Fourés Farm

Here is some video I took on the farm.  The first part is a panoramic view of the farm, the next two are the barn, and the last one is me milking a sheep!

Saying Goodbye to the Farm

I am amazed at how the time has flown by here on the farm! Tomorrow is my last day and I leave early Thursday morning for Rome.  I am extremely excited to go back to Italy (and to see my friends who I haven't seen in AGES!!!!), but I am also very sad to leave the Fourés family.  I have had several adventures since I last updated the blog, and they include (more) cherry picking, (more) cherry de-pitting, and (this one is new) lamb killing.

Yes, lamb killing.  Not me personally, but Jean Louis.  There have been 4 lambs killed in the past week here, and my experience with the process has been a growing one.

I was not present for the first 2 killings because I was at the market in town, but I found out about them that afternoon! When I walked into the barn to milk the sheep, I bumped my head on something that was hanging over the sink.  I looked up and there was a little lamb hoof, hanging from the rafter.  Aaaah! It was then that I noticed the bucket of blood at my feet.  Ginnette then pointed out that one of the dogs was knawing on the head over in the corner.  Lovely.

A few days later, Jean Louis informed me that he was going to kill another lamb to sell the meat to a friend.  This time I was there, and I intended to watch for my education.  He and Ginnette took the lamb and hit it over the head with a large weight.  While it was stunned, they lifted it up onto the container where we keep the grain, and cut its throat over a bucket.  All of this in front of the other sheep!!! Because the lamb didn't cry out, the other sheep didn't think anything of it and weren't traumatized at all. I, on the other hand, almost passed out.  Watching the little thing shake and tremble as it bled out was a little too much for my body to handle, and I started to feel light-headed.  I quietly excused myself as they hung the lamb up to skin and gut it, and returned to the house to lie down.  Luckily I avoided fainting face first into the mud and the manure! I watched Jean Louis cut up the meat that afternoon without a problem and decided that, if he killed another sheep while I was here, I would try to watch again because, after all, it was not my brain or my heart that rejected the experience, it was just my stomach and my blood pressure!

Yesterday evening we were milking the sheep when Jean Louis noticed one of the older lambs drinking the milk of one of the sheep.  ''For this one, it's the knife tomorrow morning,'' he said as he chased it away from the other sheep.  So this morning I had my second chance to attend a killing.  I made sure the other sheep weren't there this time (too weird) and positioned myself in full view of the scene of the crime.  Because this one was bigger Jean Louis was very careful to hit it over the head just right to make sure it didn't come to before he had a chance to cut the throat.  Apparently he hit one over the head one time, and she got back up and kept eating the grain they had put down to distract it! He did an excellent job with this one, I must say.  I did much better too :) I watched the whole thing without even feeling queazy.  Afterwards, I watched as Jean Louis skinned it and took out all the guts.  As he and Ginnette carried the carcass down to the meat cooler, I was given the task of holding the heart.  It was still warm.  And yet, I had no problems! I believe I can now say that I am an informed and confirmed carnivore.

In more pleasant news, we have a new wwoofer here: Carry from Wales.  She arrived yesterday and I have been showing her the ropes before my departure.  She is here in France to learn cheese making in the hopes of returning to a cheese making job where she is from.  She is very nice and I am impressed by the amount of French she knows considering that she hardly learned it in school and has only really picked it up from travelling here and from her son's experience with it in school.  She will be here for 3 weeks like I was.

On account of all the rain we have had lately (literally every single day for a week) the department is no longer in a draught, but I was also unable to climb the great peak of Cagire.  Their son, Louic, just stopped by and said this just means I have to come back, preferably in the fall, so we can take 3 days and really mae a trip out of it.  Doesn't sound like such a bad idea to me :) It is good to know that I have a place to stay here in the Pyrenees mountains.  And with great people to boot! I overheard Ginnette talking to a friend on the phone yesterday and she said some very nice things about me.  She also said I spoke French very very well! Yay! I was blushing upstairs in my princess bed (their grand daughter, Louise, calls it that because it is seperated from the rest of the room by a blue curtain).  I have made bracelets for everyone in Louic's family and I will be leaving key chains for Jean Louis and Ginnette (bracelets aren't very practical for people who milk cows and sheep twice a day).  I am honestly going to be very sad to leave.  I really do hope I can make it back some day.

Tomorrow I will be making the cheese for the last time, and I am hoping I can get Carry to take pictures of me doing it so that I can post them!

Until next time (only a few 'next times' left; I leave for the US in 2 weeks!), wishing everyone a lovely start to their summer! Hope it's less rainy than it is here haha!

Coucou!

I have decided to give you all a little peek into my travels and farm life after almost 3 weeks of no blogging.  I am writing to you now from the Foures cheese farm in Milhas, France.  The next biggest town is where we sell the cheese, and it is called Aspet.  The Tour de France passes through there every year (notably climbing Col du Porte d'Aspet).  After that there is St Gaudens, where I arrived by train last Sunday evening, then Toulouse.  We are situated up in the mountains not too far from the great peak of Mount Cagire (I think that is how it is spelled).  It is absoluetly beautiful and I am having a great time, but before I go into much more detail I will give you a little summary of where I was before coming here:

Prague: I stayed with a camp friend, found live music every single day, and ate goulash! It is a beautiful city with great colors and a crazy language!

Florence: My fav! Beautiful and full of things to do and see. I climbed to the top of the Duomo, hiked up to a church overlooking the city that has an incredible cemetary, and ate amazing gelato! I also learned how to make gelato when I took a pizza and gelato cooking class! Then there was the Chianti hike and wine tour--gorgeous, in all senses of the word! I also visited with an old camp friend who is studying abroad there for the summer.  So good to be reunited in Europe!

Venice: Despite the rain when I arrived, I managed to do a lot of sight-seeing.  I visited the Duke's palace at Plazzo St. Marco and the glass blowing island of Murano.  I couldn't get enough of the bridges over the canals! So cool!

Nice: I absoluetly loved my time in Nice.  I met some awesome people and together we went to Antibes and Cannes for the film festival.  I may or may not have seen Maggie Gyllenhaal :) We ate a little picnic dinner on the beach, then watched the old Titantic film, A Night to Remember, on folding chairs wrapped big plush blankets once it was dark.

Barcelona: A really awesome city with tons to do and see, but I must admit, I was way too lonely in Barcelona.  I would love to go back some day with people I know.  It was great to chill on the beach every day though!

And that brings us to the farm!

Everything is going really well here and I have done sooooooooooooooooooo much! I dont even know where to begin! The basics are: milking the sheep twice a day (turns out what I thought meant little goats means female sheep!), picking fresh cherries and strawberries, de-pitting the cherries for making jam, cheeeese makiiiing!, brousse making (essentially cottage cheese made from the milk that is left over from making the cheese), and playing with the pet wild boar haha They took the little thing in after Jean-Louis killed its mother while hunting this past Feb.  His name is Roui Roui (like the sound it makes).  He is like a dog, it is so funny! Ginette loves him :) Actually...it might be a girl...anyway, it lives under the porch in a pen where they usually put a dog or a sheep that's going to give birth.  It smells pretty bad, but it's cute nonetheless.
I am very lucky with this family because they are patient with my French and I work along side them, not FOR them, which was one of my worries going into wwoofing.  The couple who run the farm are Jean-Louis and Ginette Foures.  Their daughter, Gael, is living with them until her little house down the road is ready.  She is in her early thirties and it is her computer that I am using.  Oh, and she has a pet raven named Corback that she carries with her almost everywhere (except the market, of course).  Their son, Louic, lives up the road with his wife, Sevrine, and 3 kids--Louise, Gillien, and Juliene.  They are my favorite family in all of France--absolutely adorable and genuinely amazing people.  Louise is 7 and is learning English in school, so I teach her words every once in a while. She has really taken a liking to me and I am going to St. Gaudens with her and Sevrine tomorrow to watch the rehearsal for her dance performance since I wont be here for the real thing.
I have watched Jean-Louis make the cheese (which is a cow and sheep mix) one time, and I helped the other wwoofers make the most recent batch.  The other wwoofers, a couple, left today.  They left a week early because there was too much work and not enough play.  It was the guy's idea and his girlfriend wanted to go out more and see things/places.  So now I am the sole wwoofer for the next 2 weeks! Which means that I get to make the cheese next time! Yaaay! That also means that I am trying to milk faster to make up for the loss of two other sets of hands.  Not that it really matters since Jean-Louis can milk 3 sheep in the time it takes me to do one! But I a, speeding up! I started to milk with two hands at the same time this afternoon. Before I could only get the job done milking one side at a time.  It is not as easy as Jean-Louis makes it look!
There have been a lot of things that I have had to get used to in terms of cleanliness and manners, but I am trying really hard to adapt and not let things get to me. For example, the water from the sink goes into the creek next to the house, so they avoid using dish soap when washing the dishes.  Instead, they just use hot water and a sponge.  The sponges are grody, and I have a history with grody sponges, so that has been a hard pill to swallow.  I am getting used to it though.  I try not to think about it too much.
I have managed to get some blisters on my hands, and 2 of them opened and are pretty gross right now.  Plus they sting when I milk the sheep! They are slowly healing though. I have also managed to trap myself a flea (or two...) which is obnoxious because it keeps biting me and I have itchy bites all over :( There aren't any fleas in the house because Ginette treated for them recently, so we think I got it in the barn where the rabbits and pigeons are kept.  We are washing my sheets anyway and also the clothes I have worn most recently in the barn (which is basically just what I have worn all week since it is not worth it to change into new clothes all the time).
I bought myself some boots for three euro yesterday after nearly a week of using my sneakers.  The poor things are in quite a state right now! The boots suit me muuuuch better in the barn with all the poop everywhere.  And I mean EVERYWHERE. I have been pooped on at least three times.  Oh, and I was licked by a baby sheep this afternoon.  I took that as a sign that it was the day to shower.

My vocabulary has swelled to include all sorts of useful words, from blister to stinging nettles (my arch enemy) to wild boar.  I have read almost every Asterix and Obelix comic book in the house (they are the French equivalant to Micky Mouse and Donald Duck I would say).  I also bought a historic fiction novel which I am enjoying, and Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris, which is the story of the hunchback and Esmerelda etc.  Essentially, I am speaking and reading and listening to only French all the time.  Writing this in English right now is actually kind of hard.  I find myself forming sentences in a French form and not knowing how to terminate them! Also, it is hard not to think of words in French first! I take all this as a good sign.

This will probably be the last wwoofing entry (unless something ridiculously amazing happens) since I do not want to write too much in English while I am here.  I am looking forward to a good continuation here with the Foures, but also looking forward to my return to Italy and a short stay in Geneva where I will be reunited with more friends from the states!

Until next time un gros bisou à tous!

Signing off from Paris

Faithful followers, it is now time for me to sign off from my home base of Paris as I prepare to depart on a two month solo European backpacking adventure.  I am not planning on blogging regularly since I will not have regular internet access, but I have not ruled out the occasional entry under extenuating circumstances (aka, an irresistibly amazing story).  So, keep a weather eye out for rogue posts!


Itinerary:
Prague for 5 days with a friend from camp
Florence for 6 days with another friend from camp
Venice for 2 days
Nice for 3 days
Barcelona for 4 days
WWOOFing (farming) on a cheese farm in the Pyrénées for 3 weeks
Rome and Perugia for 6 days with my two best friends from middle school
Geneva for 3 or 4 days with my best friend
back to Paris for 2 or 3 days before flying back to the States on June 20th


I will be doing all of the traveling alone and by rail, and will be staying with people I know except for my time in Venice, Nice, and Barcelona.  I am actually fairly grateful for my lack of company.  I expect to be safer than if I was with a large group of loud Americans, especially under this heightened political climate.  I also expect to do a lot of self-reflecting.  My goal is to come out of these next two months with an answer to the following question: What do I love?
I have a new memory card for my camera that holds almost 2,000 pictures, I have my backpack full of clothes, and I have my determined sense of adventure! Off I go!

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

Why I love métro ligne 6...

Fairy Tales [redefined]

There is a photo contest that IES conducts at the end of every year, and I. am. going. to. win.  You take a poster that says ______ [redefined] and you fill in the blank and take a picture in front of something that helps explain whatever it is you put in the blank.  I put the words "fairy tales" in the blank and took pictures in front of the châteaux Fontainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte when I visited this past weekend with CIJP.  Here is the photo I submitted:

Winner.

In front of the château Vaux-le-Vicomte which inspired Versailles.  

Louis XIV took such a liking to this château when he visited that he stole the gardener (the famous Le Nôtre) and the architect, had the owner (Nicolas Fouquet) imprisoned for life, and built Versailles.  Ta-da! The origins of Versailles!

The prize is $200 for the contest, but I've already been told by IES that they want to use the photo for catalogues and other publicity.  Exciting!

I took several other pictures that day, but only a few of them are without the sign haha!

Fontainebleau is also full of history that spans the ages--it was the vacation home (essentially) for all of the kings of France and each added his own little (or big) something.  We saw a room where Marie Antoinette slept (and the fabrics were clearly picked by her!) and the room where Napoleon I abdicated (I made sure to mention seeing this in my history exam on Tuesday).

Both of these château were beautiful and historically rich, but I must say, I understand why Louis XIV loved Vaux-le-Vicomte so much.  Also, turns out that my host father is related to a marquis who stayed in that château! I don't think I saw his room though because my ticket was only for the abbreviated tour.  I did get to see the immense kitchens though! They had every cooking apparatus one could imagine, and even some that you can't!

I leave you now to enjoy the pictures from that day:

Fontainebleau

Gallerie de Fontainebleau

Châteaux always have beautiful ceilings.

Diane de Poitiers' gallerie, later turned into a library by Napoleon.

Marie Antoinette's room.  I know, right?

Napoleon's receiving room, complete with throne.

Fontainebleau chapel

In front of the famous stairs "du fer à cheval".

Fontainebleau gardens

From the back you can really tell that Fontainebleau is 

a melange of different eras and architectural styles.

Vaux-le-Vicomte

Gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte

The château from the gardens.

Truly redefining fairy tales.

Giverny

This past Friday, IES took us on an excursion to Claude Monet's Giverny.  We had a tour through the Impressionism Museum where there is currently an exposition of Pierre Bonnard's Normandy work.  Personally, I do not find Bonnard to be that good.  His colors annoy me and I especially do not like his people.  I prefer his landscapes.  By the end, I was wishing I had just spent that hour and a half looking at Monet instead.  After lunch we got to wonder around the gardens for about three hours, and that was really amazing.  His house is also open to walk through (unfortunately you can't take pictures inside) and I found his mono-chrome taste in room decor to be really interesting.  The dining room was all yellow, which was slightly obnoxious, but the all blue kitchen was really pretty.  I took lots and lots of flower pictures because they were all so colorful and bright! Some of them literally looked as though they were glowing and then there were some of them looked like candy because the colors were so vivid and crisp.  I don't blame him for painting in that garden!