Cassandra: Professional French Folk Dancer

Today I did some unplanned French folk dancing. But first!

Yesterday we worked in this farmer store filled with produce from all the local farmers. They take turns manning the store. Étienne watched the register while Catherine and I restocked, stickers, organized, and ate bread.

Our work! And Étienne photo bombing.

This morning I went for a run before starting the day. I got up at 5:50! I like having time in the morning. The more the merrier!

Then we went to a town that I forgot the name of for a festival. It was pretty slow so we took turns walking around.

I found this public toilet that I refused to use. I have standards.

There was archery and even blow darts for the kids to try!

And a zip line over the canal. Very cool.

Oh, and folk dancing and music right behind our booth! So of course when they asked for volunteers, they came to us because we were so close. Catherine absolutely refused, so I ended up going twice. But, hey! I'm in France! Why not? So I said yes and saved Catherine ;)

And it was super fun!

Oh the memories I've made today. What a riot!

And this cool parade came through.

With regal looking folks.

It ended up being a great day, topped off with a nice chat with Patrick via FaceTime, and a bit of soccer with Nicholas at the house. Tomorrow is Sunday, and while I'm sad to see Catherine go, I'm excited to see what memories I will make with the family! 

Farmers' Markets: The Other Side of the Table

Still having a great time here! Here's what's new. Catherine leaves on Sunday and that puts Étienne behind schedule, I think. She was supposed to stay for another 2 weeks or so. He was already behind because the last wwoofers were terrible. However, this has given me a purpose and a challenge of working quickly and efficiently (more than usual ;) to try to catch up. I like to have goals. 

The benefits of picking fruit is that you have plenty of snacks while you do it!

And cherries are delicious. Étienne was picking them off the tree with his treth because his hands were full, ha!
I went for a walk during nap time (after lunch every day) and came across this little hole in the trees. Obviously, I climbed down it... Cassandra in Wonderland

And found this beautiful path in the trees! After scrambling up the slippery path to get back out. I walked back to the house and saw that there was a simple pathway I could have walked to exit the forestjme a same person. Pffft, my way was way more fun. I'm glad no one saw me, though...

This is one of my studying techniques in the morning. A French comic book and my notebook for new words I learn :) And some tea!

Yesterday we went to Grenoble and worked a stall at the farmers, market there. It was fun!

And today we prepped some apricots for later before I helped with the jelly process some more. I'm excited for when blackberries are ready! A week or so, Étienne said. Ps! I learned that mûre is blackberry, and mure is ripe. I want some mure mûres!

A Day in the Sweet Life of Fruit Farmers

So I'm a fan of this farm. We work more than on the other farm, but the work is easier and it's done with good people so I don't mind! Here's what we did yesterday.

We picked currants in the morning. We picked up a friend of Étienne's, Cecile. She loves life. Ohh lala! These currents are beautiful! The sun is wonderful! The clouds are wonderful too! This soap smells lovely! Etc. A very nice person to be around. :)

We ended up with a bunch of currants! Later we picked black currants and white currants, too.

We ate lunch together outside, delicious and wonderful weather.

Then I helped Étienne with the jelly while Catherine and Cecile picked more currants.

In case you were wondering, there's a TON of suger in jelly. I hate to shatter that illusion... ;)

You can see how awesome Étienne is just by the expression on his face. Haha! 

This morning I had fresh red currant jam with my toast. What a satisfying breakfast!

Farm #3 St. Hélène du Lac, France

You thought I'd leave without one more unplanned day in Nice? Psssh! Not when there's a strike at all the train stations in France, no sir! I was smart enough to check before arriving with all of my belongings, so it could have been worse! Regardless, I took advantage of my extra day in Nice.

I went skating on the Promenade D'Anglais for a good bit of cardio in the morning :) It was beautiful weather and I blasted my music while speed people watching.

Then I pulled over for a nice swim and relaxation time before skating back to the hostel for lunch and rehydration.

Then I went back to the skatepark and had an awesome time with a bunch of scooter kids and two rollerbladers. It was great!

And then 11 hours of hell on trains. 5 train changes, 2 cancelled trains, no seats or tickets...and with all my luggage. Fortunately I had wifi for a few minutes so I sent an email to Étienne on the farm that I'd be late! And he was awesome and was waiting for me with another wwoofer when I arrived. We stopped at the awesome house for a bit and then sped off to a festival where I met everyone else. The other wwoofer is Catherine, a French Canadian, and the family is Étienne, Guylaine, Nicholas, and Audrey. They all made me feel welcome and right at home immediately, which was a relief after all the travel and after the reserved family at the other farm.

There was an Australian musician singing great music; Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, etc.

I saw Guylaine sing in the choir, very cool. She's in the middle with a blue shirt

This is the gorgeous view from the garden with red, white, and black currents.

The house! The inside is very nice and modern. Keep in mind how rustic I was living on the other farm and try to appreciate my absolute shock and joy when I saw:

A refrigerator

A toilet...inside!

A TV

The house is next to a road

Wifi!!!!!

Different varieties of food! 

I'm in heaven.

We walked to town, where Étienne was selling homemade sorbet. That's right, walked to town. Because it's so close. Oh, civilization! How I've missed thee! And now I can walk there whenever I want! Or skate! Also, yes, I did say delicious homemade delicious sorbet that was delicious.

Then we went to the lake to swim and frolic and lay out (we weren't the only ones) Beautiful! 

Everyone and their mother went in the water...and their horses, too.

Nicholas, Audrey, and a friend then pumped up the boat. They approached it with the focus and seriousness one usually reserves for CPR. 

I'm happy to be here!

Goodbye Second Farm! Photos I Took...and a Few I Didn't

Welp. It's that time again. I left my second farm this morning. It was bittersweet. On one hand, I won't miss the dry toilet, flies, rain, or sense of being stranded. On the other hand, I'll miss learning French with the new wwoofer, the salads at lunch, and jumping off rocks. I sat down with Francoise and Diego and we talked about what I liked and didn't like. It was cool because I successfully was able to have a fairly long conversation in French where everyone understood each other. Baby steps! So I made it to the youth hostel in Nice for the last time and tomorrow I go to my third farm. Here are some pictures I took today, and an apology for the ones I didn't...

Diego and I picked a TON of salad the other day, good thing we all love it!

One of the farmers there, Mary Therese, had a really nice ass. (Sorry, I had to...) she stood next to me the entire time I was sawing wood and would but her head against me occasionally for some attention. So nice, if it wasn't for the insanely loud heehawing in the morning, I'd say she was perfect!

Peace out La Penne! On the way to Puget Theniers, fortunately I got picked up quickly, my backpack is heavy!

As soon as I got to Nice I dropped my stuff at the hostel and found the nearest skatepark. It was free and deserted! A bunch of weird transition but super fun. Very hot! I brought water but went through it really fast, so I spent the rest of the day rehydrating.

I actually wore sunglasses while skating, that's how hot and sunny it was :o ps, my hair is getting long!

I got this picture by propping my phone against my shoe and water bottle :)

Later this evening, I went for a walk while my phone was charging... Of course, this guaranteed that there was a plethora of exceedingly photographic opportunities...it was an amazing walk! 

Here's what I saw:

2 mimes! 

A French rock concert in the square

Musicians playing violins, accordions, and guitars

Magicians and and AMAZING spray paint artist

An old French farmer, wearing a sombrero, while doing the robot, at a rock concert! Made my day! That guy had moves!

It was a good day :)

I'm curious to see what the internet situation is on the new farm. I'll post again... Eventually!

Farmtivities, Food Poisoning, and Italy

It's catchup time at my favorite youth hostel in Nice after a fun daytrip to Italy. Here's the DL on life for the past couple of weeks! First big news, the farm is way better now! There were seven wwoofers there and it's been a great comunity :) Here are some pictures of life on the farm before Italy.

Pitchforking cut grass into a big ol pile is easier 'umbrella style.' Just remember, stab it, don't scoop it.

The sign in front of the farm entrance. I snapped this on one of my hikes. Cute!

The bell tower that chimes every half hour so I know what time it is (but mostly just counts down till lunch!) not in an annoying way :)

I sat on the wall there and ate an appl while watching the grass flow in the breeze. It's like a green ocean!

After I hiked through the little town of La Penne, I got up the mountain some and had some pretty great views! I'm sure you're sick of seeing all these gorgeous views...

So here's me! This is my begrudging acceptance that this farm is pretty alright.

My favorite shady spot to snack on my way back to the farm.

A pic from another hike when I went with Hazlett, another wwoofer. We went higher and it was great!

A few days ago, all the wwoofers went to the river and we swam, floated down river, and jumped off a big rock into the water! I couldn't bring my phone because it would definitely get wet...but it was great! The water was clear and cool. There was a scary dark cave/hole in the rock that I swam through. Terrifying! But I jumped off that rock a hundred times, so fun. One of my favorite memories is of Amy, a wwoofer from New York, jumping from a part of the rock that is about two feet out of the water and screaming bloody murder! I'm fairly certain the couple relaxing on the other bank did not appreciate it. Hilarious. All in all a GREAT day! And all while I worked on my ankle tan, which is a priority, obviously.

I finished that day with a relaxing time on the hammock looking at the mountains and a great dinner with all the wwoofers.

And then I got food poisoning.

Which tainted the fond thoughts of the farm, but I digress.

I found this great little spot that's right outside my window! I didn't know you could climb out, but it's great and had the best view of the mountains on the farm. 

My computer basically brought everyone together. Here are Dalila, Maria, and Marco.

Some nights we'd have cool French music from Marco and Cassandra #2

We finally snapped some shots of different work we do :) Yesterday I cut some grass.

We had sawing races while cutting wood (my favorite job besides working with bread)

Took a break for arm wrestling

I won. 

Then I Tom Sawyer-ed Maria into cutting wood for a bit because, "You said you wanted to try and you leave tomorrow, right? This is your last chance!" Yeah, I'm good.

The trip to Italy! International travel round trip, from farm to Puget Theniers to Nice to Ventimiglia, Italy. Cost? 3 Euros. Here's how!

We hitchhiked from the farm to the bus stop in Puget at 7am. The bus is an hour and a half to Nice, 1.5 euros. Tram hopped to the Nice gare and met up with Maria and Dalila. We couldn't buy our tickets because half the gare was on strike! (Gare is train station in French and it's shorter. Plus I forget to call it train station sometimes...) so we had to run to the train and 'buy our tickets onboard' or as I like to call it, train hop!

Maria took blurry photos of dark tunnels on the ride.

We walked through this cool market and I tried to haggle with someone for a cool shoulder bag...I don't have the bag...it's hard when you can't speak Italian! 

You have to have pizza in Italy! It was one of my goals and man was it DELICIOUS!

After, we all bought water and went to the beach for a bit. I promptly plunged my head in the ocean because it was hot and I made the terrible decision to wear jeans today...

Then annoying men tried to get us to buy everything from hats to jewelry to glasses to coconuts. We bought some coconut and it was pretty good. But those guys were ANNOYING.

Then we walked up to the top of the city to make room for gelato. 

It was cool.

At the top was this cool old church, know, I know, of course I went in... Some kids played soccer out front and hollered loudly in Italian. It was a fun atmosphere.

Of course, I loved the church. It's old, it's Italian. What's not to love! 

Especially this cool downstairs museum part that showed the really old relics of the church. You could see paths to it through clear floors above it.

The view from just past the church

Where we had to have a selfie! Me, Maria from Greece, Dalila from France, and Hazlett from Kansas, USA!

I had three goals when going to Italy. Pizza, icecream, and coffee. Needless to say, I'm an ACHIEVER.

I'm going to the beach in Nice tomorrow before returning to the farm (for 1.5 euros) and then I go to my new farm on Friday! Today is the official 2 months in France, and I'm glad I had an adventure with friends (and food).