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...