From West to East

What a change! Travelling from Plougasnou all the way to the tiny village of Leval, near Belfort, from the Atlantic coast to the tri-national border of France, Germany and Switzerland - and subsequently to my Swiss hosts.

After a relaxing morning out with Elise in Belfort, she walked me to the train station to meet my newest WWOOFing hosts, Robi and Peter.

Up until our meeting, Robi and I had always communicated in English. When he saw me with Elise, we spoke French, then he told me that he and Peter are Swiss, so Peter started talking to me in German! I'm new to multilingualism, I can't just switch from one language to the next and, for me, German and French are unfortunately mixed in a 'foreign languages' box in my head. Although my German is pretty good, when I tried to speak German with Peter not a single German word came to mind! The Catch-22 of the situation was, once the German came back, we didn't stop. It was a very lazy French-learning month.

WWOOFing life at Robi and Peter's horse-retirement farm was like nothing I had experienced before. After having come from having the family dry toilet behind a curtain in my bedroom in Plougasnou (yeah, I forgot to mention that), arriving at their place was like arriving at a hotel. Their stylish blue wooden house, defying almost all architectural norms, with a large balcony overlooking the private lake, fully equipped with a jetty and sauna, surrounded by a golf course. It was too gorgeous.

My work on the farm was mostly done on weekends and was mostly made up of shovelling horse poo from the stables. On their farm, though, the horses live out in the fields for most of the year, we let them out onto the fields in the last few days I was there. Before that, they had been in smaller paddocks over Winter giving the grass time to grow.

The work during the week is done by a man named Christian. He and his wife, Amandine, live on the farm too. Such a lovely couple! It was great to spend time with them and also to stay in touch with my French.

Robi was kind enough to give me some horse riding lessons to refine my rusty skills. While I was staying with Lucille and Nicolas in November, I had an incident where I had to jump from my horse because the saddle had come un-done. I was grateful to be able to slowly rediscover my confidence in the saddle.

More photos of the farm to come. I seem to have lost them!

I did odd jobs around the farm during the week, one of which was painting new signs to place along the roadside. It wasn't always the easiest place to find.

 

Even managed to get sunburnt: the weather got nicer faster than I could buy sunblock!

Peter and Robi's pets, Snoopy the dog and Karuzo the cat, were spoilt rotten. They claimed Karuzo was 'muscly' but he gave Yahel's fat cat in Rennes a good run for her money. Snoopy lived a better life than most children - these pics say it all.

I was treated to several day trips out with Robi and even the occasional trip to Switzerland. I got to catch up with Steffi in Zürich and even go hiking in the alps, near Amden and in the Vosges mountains. Unfortunately the snow hadn't seen it's last days, so my feet were a little chilly (and wet) in my runners.

Near Amden, Switzerland.

 

 

Overlooking the Zürichsee, Switzerland, and relaxing by the river with Steffi.

Hiking up the Grand Ballon in the Vosges mountains.

A 700 year old oak tree. Incredible! Just think what this tree has lived through and how many times it changed nationalities at the ever-changing French-German border.

At the former French-German border, overgrown in the forest.

While staying at Peter and Robi's I had two much-needed visits: first Anna and Stefan came along with their brilliant news; and then Winnie, Lena, Verena and Sarah came for our girls night away in Colmar!

I am so grateful for everything Robi and Peter did for me, but to be quite honest my stay with them wasn't at all what I had in mind when I arrived. I didn't feel that a WWOOFer was needed, I was more like a personal helper who followed along like a puppy. I had expected to speak French (with a native speaker) and in the end I felt it was just silly speaking French when we both speak German and English. I really wouldn't advise any germaphobes or perfectionists to buy a farm - enough said. Life is one big learning curve.

A few days before I left, another WWOOfer arrived and my last day on the farm brought a breath of fresh air in the form of a lady named Danièle. Danièle is a friend of Robi's and she kindly welcomed me to her home in Solothurn, Switzerland. So off I went.

Farmless and ready for adventure

With a week off between farms, I took a train from Morlaix to Rennes, where I met my couch surfing host, Clément. We then got in his car to drive to Vannes and I quickly realised that orientation was not one of Clément's strengths. After driving in the same circle a few times, we made it out of Rennes and were on our way.

Clément was an adorably awkward host. If you can picture a computer scientist with the social skills of Sheldon, metal-head long hair and a gorgeous smile - that's Clément. He even took time off work to show me around, which he didn't have to do. We went to the cinema to see Big Eyes (Christoph Waltz is amazing), we walked around in the rain, we strolled around the harbour. Conversation was limited at times, due to: a) language misunderstandings; b) my intellectual capacity to keep up with computer formulas; or c) we both wanted to change the conversation but couldn't decide on what.

I ventured off for a day out on my own and took a ferry across to the Île d'Arz. I know I've said it before, I love being near the coast! Île d'Arz is a small island in the Gulf of Morbihan and only a few kilometres long. Sea breeze, sand between my toes and sunshine. Ahhh :)

 

Me being me, got talking to a lady on the ferry over who also happened to be a teacher. She was on her way over to the island to supervise a state English exam for some of the school kids. The school has 18 students ranging from primary through to secondary school. What a cute school.

The island was an adorable get-away.

The first time my feet had seen daylight since November!

The first real signs of Spring! Yay!

Vannes was beautiful. I'd love to see it again without as much rain one day. Nevertheless, it was a great place to say "see you later" to the coast again.

My next stop was Rennes. I carpooled for the first time in France - I finially trusted my French enough to get through the trip! In Rennes I met up with my couch surfing host, Yahel. I can honestly say that I haven't laughed as much as I did with Yahel in a long time!

We literally sang our way through the streets of Rennes - the rain had unfortunately followed me though. We belted out the most ridiculous ballads in her flat (mostly Whitney Houston), I cooked so we didn't starve and got out for a few runs along the canal.

The historic inner city of Rennes takes you back to medieval times and then 300m further you can find the most elaborate modern shopping malls - an odd mix. I wandered around a lot while Yahel was studying, happily getting lost and discovering new parks, shops and fountains.

Singing in the rain with Yahel after our karaoke night out.

  

Yahel said this was a Rennes must-have: galette saucisse. Essentially a gourmet sausage sizzle, except the sausage is wrapped in a buckwheat crêpe. The queue for these at the market was unbelievable!

The (incredibly fat) cat took over my stuff. She wasn't happy unless she was in my suitcase or asleep on my laptop.

I forgot to mention when I wrote about my stay with Luc and Nicole in January that there was a little incident where Nicole's parent's dog tried to bite me. My jacket came out a little worse for wear. Well, in Rennes, Yahel introduced me to the best sewing/knick-knacks/craft store (I'm so glad there weren't many like this in Stuttgart). Anyway, after duct tape having (sorta) done the job for a few months, I found a patch!

  

After four nights in Rennes, I said "see you later" to Brittany and got on a train to Paris. One of the annoying things about travelling in France is that you almost always have to travel via Paris - it's even cheaper to go completely out of your way to make Paris a stop-over. So I changed trains and set off for Alsace.

Within a week I'd travelled from the far west coast to the eastern border and it's so different here - actually, the closer I got to Belfort, the more you could tell how close to Germany we were getting.

My start in Belfort was so weird. And it was all my fault.

You know I usually love talking to strangers. Well this guy, Diallo, started talking to me on the train. Within five minutes he said he'd love if I was his girlfriend because then his English would improve so much (What the...?!) He changed seats to talk to me and then I slept - there was nothing I could say to keep him from rambling. Eventually, he wrote his number down with the note 'Sarah, please don't forget me. Diallo'. (Head shake.)

In my panic to escape the ever-persistent Diallo (a name which means 'bold' - bold he was), forgot to check the messages I'd received from my couch surfing host Elise. So there's me, waiting for Elise's call because I didn't realise that I also had her number. I needed to get away from the station fast and had stupidly assumed I'd been stood up by my host, so I walked to the nearest budget hotel - which wasn't budget at all. The receptionist was really helpful and let me use the wifi where I then found Elise's message with her number, called her and then she came to meet me.

I was in such a fluster that I wasn't thinking straight. That hasn't happened to me travelling for such a long time. Anyway Elise was a breath of fresh air, so down to Earth. We enjoyed beer, wine, a delicious meal and great conversation with lots of laughs. The next morning she took me on a walking tour through Belfort and up to the town fort.

A week well spent with three COMPLETELY different Frenchies.

Degemer mad e Breizh!

"Welcome to Brittany! Bienvenue en Bretagne!" At least I think that's what my internet-translation-of-a-title says. I fell in love with Brittany: the Celtic charm of Ireland, French food and wine and at the coast to boot. What a mix!

My Breton adventure mostly took place in the outskirts of Plougasnou at La Ferme de Trézenvy.

Life at Ferme de Trézenvy was by far the most uncomplicated stop I've had so far - and that's saying something considering the family dry toilet was in my room behind a curtain! Charlotte, Briac and their four-year-old, Orancie were so easy to be around. We predominantly spoke French, but occasionally they'd have no idea what I was trying to say and we'd switch to English for a few minutes.

I met so many interesting people there. At Charlotte's birthday party, at concerts, in the garden and friends who would regularly stop by. In my second week another WWOOFer, Ronan, also joined the farm. Everyone I spoke to had such a fascinating story and world view which led to riveting conversations (of which I probably only understood 60%!) For example, Ronan is a talented journalist and musician, check out his band La Botanique.

La Ferme de Trézenvy consists of three parts: Briac's vegetable farm; a cultural association called Le LIEU (Laboratory of Utopian Imaginations and Experimentation) which is Charlotte's baby; and (another) Charlotte's ceramics studio. 

Briac isn't a fan of machinery and ploughs the fields with the help of Raphaëlle, his horse.

Briac showing Ronan the ropes.

I loved vegetable farming. Ok, apart from is often killing your knees and back at times, working in the greenhouse tunnels was a time of meditation for me. I learned a lot about preparing and planting seeds, re-planting seedlings, about different forms of compost and how to prepare the soil for healthy plants and how to care for a range of different vegetables. It was great to see how quickly the different plants grew over the time I was there. Visible progress.

 

Planting new seeds.

There were several perfomances held at the farm during my stay, including an African Blues artist, Chaek, a Spanish contemporary dancer, Carolina Fernandez and even a movie night where we watched Beetlejuice. Click here to see some of the performances that have been held there.

All of these events were held in one of the two yurts that are set up on the property: one as a guest house, the other the stage. I had never heard of a yurt before and now I can completely see myself living in one one day. (Apologies that I don't have any pics of inside - trust me, it's more impressive than the outside.) See here.

The farm was just a few kilometres from the coast and that made for an ideal jogging route. Unfortunately it was still a little too cold to go swimming. Can't complain with a track like this though...

St Patrick's Day was quiet this year, but didn't go unnoticed. I made shepherd's pie and homemade Baileys. Sorry... no pics, I was busy in the kitchen.

On March 20 there was a lunar eclipse. We tried our very best to get a good look, but the Breton weather wouldn't have it. We even held hands and chanted to summon the weather gods - but we scared Orancie, so we stopped.

Believe or not, 24 hours later we had a dream day out at the beach to see the low 'tide of the century'. The next time the tide will be out that low will apparently be in March 2033. Once the tide started coming in again, we had to walk fast!

Charlotte is a fellow lover of sewing and I made use of her machine while I could. I am proud to say that I finished off several projects which had been haunting me for some time! Beating procrastination one project at a time.

Ronan and I dabbled in a little landscape gardening in the front yard. I wish I had taken before and after photos. The trees in the middle were surrounded by a small, ugly concrete wall, which we removed. Then we re-shaped the garden. Here's an 'after' photo, which doesn't entirely do Ronan's dry stone wall justice! The garden is far from finished, the next WWOOFers have their work cut out for them.

My time at La Ferme de Trézenvy went out with a BANG at the Morlaix short film festival Court mais Bref with the theme 'Made in Japan'. What a bizarre and hilarious mix! Charlotte and her neighbour Maud had entered in the competition and it's not every day you get to watch with the competitors. Maud and I had a great last night out, enjoying the Celtic charm and buzz Morlaix' bars had to offer.

Next stop: Vannes. I couldn't get enough of the coast.