The French Alps and My Second Farm. Also, I'm Still Alive

Well. I made it to farm two finally, and I must say, it is breathtaking here. So beautiful. It's very different from the first farm on how things are run. But first! The pictures from my arrival. Feast your eyes! It just gets better!

 This is the view from my window on the train to the RIGHT Puget gare :)

 After I arrived, I took a mini bus to the farm. This is where I realized my wheels on the suitcase weren't quite up to the task...So I had to hike it up the loooong path with my suitcase over my head and my backpack with skates. I arrived hot and sweaty and gross. Perfect for first impressions, especially when you're starting with the whole 'getting totally lost' thing.



Daily life on the farm:
We wake up at 7 and eat together. When I say we, I mean the other WWOOFers. When I arrived, there were 5 of us (it changes a lot). We eat with the food the family supply us with and start work. We then work from 8-12 eat lunch with the family and WWOOFers together and then have 1 additional hour of work at any time in the afternoon. The other WWOOFers are what makes this place great.

 We play soccer, cards, cook together, work together, etc. We blasted The Lion King songs while we cooked and everyone sang along in different languages, English, Spanish, and French.

 Angeliqua on the left is from Colombia and is learning French too, Alexandre is from France, Camille is also French, Brandon is from Canada and his French is the best out of us non Frenchians. Oh there's me!

 Playing cards! I bought a pack of the Jeu de Tarot cards and we played :)

 Most of the chores involve a lot of manual labor, like cutting the grass...by hand. I understand they like to be rustic. But if they have a power saw, I think a weed eater wouldn't come amiss. Instead, they had three of us cutting grass for hours. It could take 20 minutes with a weed eater, just saying! I'll be working either way, so no difference to me, I just like to be efficient!

 One of the gardens where we planted tomatoes and did a LOT of weeding.

 Brandon and Camille had a wheel barrel race.

 More cards. We played Crazy Eights and Alexandre won. This was his last night here. We'll be getting some new folks next week!

 Today we went hiking. First we stopped in this tiny village and checked out the view. Amazing.

 I love how they just tuck the village in there. What a beautiful place to live!

 Then we went on a nice hike. This was the beginning, we stopped to look at the river before starting. It's clear and cold!

 The waterfall was our destination. And when I say hike, I mean survival. Climbing up a waterfall is difficult! I don't know if you know this, but water makes the ground slippery!

 The path was easy at the beginning. And pretty, too.

 And then we got to the bottom of the falls, where I thought we had reached the destination.

 But no, we kept getting closer. You could see tiny signs of it pretending to be a path. Stones and sticks thrown down at the super deadly slippery areas...things like that.

 Fortunately, the view was worth it. Also, I don't know if you knew this about me, but I like to do things that may be a little dangerous...

 Like climbing this damp, slippery log 'ladder'

 And we made it to the top! I snapped this as I clung to a rock so I didn't slide down the mud to my death. Sorry if it could be better. (I'm not that sorry)

 The view opposite the falls is also great.

 Then the descent which I initially thought wasn't possible, but ended up only slightly terrifying. Nothing like slipping down a muddy death slope with rocks at the bottom to get your hear racing!

 And one last snap on the way out. What a great hike!

 Then on the way home we stopped on the side of the road for this cherry tree. There were three guys there picking cherries, too. We all joined in and feasted.

 While two of us were in the tree, the rest got creative with this branch so they could reach more. They were delicious.

 This is pic so you can see the view of the Alps outside the house. Nice, right?

 The downstairs of the WWOOFer house.

This is where I sleep! The yellow bed.

Tomorrow I want to explore the town, but I have to hitch hike it. I'll take lots of pictures! And eventually post them. The internet is less than awesome here...

Remember that one time? When I got lost? Yeah...

How much could I have to blog about so soon, you ask? Well, funny story. Remember that one time, in Germany, when I got lost? Yeah...I ended up in the middle of no where again 0.0

Here's what happened:

There is a Puget Ville gare and a Puget Thernier gare. I went to the wrong one. Mind you, I did ask someone if it was the right one at the Nice gare, and he said yes. However, I'm thinking he thought I asked, "would you like me to go away right now?" Nevertheless, I went to the wrong one. It made the tiny gare in Germany look like downtown central!

This is the shack of a station. I was thinking I'd have to sleep there until I saw there was one last train for the night. Going back toward Nice, which is where I had to go ;)

I asked a stranger how to get to the Chappel that Diego told me about, she was the one who enlightened me that I was not in the right place. Thank goodness I bought that cheap French phone for emergencies! I called the family's number and listened to their voice mail, she left a cell number but I could only get 4 numbers out of it, she spoke SO fast! So I asked a stranger to listen to it and write down the number, which she did. Thanks stranger! Now I called and spoke with an American wwoofer at the farm to figure everything out. So I said, see ya tomorrow! And I'd figure out how to get back to Nice. And then it started raining.

This is right after I found out I did it again... It makes such good memories, I really can't even be mad! Plus, I have pepper spray, so I'm basically invincible.

So I waited to hitch a ride on the last train

And planned where the correct station is that I had to depart from. Mind you, it's about two streets away from the station I went to...

Then I hopped on the train! The song 'I'm a Boss' was stuck in my head the entire time. But on my way to the (wrong) gare, I had noticed (innocently) that no one checked my ticket. Plus, the gare was closed so I couldn't buy one anyway. So I jumped off the train at the connecting station and jumped on the very next one that showed up, hoping it was going to Nice (it was). No one checked for my non existant ticket there either (boss). Which is good because I already wasted money going to the middle of nowhere! I called up the great hostel to tell them I'm coming back! I even got the same room :) so I'm eating my complimentary breakfast and drinking hot chocolate before I check out more of Nice and go to the farm for real this time! 

P.s I'm glad I didn't glare at that girl, the showers are always cold here. Now I'm just impressed that she took such a long shower when it was so cold!

P.p.s I did want more time to explore Nice...

Wish granted! Here are the pics from today's exploring.

After buying my ticket, I decided to go to the beach since it was sunny and perfect out. I walked through this big market on my way. I bought an apple to much on at the beach :)

Gorgeous! So blue, it seems as if the water is glowing. And the air was cool. Perfect for sitting and enjoying the day while listening to Frank Sinatra's That's Life. Mmmhmmm.

Snack time

With a natural seat curved in the stones. I love this view!

At the old appear theater was this tiny monument about the Statue of Liberty in New York. A french guy asked me to snap his picture and we chatted about how funny it was that we had the big one in the states and they just have this little guy.

Then I went to Garibaldi Place and walked through the tiny streets around it to search for a lunch spot.

I found this nice little place and got a naan wrap, mmmmm. And for 3 euros!

Then I found this modern art museum (free, and free restrooms!) and explored here for a while. While a lot of the stuff was very interesting, what I really take away from it is that people are super weird...

But it had this cool walkway on the roof with some art pieces. I liked it for the view of the city.

I liked looking down the streets from up top:)

And these guys were skating the steps if the museum! So I watched them for a bit and now I'm in the fancy mall next to the hostel, while I catch you up ;)

I feel I'll have to post less frequently on this next farm so hopefully these last few eventful days will hold you over! 

Hostels are great! (And rollerblading, too)

So as always, my travels didn't go exactly as planned, but this time, it was actually great for the most part! Here are pictures to tell the story of my travels to Toulon, Ste Maxime, and Nice.

Packed up and ready to go from Chalais to Toulon.

The trains here are much nicer than planes!

And the view of the Côté D'Azur was gorgeous! 

After 10 hours of train time, I was met at the gare by Amandine and her friend, Chloe. We walked by the port on the way to her car and looked at huge yachts on the way.

We stopped at this park on the way to her house. We were all too beat to really do anything. But I got in some soul grinds and a neg mistrial ;)

I forgot the name of her dog, but I'll call it fluffy instead. Who am I kidding, I'd call it fluffy even if I did know the name ;)

My bed for the night. I did not get a great sleep because of a two hour mosquito battle I had with ONE mosquito. It kept waiting until I was almost asleep and buzzed next to my ear and would land in my face. I kept thinking I killed it after hunting around the room with my phone as a flashlight, but he was always too fast. Finally, too exhausted to complete the murder, I wrapped my face in my sweater and ignored it. I thought I won the battle until I saw the next day that it feasted on my right foot all night, since it must have slipped out from under the blanket... 1-mosquito 0-Cass

Anyway, Amandine drove us to Sainte Maxime in the morning for the competition. It was a perfect, sunny day and the comp was a small and close knit group. Everyone watched and cheered, even if it was the kids or beginners. I loved the atmosphere! Day one was the miniramp contests. I couldn't figure out the mini and skates terribly :/ I'm not sure if it was because of my mosquito battle, or it was slippery, or I was nervous, but usually miniramps are my fav! And I couldn't land my safety tricks..but it was fun to try anyway!

The tragedy of my broken water bottle shouldn't have been quite as devastating as it was, but it was my trusty travel bottle and I took it everywhere! R.I.P bottle :(

Three of us stayed in this hotel for the night. My first French hotel and it was nice. The restrooms and showers were outside of the room but they were clean and had free soap so yeah!

Day two of the comp was the box battle on the most perfect, flawless box ever. I wish I had one just like it to learn box tricks! I landed top soul, top porn, and a couple swithups, I want to learn more on this very box!

Amandine was so great about giving me a place to stay and bringing me around! She also helped a ton with figuring out transportation. Her car is a little broken and I wish her the best of luck with getting that fixed! Drive safe, Amandine!

The first place beginner, everyone was so supportive. I never even see a kids comp in the states! If we even have a beginner section, were lucky.

The ladies! They rocked it! After the comp, Coralie drove me to a hostel. We realized earlier in the day that we couldn't make it to the gare in time for the last train to Puget Thenier and she said her place was too small for me to stay with her for the night (I'd sleep in the bath tub! Or the car! But I understand that she doesn't really know me so no big deal). She and her boyfriend called to set me up at the hostel and got me there safe and sound and for a really good price!

My first time at a hostel, it was SUPER nice! I had some doubts, I think there was a horror movie called Hostel or somethjng because for some reason I had a negative connotation about them ;) but this place was clean and friendly, with free wifi, complimentary breakfast (REALLY GOOD), and showers in the room. I only had a mom and her daughter in my room so it was nice. The only downside is that the daughter took a ten year shower and I had a fast cold shower after that. You'd be proud, I didn't even glare at her when I exited the shower ;)

 

This morning I packed my stuff and had my free breakfast. Then I checked my luggage into the free lockers they had and explored Nice for the day! 

This giant mall was right across the street and I strolled through there pretending I might buy something (pfft, I know, right?). Then I took the tram to the gare and bought my ticket for later. That way I knew I was set to go and I knew how long it would take. (cough* genius cough*) then I took the tram and got off in Old Nice.

I strolled through some streets and looked at a cool church befor I over heard a tour guide speaking in English to his group. I heard him say they were going up 500 steps, something breath taking, waterfall, blah blah blah. 500 steps? Uh, yes please! So I stealth-moded my way into the group. (Stealth-moding consists of blatantly joining the group without making direct eye contact with the guide while always remaining within listening distance)

We begin the climb

My tour group ;)

The waterfall! I took some photos of people and told them it was because I was piggybacking off their tour. 

Stealth mode paid off with this amazing view! I just wish it was as sunny as it was yesterday. The water is SO blue but you can't see it as much with the clouds.

Then I got some rhubarb icecream on my way back to the tram. I went back to the hostel and grabbed my stuff. I had enough time to FaceTime with the momsy and left to go the the gare with 20 minutes to spare.

Wait, 20 minutes? Or 2 hours and 20 minutes?...........

.........

.........soooo, I made a tiny mistake in that my train leaves at 16:55. Which is 4:55. Which I know! But then I had 4 stuck in my head, so then I started telling myself it was 14:55...so that's how I find myself sitting here on the floor of the Nice gare, wishing I could have explored more of Nice! But at least it gave my the time to update this blog! Because I don't know how much technology time I'll have at this next farm...

One last update, I will be returning to farm #1 in August because they're so GREAT! Barbara isn't telling the girls so I can surprise them ;) Which means I only have a little over a month left to plan in France, which I want to be near Paris. Time to start planning!

P.s I was just tagged in these pics from the Bordeaux comp last week

True top soul, I don't think I landed this one, and you can tell I was super upset about it.

Top porn on the sub box, I did land this, that's why I'm frowning...?