I am in the south of France, on an excellent farm in a tiny village called La Chalaguére. Things are going very well after a bit of an interesting start to things.
I don’t have much patience to write much now. The French language keyboard is by far the most different from the US English keyboard so far and it is slow-going and the majority of letters and all the punctuation keys are in completely different locations!
The family I’m with is English, but they have been in France for 16 years. They aren’t a part of wwoof, but have been accepting wwoofers for many years. The farmers, Granville and Stella speak French fluently, as do their three kids. The youngest, Richie is still living at home and their oldest, Cia, comes to the house for several days a week to help with the weekly harvests and the selling at the two local markets. Everyone is great to be around and Stella, Cia and I spend the most time working together. The farm is huge - 34 hectares. They (we, I guess) are cultivating about three hectares and they have three large poly-tunnels. There’s also ten (10!) horses, two great dogs, and one rescued and adorable hedgehog. The farm is completely awesome and very close to what I want. The surrounding area reminds me most of the mountains and foothills in the eastern USA, i.e. the Smoky; Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountain ranges.
My powerbook is the only computer on the farm. Needless to say there is no internet access, but there is a small internet access shop nearby (obviously … ;)). So, friends and neighbors, don’t expect to hear much from me, if anything in the coming week or two. I am set to be on this farm until July 1, when I’ll be heading north to a farm in the Fougere area near (or in) Brittany. Just know that I am safe and well and enjoying myself on a completely modern (aside from internet) farm!
