As some of you may have guessed from the title (Ici, c'est le paradis = Here, this is paradise), I am truly loving my time here. The title is inspired by Chapter 2 of my 5th grader French books, which I read daily - with the goats.
So, eight days is a lot to report on. Let me start at the beginning...
Me, pre-trip. Ready to take on the life of a farmer.
Photo by V. Zwafink in Benningen a.N.
After a very emotional last few days, including a car accident in a borrowed uninsured car, moving out of my flat alone and in the rain, and generally having to farewell beautiful people and, of course, Germany, I set off by train to Paris.
Paris was a welcome distraction but even moreso than I had imagined! Ok, so this is what I was travelling with... a suitcase, a backpack, a smaller back(front)pack and my pillow (which I had also stuffed with more clothes!). I know, packing my pillow sounds a bit posh, but I love it.
I couldn't have had a warmer welcome in Paris. Several strangers came to help me with my luggage. Note: the Parisian Metro has A LOT of stairs.
Once off the Metro, glad that I had found the correct stop, I walked down the busy main street to find the hostel. Unbeknownst to me, I was walking in the wrong direction! I managed to ask someone working at an internet café using the little French I arrived with - he told me I was one hundred houses down!!
Soon after, I arrived at the hostel and hadn't even checked in by the time I'd met Hayden. I quickly joined him, two Bens, Kieran and Sam and we made a great Aussie-Kiwi mix. I didn't have the energy to leave the hostel at first but ended up staying up with them until early hours, happy not to be thinking about how nervous I was about where I had just left and where I was going.
Day Two: arriving at La Ferme d'Esmeralda
I made my way across Paris on Sunday morning, thankfully leaving myself much more time than suggested, because I only got to the station five minutes before my train was to leave to Lisieux.
In Lisieux, I was met at the station by Lucile, my WWOOFing host. I can now say, after a week with Lucile that she is an amazingly dynamic woman, but in that car ride to the farm, there was too much of my nervousness and 'get-to-know' business for me to recognise her true character.
We arrived at the farm and got straight to work. I soon found myself tangled in electric fencing wire, literally. When I thought that I could not have possibly left a more ridiculous first impression, Lucile and Nicolas left me with the goats while they went to visit a neighbour. Everything quickly turned to chaos when a car pulled up. All the goats ran away and I had half of them in one field (where they were supposed to be), a good part in another field and quite a few scaring the visitors into jumping back into their car.
My saying for this year has been: "Everything is OK in the end; if it's not OK, it's not the end". Yet again it proved to be right. The goats were fine, I was fine. Lucile and Nicolas just laughed!
Week One:
After a slightly bumpy start, I quickly found my place here, in the family home, in the fields and in the barn.
Now that I am more comfortable with the goats, I love being with them. They're desperate for affection, constantly seeking cuddles or a leaning/scratching post.
Goat cuddles and kisses.
One great thing about this week, aside it being full of new experiences, is the new people I have spent it with. My host family includes, Lucile and Nicolas, as well as their two gorgeous children Étienne (10) and Hélène (6). There's also another WWOOFer here at the moment, Victoria, from Brazil.
I spend most of my time with Lucile and Victoria, working on the farm while Nicolas (primary teacher), Étienne and Hélène are at school. While our work on the farm is tough and doesn't hold back on the battle wounds, we spend most of the day laughing our heads off!
Victoria (left) and Lucile (right), just another morning milking the goats.
Me, trying to be serious.
We take turns of taking the goats out to graze and that's where things get interesting. They either listen and follow you to where you want to take them, or... they don't. By the end of the week I learned the areas they prefer to graze in the mornings and where they don't, likewise for the afternoons.
While I'm out in the fields, I practice French. With the goats, of course! My pronunciation is terrific according to my field-friends, but I get my real practice when Étienne and Hélène get home from school. They speak to me in French, ask me questions and tell me stories, we play games together (for some reason I always seem to lose) and laugh together. However, I'm never sure whether we're laughing at the same things!
I mentioned battle wounds. Day two on the farm had Victoria and I picking blackberries to make jam. They were delicious, but our hands and arms looked like they'd fought with a ferral cat afterwards. While that healed I managed to be bitten by what I think may have been a spider. My elbow swelled up, turned red and felt like it was on fire for a few days - that's all. Victoria stood on a rusty nail, which went straight through her gumboots. It wasn't a laughing matter when she realised she hadn't had a recent tetanus shot - a late night trip to the hospital was then made. There are the goats, constantly head-butting our legs. Then yesterday I fell through the top floor of the barn. I'm beginning to think that my love of the colour purple is showing through on my skin! Never mind, I'm tough enough. I'll just be wearing black tights to the wedding this weekend instead of the beige ones I had planned to wear!
There will be more details to come in my next posts. Including the cheese lab, where the heavenly Hüftengold is made - I have no chance of leaving this place lighter than I arrived. Lucile's cheeses are just too good.
For now I'll leave you with a picture of my French classroom and my trusty pal, Edwin the dog.
