Bonjour!

Bonjour tout le monde!

So we made it, we got thet 2pm ferry from Portsmouth along with about 500 French school kids who all looked like they were out of a french textbook and were mad for life and loving the onboard entertainment (a man who was a terrible entertainer on the boat who kept tailing his words with a heeearYEEE sound which was appaling.)
We got in a bit of French practice at the bar by odering a few celebratory drinks in to set sail with. The weather on board was immediately lovely and we sailed off into a perfect sunset.

There we were collected from Caen by Bob, our first host who drove us home to La Paix and we were welcomed into an amaaaazing farmhouse (gangster) which smelt of oak were shown to our abode, which is an outhouse with a downstairs living space and an upstairs sleeping space which you get up to via ladder. It is so cool. There are loads of books and wine and lavender oil in our little outhouse and we have our own key etc so lots of privacy and space to make a mess in.

We had some cheese and wine on our first night which was so good and then had a well needed sleeep...

we awoke to the sound of a cockeral screaming at the top of it's lungs (in English - a proper cock a doodle DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO with perfect diction) haha Sam hates the fact that it does it ALL Day and not JUST in the morning and the evening like it SHOULD - and birds twittering in the nearby trees. Not a single car or bus or citizen around. The weather was shorts and tshirt weather from the morning and we had a breakfast of fruit, yoghurt and fresh bread and then were shown our work; the lavender. We were set to work weeding the lavender plants, which was back breaking at first and our arms were scratched into works of art and bleeding and burnt and crusty and we were super hungry by lunchtime but it felt SO good because it was a well earned meal instead of waiting at a screen to get a fake hunger and the cupboards and fridge here are free reign for us to make our own and stocked with every single cheese and ham under the sun. Dinner is cooked for us though, and on the first night we had a well fit chilli. It rained quite heavily on the first evening and we were cosy and read our books and chilled in our out house very happily.

The weather since the rain has been super sunshine, tan is already developing!!! and we have been working 6 hours a day, mostly weeding the plants and clearing all of the fallen leaves around them and we have discovered lots of insects: there is Mr. Stripes, a very keen bee who lives near our door who wants to come in but doesnt actually come in, i think he prefers the fantasy. There is also a 'Mosh' which is a GANGSTER looking beetle, pretty big and metallic looking, gold and purplish. We called it Mosh cos it looks so fly. There is also JUMPING SPIDERS - David you would HAAATE and several wormy wormingtons (mr. Mington).

There is a mad-for-it collie called Mia who is ten months old who lives here who constantly wants to play fetch, she is soo sweet. She has a selection of toys including Rat, chicken bone, stick and now frisbee and likes to drop it in front of you and then leg it really far away before you've even picked it up and stares from a distance at you until you throw it.

The people are so safe, A dutch lady who is multi lingual and a man from London who cooks well fit food for us in the evening and works a la Jardin tous les jours. we On the sunday had roast VEAL which was sooo fit, and just well good that we got a Roast!!

We took the bikes into the nearby village which is just up the road but has nothing but a church and a hotel and then a day or two later (losing track of what day is which) walked the very scenic route into the nearby town (4km) Conde-Sur-Noireau and Sam bought a fat from one of eight pattiseries!

We popped the bubbly that sam bought from his work with our hosts on the first night and it was niiice and there is wine that flows from the fridge non stop. After work (and at lunch sometimes) it is a question of red or white. When in France... :)

The acheyness wore off from the work after the first few days and our arms are healing but is just so nice to be outside working and not clock watching and just enjoying life, it really is ideal.

Tomorrow is our first day off so we are either going to go Kayaking in the nearby river or maybe a la piscine or just out on a big rambling adventure. There is a pregnant sheep next door who looks well gutted to be so fat and woolly in this weather and all it says is BAA and reminds me of the youtube video called goat screaming like a man and is hilare.

This morning we cycled to the nearby village to the French market and it was so authentic (with the French accordian music and everything) and bought some massive strawberrts and a crepe au chocolate and I got rinsed by the market man because I asked for une orange seulement when everyone else was buying in bulk haha i didnt understand the rinse tho so it was fine. The market men have well funny voices and all the women are elderly and look like Lynne from Alan Partridge and the market was full of 90s clothes that you would see on a Polish worker and it was hilare.

Sorry this post is kind of late, actually i'm not sorry, it's well good not giving a fuck about the internet! we havent even had a single desire to go online and it will probably stay with that. Well enjoying the absence of adverts and the dryness of London. We are reading Brighton Rock and Brave New World which are both really good but the books on the shelf are taking my fancy... in particular 'Secrets of the gnomes' and 'glorious Knitting' (NOT) but true about secrets of the gnomes (apparently the conical hats are to stop falling objects from hitting them) I think im going MAD. hahahahaaaaa