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!