long.
The gites are nice although we do not spend much time in them, we sit outside to eat our meals as the weather is so good at the moment. The gites are clean and the beds comfortable and there is plenty of good healthy food around, see photo. One really useful thing is that we can do laundry anytime here, its so quick to dry, we just hang it on the line. I would advise anybody coming here not to bring too many clothes as you won't need them.
Paul did mention that so far this year lots of people from around the globe have stayed here; even some schoolkids last week from Nottingham, UK. This weekend four more people will arrive to join us.
Its 3.30pm now, so time for our afternoon tea break, which Rhian has prepared. We stop for tea/coffee/biscuits around 10.30am and 3.00pm and have a chat. It is really hot today and is due to get hotter every day until after the weekend.
Its June 4 today and to recap on last night, we had our dinner outside again and Rhian had prepared for us a lovely fish pie, it was really delicious. Around 9pm, we went to The Lake, this is a very picturesque spot and a nice shortish walk from here. There is a lake, bistro and restaurant and so we had a few drinks, again very, very enjoyable. Its also possible to swim in the lake if you want to.
So tired, I went to bed at 10pm!
Today, it is Friday, 4 June and we just had breakfast. Jim and Lidia have set off for Barcelona, as they are going on a weekend trip. We had coffee break at 10.30, which Rhian made for us. Brian is working on the ceiling again, Rhian is drilling some screws in Apartment 4 with Paul as her tutor. The view from the balcony on Apartment 4 is really beautiful. We have just moved gites as four more people will join us over the weekend. We will have lunch a bit later today (1.30pm) and go to play petangue this afternoon with the locals.
Now it is Saturday 5 June, and we really had fun yesterday playing petangue. It was so nice to meet some of the local people who are Paul's friends, they offered us some beer and wine, which was really kind. After that we came back to La Giraudiere and as there were only 3 of us, Rhian made a buffet from the leftovers and it was so good. Paul asked us if we wanted to go into town to St Barnard's bar but we chose to stay and chat here. We had fun especially when Brian found a toad and introduced him to me!he told me that he had found the toad on his doorstep!
We are chilling out this morning; Brian has been telling me about all his travels and it was so interesting and inspiring, Rhian is reading at the moment and Paul is doing his accounts.
It was such a hot day yesterday (Saturday 5th June), however Brian and Rhian went for a walk to the lake and then down to Brossac to watch football with Paul. They had a few peach beers and came back. Then Kate joined us from London and we had dinner and then back down to town to introduce her to St Bernard's Bistro. We had a few drinks in there and then came back to La Giraudiere. There was a storm brewing up and we had thunder and lightening.
On Sunday 6th June, it was raining a little and Kate and I walked to Brossac to attend a service at Notre Dame church. There was a lot of people attending the service, but unfortunately, due to sampling a little too much red wine the evening before, both of us felt queasy so only stayed in the church for a few minutes. We went to St Bernard's for coffee to try to recover a little, and Brian and Rhian called in and asked us if we wanted to go for a ride to the village of Aubeterre, and have lunch there. It was about a half hour drive through the countryside, and so nice, we even saw some deer.
Aubeterre was a really pretty place and we went for lunch at 'Creperie de la Source' and had galettes, which were really delicious. There were so many bistros, it was difficult to choose. Then, we had a look around the church and the shops, and came back to La Giraudiere. We had just missed the Sunday morning market at Aubeterre, which by the remains of what we saw, would be very good.
Anyway, when we got back to La Giraudiere, we were all a bit tired, so we decided to have a pizza and movie night. So, at around 8pm we all went to Gite 1 and after looking through all Paul's DVD's we decided to watch 'Faceoff' the movie with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta. It was a really nice evening to round off a very nice day. However, there was a commotion in the middle of the night, when two butterflies came in my room through the open window! I screamed as if there was a murder going on and opened by door to get them out, the wind blew poor Kate's door open and she shouted 'are you okay', I even startled Rhian!! so I felt rather stupid to be so frightened of two very pretty butterflies..
Yesterday, Monday 7th June, another day off to enjoy, and the weather was beautiful. We had a nice leisurely breakfast and then at 9.30am, Rhian, Brian, Kate and myself drove to Chalais for the market day. Chalais is a nice town nearby, with a huge chateau, and also has the only drawbridge in France. It was a really interesting market with cheeses, wine, clothes, hats, shoes, livestock etc. Rhian and Brian tried all kinds of local delicasies including pinaeu, duck sausage, blueberry sausage, crepes, snails and cognac!
Kate and I, saw a cute little miniature goat sitting on a cart, he was so tame and seemed to really like people. The guy who was with him was selling tins of throat lozenges, but they were expensive 30 euros! but he said the profit went towards 'SOS' which he said was an organization that would support the goat!! we thought 30 euros was a little expensive so declined the purchase!! then, Kate and I, found a cafe and had coffee outside. We also discovered that they do French lessons there every Friday 1.30 - 3pm for 5 euros and this includes coffee and gateaux, so we will definitely come for that. Anyway, we headed back to La Giraudiere and had lunch. Later on, as the weather was so lovely, Brian and Rhian went for a long walk and Kate went for a long bike ride.
Jim and Lidia, arrived back from Barcelona, it was a good trip for them. They had hired a car and drove down there on Friday. It took 7 hours to get there and on their return they stopped off at a town midway, called Carcassonne, a midieval town that they found very well preserved and interesting. They had a nice dinner in Carcassonne, a bottle of wine and stayed over in a local hotel with a view of the city walls.
Anyway, Jim and Lidia were just in time for dinner, I had cooked roast chicken with Yorkshire puddings and we ate this outside last night. So another lovely day at La Giraudiere
Today is Tuesday 8 June and we are now back at work. This will be my first week here and I must say how much I have enjoyed it, the time has gone so quick and we have done so much. I would say that with this type of experience there are so many advantages; we are meeting the local people and socialising with them, we are shopping and asking for things in French in the local village, we are experiencing what life is really like here. Also, the people that are here are so interesting and so nice and its really good to hear their stories about travel and what they have done in life. A hotel type holiday would not be like this at all.
The weather is a bit dull and its raining a bit at the moment but we are happy!!. Jim, Brian and Paul are working in Apartment 4 on the ceiling again. Rhian is shopping and then will clean the fridges out. Lidia is helping Paul with some office work. Kate is working on some advertising for Paul and I am writing this blogg. Just had coffee and everyone is back to work. We stopped for lunch at 1pm and it was such a healthy one, see photo.
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