Printemps a la France-Spring in France

Kindra speaking- There is so much to tell from our past few weeks here in Izaut de l’Hotel, where do I begin? I suppose introducing you properly to our hosts is a good start.

First and foremost, it is our first time living with a child at the property! There is a wonderful 8 yr old boy named Rowan, who brightens up our day every moment we spend with him! He has been our partner in crime, jumping into freezing cold rivers/waterfalls, walking to markets with us, picking up his baby chicks with us....always up for an adventure.

Rowan and Austin preparing to jump in the waterfall by our house

One of which was Austin taking some family portraits (where these pics of the family are from) which the mom, Karen, is using for her website hoping to attract nearby elementary or high schools to come and learn more about chickens through hands on experience here at the farm. We have certainly learned a lot about chicken care from Karen, who is a laid back, empowering, and tireless worker and mother. Her French is impeccable, and she makes killer salads.

Enjoying a long, beautiful hike with Karen on a weekend

The husband, Lee, is extremely knowledgeable about vegetation and sustainability. In fact, he is so much oriented towards always considering the environmental affects of every decision of the family life that we have found it even difficult at times to cope with. That being said, he has a tool and an exact process for everything, which makes a lot of sense when you're producing on a commercial level, and I have learned a significant amount about gardening and farming from him.

Working with Lee on planting hundreds of seeds in the sun

Our French WWOOFing home is overall proving to be a yet another completely different experience from any we have had thus far. It is spring time! And we are at the base of a mountain! Which translates to: the weather changes more dramatically than anywhere so far, and it has been HOT. While we are doing new jobs that come with the season-making veggie beds and planting into them, pruning raspberries, etc.-they are all being complicated by a part of spring that I didn’t see coming. Bugs. Lots, and lots of bugs. Hornets getting trapped in our house, bug fuzzy bumble bees following us as we prune their favorite flowers, wasps making nests in our car, ants invading our house for a single crumb left out, lizards sun bathing on our windowsills, spiders multiplying in our bathroom like they’re in a math contest-you name it. Not so fun-talk about having to deal with my previous flying insects that sting phobia!- but part of the deal.

One of the many unique flowers blooming in our village

Planting potatoes in the hot sun. About 800 potatoes, to be precise. 

On the way to the remote chickens, as the flowers bloom.

We are also using compost toilets-not as gross as you might imagine, and no, it doesn’t reek any worse than a standard toilet-which help produce humanure!! Yep, it’s just what you’d think-human manure, mixed with other organic wastes (like egg shells, veggie leftovers, nut shells, etc) and used as compost for the garden. Gotta say, it makes a lot of sense if you’re doing it on a commercial level, maybe not so much sense if you’re doing it for a small house garden. Certainly a novel experience for us. This is also the first place we have WWOOFed in which neither of us are fluent in the local language. While I took French in high school, that was about 7 years ago....so not so hot there. But we’re learning together, and Austin has been making new village friends with ease basically playing games of charades in attempts to communicate.

Chicken time! Breakfast for 1 group of chickens every morning

We have more than fallen in love with French wine, cheese, croissants, and chocolatines-we have become addicted. We find excuses to walk to the local store, which sells freshly baked croissants, chocolatines, and breads, as often as we can. It’s got to be the best way to spend 85 cents in the world. So between the local cuisine, and the Wood family making outstanding vegetarian meals from mostly their own garden, we are being fed extremely well.

Playing the 'twirl' game with Rowan and his friend we've been close with, Felix

That being said, this has also been a very difficult place for us in some ways. Something that we perhaps did not foresee or think through when choosing this location is the inevitable added stress that having a child around brings upon a family, as there have been many moments of tension and arguing in the house, leaving us uncertain of our place in the whole situation. We have also had some car problems (aside from the wheels needing replacing, the shifter coming out, no AC, wheel bearing needing replacing...) -the timing belt snapped a week and a half ago, never what you hope to happen, let alone in the rural countryside of France. Thankfully it happened just by our house and not on the open road, but the final blow was given to us today by the local mechanic when he said it is beyond repair. Or, repair to the tune of about 2500 Euro, aka, beyond repair.

This has hit me especially hard, as I was beginning to experience the Multipla as a home away from home, a travel buddy, and vehicle of unforgettable experiences not easily come by any other way. It has been like saying goodbye to a comforting friend, in some ways.The memories we have had with it are almost endless-from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland in the winter, through France in the budding spring along the unforgettable Loire Valley, it has certainly been a blessing. And while we have absolutely NO idea what our journey will look like from this point forward, we have confidence that God will continue to surprise us with His provision, blessings, and kindness.

What has already been a God send for us both during this time is a book we found in our house, called Legacy of the Heart. It talks about facing your fears, finding places of calm and peace within the storms of life, and looking at how you deal with adversity, pain, and difficulty. While it is a big New Age-y for my taste, it is full of truth, and has been perfectly timed to come into this difficult time of our trip.

We are scheduled to leave next Monday-1 week from today-as we head to our next WWOOFing location, Bilbao, Spain!! We have friends from Santa Barbara that live and host WWOOFers there, and we are thrilled to see some familiar faces. On our way, we are contemplating doing a backpacking trip through the Pyrenees mountains-I mean, we have to cross them anyways-or doing part of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail, but most of that is car dependent, despite how well we have picked up hitch hiking.

So there you have it, our time in a nutshell. Or, as Austin Powers would say, “No, this is me in a nutshell., ‘Help! I’m in a bloody nutshell! How do nuts come with a shell like this!’”.....We have also watched Star Wars episode I and II while here, and they really are just as bad as I remember, possibly worse. Since when are the jedi so lame and incapable of dealing with or foreseeing anything well? Anyways, I digress.

T-1 week left in France! And who knows what lies ahead, across the mountains.

Snuggling with one of the "Fluffy Puffy" cats, 1 of 2 identical and impossibly fluffy cats on the property

Beauty

Rowan examines a rainbow through his binoculars.

 As of today, it has been exactly one week since our arrival at our Izuat-de-l'hotel, France WWOOFing location.  And what a week it has been!  Kindra and I have been absolutely blown away by the beauty of the region we are in.  Our little French village (complete with only three hundred people, a school, church, and small market) is in valley of foothills that lead to the Pyriennes mountains.  One small foothill beside us heists up the ruins of an eight hundred year old castle, and that area is soo fun to explore and enjoy views from.  That is, when it isn't raining buckets.  The last seven days have rivaled Ireland in rainability, and that is saying something.  So our projects have been mostly indoors: feeding the hundreds of hens here, be they young chicklets or older, professional egg-layers; or various odd projects, like making plum jelly!

Our finished jam product!

 It was my (Austin) first time making jelly, and it is a blast.  First, you have to mash up and weigh out the plums (in the ten kilogram range!), then add about ten kilos of sugar, a little lemon and pectin, and boil the monstrous lot.  Then, sterilize the forty odd jars needed to contain the jammy goodness, and voila!  Jelly by the caseload.  Kindra and I were pro jelliers by the end of it all.

In our free time, we have been getting to know our host family.  Rowan is an absolute star wars fan, so Kindra and him especially bond over this shared passion.  It is great living with a family that is so environment and organic focused; seriously, the meals are ridiculously healthy (and tasty)!  Just last night, we have these French style dinner pancakes (gallettes) made out of egg, parsnip, onions, cornflour, then topped with homemade spicy chutney.  My stomach and my bowels have never been so happy (or active!).  Speaking of bowels, we use compost toilets here, which are not too shabby.   Just take care of business and add a scoop of sawdust to cover it up.  :)

Our hike last Sunday was a "date" hike, where I surprised Kindra with where we were going and later shared a written story of how amazing and loved she is.

As far as adventures go, we have done one major hike up to a foothill ridgeline over the weekend.  It was a strenuous and view filled one, and a taste of the many hikes to come.  Following a hike like this, or a full work day, it would not be unusual to find us relaxing in our house (called the LivingBarn), reading a book while the wood heater crackles in the background.  So far, time and life is flying in France!

 The two panoramics (above and below) are some examples of our regions breathtaking beauty.

road trip theme songs

suuuper quick update! Kindra here, and I've finally updated our road trip theme song on Youtube to include our more recent additions, starting all the way back around Christmas time. I thought I'd give a brief description of why we've selected the recent songs we have, to bring you more fully into our experiences.

It was a very emotional time for us this last Christmas of 2012, knowing it was our last holiday season in the states for not sure how long. Because of how nostalgic we felt at the end of that time, we felt drawn to the song 'I'll Be Home For Christmas' to represent that whole period of goodbyes, last times of this and that, and Christmas time.

Once we got to Ireland, it was so....Irish! The song that stood out to me the most by far was while we were visiting the Cliffs of Moher (or cliffs of insanity, if you're familiar with the Princess Bride movie.) We had biked there from our hosts house, were sopping wet and freezing, and had just stepped into the visitor center before they were closing. There was an interactive part, telling you different things about the area, and I pushed a button to play the song entitled 'Cliffs of Moher' that was inspired by the very same cliffs we had just seen. The song seemed perfectly representative of the cliffs somehow, and the whole Irish culture at the same time, so it was an easy choice to remind us of our time there.

Scotland was a totally different time! The song 'Skyfall' by Adele from the recent James Bond movie Skyfall is more of an uncanny fit for particular memories we had while there than anything else. Our host owned a helicopter company, and as we understand it, some of his helicopters were used during the filming of Skyfall in the Scotland areas. On top of that, we also watched 'Casino Royale' and 'Skyfall' with our fellow WWOOFers while there, Scotland is mentioned several times during the movie (we drove on the A9 all the time, which is mentioned in the film!), and the land of his estate Skyfall is just like land we consistently drove through. As if that wasn't enough, the Oscars took place while we were there, when Adele won Best Song for 'Skyfall'. So it was more like "How can we possibly pick any other song in the world besides this one?" by the end of it.

So there you have it! Youtube list updated, and hopefully we'll get that map updated with our most recent France driving soon too.

Until next time, au revoir, and happy listening!

Acceptance

 Funny blog name for a blog title, huh?  But it has been my (Austin) journey of the last few weeks.  Learning to (finally) accept all circumstance in my life that occur.  Learning to live happy and joyful when things don't go as I plan.  Learning to give preference to others, namely Kindra, whom I have struggled to do that very thing.  And yet the mercy of learning the practice of acceptance of the realities of the current moment has opened an exciting new adventure for us both.  Since leaving London, and taking a car ferry to France, a whole new season has started for us.  Well, first of all, it is spring in France!!  That means, no more snow, no more sub-freezing nights where we can see our breath like smoke at 7 pm.  Instead, the French countryside is full of blooming yellow flowers, peaceful green pastures, and best of all: sun!     We had our first short sleeve shirt day a few days ago, in the beautiful Loire valley, and it was soooo nice.  Not quite shorts weather, but awfully close.  Apart from climate, our new season is one of love.  Kindra and I have fallen madly in love again since entering France, and so much of it has been me learning to release selfish heart patterns and be attentive to Kindra in each moment.  Of course, Paris, French countryside, crepes, and the French culture in general have definitely helped!  It is a Renaissance of our relationship, and it is not short term thing; it keeps blooming and developing, even in difficult circumstances.  One of these was our car getting stuck in one gear repeatedly, and our dealing with that (fortunately, when we thought we may have to abandon the Multipla, it miraculously regained gear function, which was a total gift from God).  However, overall, our journey through France has been unproblematic and spontaneously special.   For instance, we pulled off the road in the hamlet of Chambord, hoping to see a spectacular chateau in the morning.  When we woke up in our car (our home of the last week) and stepped outside, we were parked twenty feet from a riverside walkway to this chateau (French for castle), which was goldenly amazing!  Totally unplanned,. totally perfect.  Another time, we were looking for a place to park for the night, and ended up parked right next to a flowing waterfall by a scenic bridge, complete with picnic bench (the French cater to travelers like us, lots of free campsite like spots).  Oh, and the best, an Easter festival we stumbled upon in wine country town Amboise.  What was going to be a momentary town drop in from Rick Steve's recommendations turned out to be an all day affair, as we ate fresh crepes from street vendors, enjoyed live French/reggae/Chocolat soundtrack music from a local band, and wine tasted to tippsiness for free in a castle.  What a gift!  By the way, wine tasting in France is a must, its usually free, and the wines are unbelievably good and usually quite affordable.  And its romantic.  So in sum, God has given us a chance to enjoy this place and each other in the awesome goodness that is his character.  And France is definitely on the radar as a potential settling down place for us in the future (apparently Kindra has dreamed of living in France most of her life, what a potential answer to that dream!)

French countryside :)

To finish it all off, we arrived at our new WWOOFing home in the Pyriennes foothills, at an old pig farm turned farmer's market level commercial produce farm.  Beetroot, turnips, LOTs of eggs (and chicken laborers), and the most beautiful WWOOFing location yet.  We were practically in tears driving the road to the small town of Izaut-l'hotel (trying saying that with no French language experience like me, and you'll get a good giggle).  Snow capped mountains, bubbling steams, waterfalls, and WWOOF hosts in the smack middle of it all.  To boot, Karen and Lee (our new hosts, a British married couple with a eightish year old son named Rowan) are the sweetest, hippiest (like us), tendered hearted people of the journey yet.  They are rather relaxed and unconventional, a live a very simple, peaceful life.  Lee is a man of my own heart: he loves hiking, rock climbing, adventures, trekking, hitchhiking; and he is not fond of eating meat or lots of sugar (he has been a consistent vegetarian since birth).  He also comes from a corporate computer savvy background, but appears to much more enjoy the simpler, outdoors life.  We are meeting the coolest people on this trip!  Our accommodations are comfy and isolated (we have our own one room house), and the first work day today was chopping wood and digging out a water drain that lets rain water out of the field.   We are so looking forward to our next month here!

The view from right outside our current living quarters.

In other meditations, we are wanting to use the internet less and be more present where we are, so we may not be checking email more than once or twice a week, but we would love to get any feedback, thoughts, encouragments, what have you from those of you following along!  And hear how you are doing.  Feel free to post on the comments section provided or shoot an email our way.



Take care!

Photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117860913937238604610/France