On the outskirts of a village called Gathemo, and a 10-minute drive from Vire, sits our helpx host site, La Brindelliere. I arrived a week before Brian and worked alongside an Australian couple, Eli and Denny. It was a nice calm after bustling through cities for the last few weeks. In addition to housing our hosts, Kevin and Jennie, this is home to 2 pigs, 1 dog, 6 cats, countless grown chickens and ducks, 6 "pre-teen" chickens, 10 baby chicks, 2 turkeys, a few counous (half chicken/half turkey), 4 guinea fowl, a handful of rabbits and hares, and a pond full of trout, coy, flounder and other fish. Apologies to anyone that I forgot to mention.
Jennie and Kevin moved here from England 3 years ago, after remodeling what was a German outpost during WWII. The look-out was bombed by American troops, yet they've been able to incorporate new structure with old structure in a way that stays true to the traditional build.
Work at La Brindelliere varied, but usually concluded before lunchtime each day. Sometimes we would attack blackberry bushes with long hooks, other days I would plant and harvest veggies in the garden. Of course my favorite tasks always involved driving the four-wheeler or sit-on lawn mower.
Jennie and Kevin spoiled us with delicious vegetarian food, excursions to the beach and Mont St. Michel and a spacious bedroom with private bath. I witnessed baby chicks cracking out of their shells, I caught a trout from the pond, and I learned that pigs are vegetarian :) Each morning I poached fresh eggs from the chickens and ducks, completing breakfast with homemade bread and one of Jennie's yummy homemade jams (think lemon curd and rhubarb ginger). Of all the helpx places we've been so far, this has been the best example of "living off the land" in terms of food supply. It wasn't uncommon to eat a meal made solely from vegetables picked out of the garden.
Mont St. Michel is an ancient monastery built on top of rocks above the sea. An old village, now jam-packed with tourists, winds upwards towards the monastery. Since it's an UNESCO world heritage site, some of the magic is lost in the sea of people fighting their way up a narrow, cobbled street lined with souvenir shops and exorbitantly priced restaurants. It's otherwise quite quaint, but best admired from a distance.
We spent many evenings walking around the neighborhood, the nearby forest, or a big lake. We quickly noticed that cows will gladly interrupt their grazing to stare as we walked by. I picked up the habit of waving at them, usually with the effect of continued stares.
Our friends Christine and Jonathan were helping in nearby Brittany and managed to visit us for a day. We went into Vire and climbed to the top of the old clock tower that used to be part of the city's old wall perimeter. Then we made our way to a pub for catching up and lots of laughing. We took an after-dinner walk, stopping to dance for the cows and pet the sweetest, blind St. Bernard ever. We bid them goodbye with exciting plans to meet up in Ireland for celebrating Christine and Brian's upcoming birthdays.
During our last week at La Brindelliere, we met more new helpers, celebrated Jenny's mom's birthday and went canoing. Three weeks went by quickly, a sign that we had a good time.
Click here for pics:
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| Vire, France |
We transitioned seamlessly to our next helpx hosts, an English couple in Brittany that came highly recommended by Christine and Jonathan. We'll be here for about 10 days before taking a ridiculously long bus ride to Amsterdam (16.5 hours to be exact).
And if you missed my Paris post, click HERE.
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