Casanque.

At the beginning of April, I spent eight days at another HelpX with an awesome British couple, KJ and Debs. They literally live in the middle of nowhere, no roads in sight and only a faint light visible in the distance at night. It was really nice (...for eight days...after that I think I'd go a little bananas).

The closest "major" town is Condom. It has a lot of cobblestone streets, daily markets, cafes, etc etc. and English celebs. The most famous one being Siouxsie, of Siouxsie and the Banshees (an old punk band). We saw Siouxsie one Sunday when KJ took us into the market, she was looking like she still likes a good mosh-pit. This is just one pretty spot in Condom.

With KJ & Debs and their dogs, Tess (the sweet and slow one), Boots (Tess' wild brother), Biff (sick, stinky and fat, but my favourite!), and Maggie (Biff's mom and the queen of the group).

I was there at the same time as another Helpx-er Robijn from the Netherlands. We worked on clearing the trees/shrubs/rocks from this spot beside their house. There's a big pile of rocks to the left of the truck in this picture, and there was a few snakes in there too, yikes. Robijn was a little scared of the snakes so somehow I became the brave one to move and lift the rocks...

The after picture, right before I left.

Some pictures of the views from their house...
Who doesn't love a hammock? Especially in Gascony, with views of rolling fields of Grapeseed.

Their neighbours vineyards, used for terrible red table wine and armagnac (this is the region where Armagnac grapes are grown).

The kitchen window and laundry line...

Maggie and an old building where the dogs sleep at night. It's pretty cute, after they cuddle with everyone on the couch after dinner, the dogs head down to the lower loft in this building and hop onto a big straw bed for the night.

A big barn on the right for storage and the pellet stove. They once had a German Shepherd (not the dog, but an actual man from Germany, roaming the countryside looking for work) help them. His name was Tim and he insisted on sleeping in the barn. He also insisted on yelling up to KJ & Debs window in the morning "Good morning my Lord". On the left is a nice dining area where we ate every night I was there.

Poor old Biff, this is where he spends all his days.

After the dogs had their dinner, I took them for long walks through tiny villages, rolling hills, vineyards, farm fields, forrests, the views are endless here.

The pictures above and below show the wild orchids that are growing everywhere.

The first night Maggie came with us for a walk, it was really really hot. On the way back the dogs jumped in this stream to cool off, but it was too steep and slippery for old Maggie to get out, so here's Robijn trying to get her attention. She was quite disoriented and it took us awhile to finally get her to a place where she could climb out. It was pretty cute though, the other two dogs were just as concerned as Robijn and I.

I went for a couple bike rides around the area, which includes this old Chateau, famous in France for some reason (I forget!)...could be the Armagnac they make.

There were a lot of hills to fly down...and then walk up.

These two pictures are from another neighbouring town called Gondrin. It had this pretty street with old, old buildings...

...and lots of flower gardens.

And back to Condom. KJ told me this region is very typical French, with berets and all. I told him I'd seen almost every French stereotype (ie baguettes, dog poop, etc) but no Berets. Then low and behold, this group of men, wearing berets, poses infront of a 3 Musketeers statue - couldn't really get more French!

La Peyrardiere.

I spent three weeks with an American family living just outside of a small town called Gonfaron, two hours by train from Marseille. Gonfaron is famous for it's turtle sanctuary/farm that protects and breeds endangered turtles from France (a little strange, no?). There's also an annual 'flying donkey' festival that I missed by just one day! The big event of the festival is a parade through the town with a paper mache donkey at the end, which they light on fire at dusk (again, a little crazy, no?). The town was pretty cute though, the people very friendly, and the local co-op wine was amazing.

Jill and her twin girls, Celeste on the left and Camille on the right. John was working the weekend, he's one of several private helicopter pilots for a Russian billionaire who owns a famous English soccer team. Specifically he is one of three pilots for the Russian just when he's in Cannes, although he has flown with him to the Caribbean just to pilot his helicopter there as well...the life, eh?!

One of the first warm days in Gonfaron (back in March) and Camille insisted on wearing her mittens. Sometimes they called the girls by their rapper names 'Heavy C' (Celeste, on the left) and 'C-Lite' (Camille, on the right)...they have a big size difference...haha. They were a fun family.

John and Jill are renovating their 225 year old house, so we helped them paint some window frames...these are some of their old clothes they have for helpx-ers to wear while painting, etc. It's a blast from the past! Also, Marc's hair is almost doubled in volume now, May 8th. This was mid-March. (Marc spent his days off with me at their house).

I also helped with dinners most nights and Marc cooked every Sunday night that he came.

...and I made lots of desserts, like Grandma Kuntze's delicious raspberry pie (a huge hit with everyone!)

One night Jennifer (another helpx-er from Austin, Texas) and I got pizza for dinner from this truck, equipped with a stone oven! We saw a few of these throughout France, which was not what we expected of the French, but this pizza was delicious.

...picking up wine from the co-op...

Another task we did was clean old wine bottles and then fill with olive oil, also from the local co-op. John and Jill picked olives from their own trees one day and exchanged them, according to weight and the seasons fruit growth, for JUGS of olive oil. Look at the colour! So fresh.

This is the view from the front of John and Jill's house, a small vineyard. The grapes would be processed at the co-op and the owners would have a good supply of wine for the year. One day a man (a nomad/gypsy shepherd sort of guy) came with his family and setup a fence around the vineyard. The next day there were literally hundreds of sheep grazing, and fertilizing, the vineyards.

A couple days later, the sheep showed up on another neighbouring vineyard...this time they were all shaved! ...I'm so glad I saw them a few days earlier, and fuzzy 'cause they were ugly lookin' sheep, see below.

The wisteria was just coming to bloom the days before I left. But this grows all over the area so I saw full purple blooms in Marseille, they are gorgeous.

The vineyards behind John & Jill's house. The surrounding area is nothing but hills, mountains and vineyards.

In Gonfaron. I like the 'homemade' sign posted at the bottom. I think it's for a game like Bocce ball (aka Petanque) and is really popular with older men in the south.

...Gonfaron...

John & Jill were so nice and their girls are cuties. It was nice to be in one place, a home, for 3 weeks straight. And Gonfaron and the surrounding area is just what you would think the prettiest part of a the French countryside looks like. I would definitely recommend a trip to the small towns of Provence.

One more thing...Robert et Cecile, c'est pour vous.
(Written on the door of the room I stayed in at John & Jill's).

A Table at Une Table, Au Sud

The next two pictures are dining room tables at Une Table, Au Sud. I fortunately got to eat at the table of two with another stagaire who was leaving around the same time as I was. The food was great and very inventive. The tables have a great view of the Vieux-Port and looks stunning at all times of day, especially sunset.
Various table objects are flowers, linens and a large novelty fork and spoon which are just for presentation. In a Michelin starred restaurant, they spare no expense.

These are the fortunate people who work at the restaurant. A few are missing because on my last night we weren't very busy so some of them got to night off. We were about 12 people in the kitchen on a busy night including the chef. I also had the opportunity to work with the Sous-Chef (Ludo) who took part of the french tv show TOP CHEF. He was very happy when guests recognized him and talked to him about his time on tv. He loved the ladies.

A picture with Mori aka Mori-Son. He was another stagaire who will be at the restaurant until the end of July. He was from Japan and barely spoke or understood any French. He had a black belt in Judo so I befriended him very quickly; fyi I was able to surprise him with my ninja focus and would have been able to kill him.

A picture with me and the Chef, Lionel Levy. He is the stereotypical french chef. He yells, screams and throws stuff. It was crazy some days but it was all worth it. French people are short; notice who is taller?