Excitement abounds in the airport... We are going to France!
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| We made it to the Metro |
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| The Paris Metro! Ridiculously crowded all the time... |
We were originally told to meet the Farmer at the market first thing in the morning, so we could start helping out. However when we got there, the farmer said he didn't need any help until tear down at 2pm, so we had the day to explore the city instead! We stumbled upon this weird looking building and took some pictures of it...
Right by the Eiffel tower there was this huge display of painted bears. This was the description of the purpose of the exhibit, if you're interested. The main point is that the people from all the world's countries are represented by the bears, and they are all holding hands, which means they must like each other.
Liz with Amerrrca bear...
Me with the Denmark Bear! Apparently Denmark is called the "Fairy Tale Kingdom."
Us doing the Bear pose.
I was like, "Hey, Liz, let's walk towards that building with the gold on top, it looks important." Turns out it's the church that Napoleon commissioned and he's buried in the back of it.
Topiary hugging at it's classiest.
And... we meet the farmer! This is Luc hard at work at the market.
Tomatoes...
Me getting excited for vegetables. This is a giant green radish.
Liz and I in the van, preparing ourselves for the long drive ahead!
Snacks for the passengers on the dashboard.
So... for some reason Liz and I thought that the farm we would be working at was right outside of Paris. As it turns out, the farm was actually on the complete opposite side of the country, and a three hour drive from the city, if you don't stop at all... this is us realizing that we're in for a long night.
We stopped for dinner at Luc's mom's house. She didn't speak a word of English, but somehow we managed to get along just fine and help her make dinner. She was so sweet!
We drove for half the night and had to keep stopping on the side of the road so Luc could sleep for a bit before continuing to drive. By the time we got to the farm it was probably past two in the morning, and then we had to unload the truck so the vegetables wouldn't go bad! Luckily this meant that we didn't have to work at all the next day though :)
This is the door to the bedroom Liz and I stayed in.
Artsy pic of the staircase up to our room.
This was a cool wooden painting of a woman guiding us up the staircase.
The old fashioned heater in our room. Unfortunately we didn't get to use it at all...
Our beds!
The toilet! Vintage style...
This was the building we stayed in, with our bedrooms upstairs and the bathroom and the kitchen downstairs. The building used to be a mill before it became a farm house :)
The other houses on the farm.
Fields!
View from the road.
Barn!
There were lots of these covered structures on the farm.
The same field as before, on a sunny day. We were lucky to get a bit of Vitamin D while we were here, because we knew we wouldn't be getting any back in Copenhagen!
Lettuce...
Tomatoes. Yum.
The stream right by our house. The stream actually flowed under our room!
Pile of wooden boxes. We used these to collect and store the veggies.
Liz and I on our first morning on the farm. Sun!
We were given the task of washing this filthy dog. We thought it also could use a haircut, because it's dreadlocks were a bit disgusting...
Me cutting the dog's hair...
One of the perks of living on a farm? Endless supply of vegetables! Aka, delicious salad ;) Lunch was served every day between 2:30 and 3:30pm. We ate so much at lunch that we skipped dinner most nights. If we did eat dinner though, we ate between 8 and 9pm.
The table set for lunch! Every day during lunch we would listen to the radio. For some reason, the station we listened to never reported anything about France... it only talked about Las Vegas (of all things...) and the upcoming election in the States... Liz and I asked Luc why the French spend so much time listening to stories about Las Vegas, and he said it's because they think it's a crazy place that they can't even fully believe exists, and it's hilarious for them to listen to the stupid people being interviewed... Go America.
After lunch every day, once we cleaned the kitchen, Liz and I were free to do whatever we wanted. Every day we spent some time lounging on these chairs by the river and reading our books. Very relaxing!
On the chairs, reading again!
We also went on a walk a few times. This is the road we would walk down to see other parts of the countryside. The dog led the way... can you see him in the distance?
One day we also went on a bike ride! We stopped along the side of the road to read our books :)
Liz with her bike by a field of cows. The cows in France are all white! And not obese like the cows in America... Surprise surprise.
One of our favorite characters on the farm - Gerald. He was the one who told us about the bikes and was very concerned with making sure we were taking advantage of our leisure time. Whenever we asked him a question, he would babble away to himself in French and then eventually answer us in broken English... He was very sweet!
Me, Cami, and Liz. Cami was another one of the permanent employees on the Farm. She was really nice and helped us learn how to make farm-sized proportions of food for lunch every day. Farmers eat A LOT.
The dog and cat snuggling in bed to ward of the cold at night :)
Liz and I on our last night on the farm. We went on a walk to say au revoir to the countryside!
Liz and I in the train station on our way back to Paris. Liz's face reflects the anxiety she feels because of the stress of working on a farm and dealing with our beloved farm owner Luc, who was a bit of a challenge to work with...
Me saying goodbye to Luc!
Since I don't have any pictures of us doing actual farming (because we were hard at work and couldn't stop to take pictures!) I will just outline the harvests of each day we were on the farm...
Monday: Potatoes!
Tuesday: Beetroot
Wednesday: Beetroot and carrots
Thursday: Spinach and green beans (By far the most boring day)
Also, I think it's important that I mention a few key "Luc Quotes." He really had a lot of good ones...
LUC QUOTES:
"The most important thing is the Harvest!!!"
"EFFICIENCY, EFFICIENCY!"
"I have one thousand hours of work to do, and I am already late!"
"I never sleep enough. A farmer has the hardest job in the world. I am always tired!"
"The organic vegetable is a higher quality than the chemical vegetable. But it takes so much more time to harvest the organic vegetable, and you can't make the price enough because then no one will buy it."
"I am always working."
And did I mention... "THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THE HARVEST!"
So, maybe this gives you a bit of an impression of what this guy was like... Not the most optimistic person ever...
On a lighter note, here is a funny video to watch! It was my inspiration for the title of this blog.
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