Woof Woof!
Trip Start
May 03, 2009
1
12
15
Trip End
Jul 30, 2009
Isigny-sur-Mer,
Normandy,
France
Sunday, July 5, 2009
After a lovely night with our friends Sarah and Nissim (and their kitty) in Paris, we headed to Normandy for a new kind of travel. We signed up with an international organization called WWOOFING where you volunteer to work part time for an organic farm, and in turn they house and feed you. Good deal right? Well, I quickly learned that you have to do your research. Some places are just getting started and may ask you to live in a tent. Some places are vegetarian only. Some have you wrestling goats for 5hrs a day. We luckily did our research ahead of time and landed ourselves in a renovated chateau. Chateau Monfreville has been British owned for over 20yrs
Chateau Monfreville
. The family run chateau is an organic farm that also runs as a BnB, rents out family cottages, and takes in campers. We were probably luckier than the average woofer in that we had our own room and bathroom, and use of a car on our off days.Inhabitants of the chateau include the original Brit owner June, her daughter Zoe, Zoe’s husband Paul, and their two kids Jake and Molly. Also living on the property was a potpourri of chickens, ducks, lots of baby ducklings, pigeons, 2 bunnies, about 40 sheep, and Bert the donkey. There was a swimming pond, which was home to some frogs, a couple of trout, and lots of algae. The food was excellent, fresh, and often from the backyard. In addition to the bounties of the farm, we enjoyed some new regional specialties such as apple cider (Calvados region), camembert cheese, and caramels. To be honest, it’s hard to beat Fran’s caramels in Seattle. These were good though.
We spent the first couple of days doing gardening project for June, which mostly entailed weeding, planting, and relocating her vast collection of plants. Our nastiest gig by far was mucking the algae out of the pond. It grows in carpets along all the surfaces. Using rakes Stopher and I removed about 4 wheel barrels full of pond scum. We barely made a dent. As the water drained from each haul, you could see the zillions of creepy crawlies swarming all over the algae, wondering what had happened to their homes. That was about all it took to know I would not be using the swimming pond. Paul signed us up for a few backlogged projects around the house. We sorted the basement, cleaning out lots of old forgotten storage items, and organizing the leftovers. Older windows had to get sanded and repainted, sheep had to be wrangled from field to field, Bert the escape artist had to be caught (he was chasing the campers), and Stopher used his engineering skills to rewire Paul’s workshop, probably saving him thousands so long as the place doesn’t burn down
The swimming pond
. Our only other truly nasty job was mucking out the barn that had housed the sheep over the winter. The poo pile was about a foot deep, wall to wall, and interlaced with straw; creating a very durable shit mesh. It took four of us about 5h to get the whole thing done (we had to stop for tea of course), and another couple of days to get the smell off. It was an excellent workout to say the least. One of our favorite projects involved trying to fix up all the bikes on the property. I technically wasn’t asked to do this (I think because I’m neither boy, nor engineer), but decided I would be involved anyways and traded my weeds for some grease. For our off time, we had a real bounty of things to see. We were just off the coast of Northern France, and surrounded by amazing historical sites from the Battle of Hastings, to WWII. We visited the Bayeux Tapestry in the town of Bayeux. The 11th century tapestry, at about 70m (230ft) in length, is a massive embroidery project that was used to illustrate to a largely illiterate population, the Norman conquest of England, and the events of the Battle of Hastings. We weren’t allowed to take photos, so the one here is a recreation. We explored the town of Bayeux, enjoying the local cuisine and the low stress environment of France on a Sunday (i.e. everything is closed). We also visited the beaches. Omaha Beach, as a beach, is very beautiful. But, of course it is more than just a beach. It houses a large WWII memorial with a vast array of information about the American war effort. It was pretty heavy to see, but very interesting. It also is home to the American cemetery, where approximately 95,000 soldiers are interred. The cemetery and memorials are all on a bluff overlooking the ocean. Moving westward along the coast, we visited Pont du Hoc, where soldiers used ropes to scale massive cliffs to defeat German forces and further solidify the hold of the French coastline
Photo of a photo of the tapestry
. Those large craters you see in the ground that make the place look like a golf course are actually from bombings of the area. To wrap up our time in Normandy, and to celebrate July 4th, we visited Utah Beach. There is another museum there, though it was closed at the time we arrived. There are still several items from the war displayed around the dunes though. The beaches have massive mud flats. We walked through several hundred meters of beach sand before actually reaching the water, and people as far as 100m past us still were not even waist deep. It is not hard to imagine what a sitting duck you would be during a low tide. Stopher and I shared a bottle of the local cider at Utah to toast the 4th, and the fact that we survived 10 days on the farm without being eaten by Bert or run over by the sheep.Next stop was taking an overnight ferry from Brittany to Ireland. It sounded romantic at the time, but I couldn’t find my Dramamine, there was a storm, and mostly I hoped someone would bash me over the head with a rock to distract from the sea sickness. Suffice to say I was a happy camper when we saw the Irish coastline ahead. We’ll be in Dublin for about a week, then picking up our bike tour on the West Coast. We may be in for a challenge considering we’ve hardly trained for it. In the mean time, I hope the folk that did the STP this weekend had a good time, and that everyone is enjoying the Tour de France.
Chow for now,
-Jamie & Stopher
Comments
Great to hear from you!
Hi you two,
I'm glad you wrote as I was just thinking about you, wondering where you are now and when you would post again. Sounds like the wwoofing was wwoofwhile! And now bicycling in Ireland...nice!
We had a most gorgeous 4th of July here - great weather, good parties, and no one on the roof. It's coolish and rainy today and yesterday but supposed to get nice again later in the week.
Take good care!
Jamnie
Re: Great to hear from you!
Can't believe I typoed on my own name and this thing won't let me edit!
Jamie