An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

When I said that posts in the past were long overdue, it was an understatement compared to the mass of posts that are to make up for the last three and half months!

So, let's go back in time. To early December 2014.
Admittedly, my start with Luc and Nicole was a hesitant one after having been back home but I was quickly made to feel extremely welcome at La Ferme du Bout du Chemin.

After returning from AUS, I spent a few days at Lucile and Nicolas' place to compose myself and gather my things then moved on to the next step of my WWOOFing adventure. Lucile drove me over here and we all ate lunch together: that was my first taster of what the French-deep-end felt like!

With Luc and Nicole, I primarily spoke French. They're so patient, which is extremely necessary for me, no matter how quickly my French seems to be coming along!

We spent 9 days together before I headed back to my German family in Stuttgart for Christmas. In the short time I stayed with them in December, my French improved so much, I surprised myself.

There's not as much work to do on a cidre farm over Winter as there is in Summer. Nicole kept apologising for not really having any 'fun' jobs but I found each step of the cidre process interesting, even if it consisted of cleaning thousands of cidre and champagne bottle by hand so that they were ready to be re-filled.

First we soaked the labels of and scrubbed the bottles clean...

The hot water we soaked the bottles in boiled in a big cauldron over a wood fire in the veggie garden.

Afterwards we covered the crates with newspaper to keep the bottles clean.

A few days later, it was time for the fun to begin. Jobs like this remind me of why child labour during the Industrial Revolution was such a problem. Using the four taps you can see in the photo below, we filled thousands of bottles in just one morning. The production line consisted on bottling, corking and wiring the bottles shut. Then they were ready to be stored in the cellar.

Nicole manning two stations, corking and wiring.

Beneath the apple trees, Luc and Nicole keep meat cows. I loved helping with feeding the cows. They're fascinating to watch.

Another adorable animal addition to the house and farm is Éole, Luc and Nicole's lovable dog. She's a Leonberger and absolutely massive - but don't tell her that because she doesn't seem to realise!

So Christmas crept up on us and after 9 days of being spoilt with tea and cakes by the fire, family film nights, delicious meals (both French and Spanish) and, of course, tasting the specialties of the farm - cidre, apple juice, Calvados and Pommeau (a liqueur mix of cidre and Calvados) - it was time for me to head to Stuttgart.

I was sent on my way with a Traditional Norman meal of creamy chicken and mushrooms, and even with a little Christmas present: a French poem (which, I must admit, I'm still now trying to understand entirely!). Nicole is a brilliant cook and was so sweet to always make sure my wheat-free options were available. As you can imagine, I learned so much about what you can do with apples!

The nearby town of Cambremer was particularly festive. It's not a very big place but it's a village straight out of a fairytale with boutique shops and beautiful knick-knacks. It's so small in fact that even I began to bump into people I knew.

And off to Stuttgart I went, having no idea how hard it would be to speak German properly again!

At least sharing the specialties of the farm went down well, whether I could get out a straight sentence or not. Christmas eve with the Müllers and Jaurausens...