Work Away; St Donat, France.

Spending 5 weeks of your life in the middle of the French countryside is one of those experiences you don’t get to have often, if ever. We were lucky enough to spend some time in the Auvergne region in central France, in a tiny little village of 250 people called St Donat. We stayed with a couple, Eric and Caroline, helping them with their small Auberge (hotel). We lived, worked, ate and played there for 5 glorious weeks. Tasks included cleaning the rooms (there were only 4), helping in the kitchen, walking the dogs and doing any small odd-bod jobs we were given. We were able to spend some time exploring the region, mostly by hiking but also through small explorations within walking distance of the hotel. Our favourite, especially on the hot days, was to walk to the waterfall with the dogs, Karel and Truus and jump into the freezing water. The water was so deep it was black and we didn’t know exactly how deep is actually was!

The whole area was beautiful, the sort of beauty you don’t see until you stay somewhere and breathe it in after a while. It seeps into your skin and you feel as though you will never be able to forget it. Rolling green hills and rocky outcrops, cows in every paddock with their bells chiming like a constant song, areas of pine forest which, in my opinion, would be the exact place fairies lived (if they could). Having a glorious thunder storm one evening after a long period of heat then followed the next day by thick thick fog was incredible. I took the dogs up the top of Monument hill and looked out into the white. I can now say that I have been in a cloud, and it was amazing. We also woke up extra early one morning to catch the sun rise over the extinct volcano’s. The sky was a wishy washy blue, turning from light pink to startling orange then bathing the world in a stunning yellow light. The clouds shone and the trees cast shadows twice as long the themselves over the earth as the sun made it’s way up into the sky.

We spent a hot day laying by a lake with music, beers and books and another day climbing right to the top of a mountain, just to look out over the world. We visited small country towns, hard to find on the map, and we ventured into medieval castles perched on top a hill. We picked sloe’s and made gin, and we picked blackberries and made jam. We picked blackberries until our fingers were red and our hands were scratched. We made memories, we made plans and we made friends.

We shared our last 3 weeks with a lovely Canadian couple, Chelsea and Robin, who helped make our stay a lot of fun. Gold panning, hiking and grass hoppers and Land Cruisers will never be the same again!

St Donat 

Karel (Charlie) 

Truus

On the way to the waterfall

Just some of the cows

The Hotel we were working and staying at

St Donat village

The view from the top of the volcano at Puy de Sansy

Murol Castle

We will always look back on this time with fondness and wishing we could go back to ‘that time’ in our youth and I’m ever thankful that we have had this amazing opportunity. We had fun, and in our lives together, that is all that matters. 

To Be Continued...

So I'm jumping ahead a little here as I've neglected the blog for a few months! I'll have to double check details before I post any more about my trip with Mum and Dad and (try) to get Jon to write something about this travels with his family. So family holidays...to be continued

Stelvio and Innsbruck

We were up and out of Hinterhein pretty early the next morning, agter watching the local livestock being herded through the main street (the only street) of the town! Goats and sheep this morning, each with a little bell on their necks, making the most noise possible as well we the most mess!

It was going to be a long day of driving, and we were going to be going through three countrie! Switzerland, Italy and Austria. We began in Switzerland and the day started with an amazing drive through an alpine pass. It was another cloudy day and we found ourselves driving through the clouds at the top of the mountain! We passed through some gorgeous little towns and villages, the more affluent ones we realized were ski towns during winter.

Eventually we made it to Stelvio, the base for the Stelvio Pass. Famous amoung fanatic drivers, and as we found out, cyclists! It was one of Dad’s dreams to drive this pass and it was really cool for him to be able to live out this dream. Although, personally, we didn’t think the driving or the view were quite as good as some of the other passes we had been through in the previous days, it was still amazing and very surreal. We stopped right at the top for pictures, then we had to turn around and come back down the same side due to a sporting event!

We continued on from Stelvio through to Innsbruck, then out of Innsbruck to our accommodation. We weren’t too impressed at first, being no where near the actual city (We were actually in a town named Igles) but it turned out to be wonderful! We had a delicious dinner, maybe even the best so far, at a local restaurant and our hotel was beautiful, with big comfortable beds and a nice big bathroom.

The next day we decided to head into Innsbruck and see some of the city. The Old Town is the main area for tourists except it was delightfully quiet! I think Innsbruck might fly under the tourist radar, but it was one of our favourite places. It was beautiful and clean, with lots of interesting things to look at as well as lots of little coffee shops to sit and watch the world go by. The city is like a children’s picture book, you can almost imagine the centuries past, when they let their livestock wander the streets for one hour each day! Granted, it smells much nicer and is much cleaner these days.

We just spent the morning in Innsbruck but we could have easily spent a few days there. It was amazing to be in a city when the alps were so close by that you could smell the grassy air. In winter the city becomes like a little winter wonderland, with the tiny multi-coloured terrace houses glowing in the snow. Maybe I’ll have to put that on my wish list for another holiday!

Interlaken and the Jungfrou Region

What can I say about this area? I have been to the Jungfrou region of Switzerland once before, but this trip bypasses anything I have ever seen before. The Swiss Alps really are one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

We stayed in a little hotel in Interlaken, with views out over the valley and with Jungfrou in the distance. Beautiful. We decided to spend our first afternoon going a small mountain close to the hotel, called the Harder Kulm (1322m). A cable car took us to the top where there was a small restaurant and lot of walking trails. We went for a hike up the mountain and took some great photos!

The weather had been looking pretty grim for the past week and the forecast for Saturday 14^th wasn’t looking any better. We woke up to find the same old cloudy sky, which is bad news if you want to go up to the top of the big mountains for the view. We decided to risk it anyway and we bought tickets to Murren, a little town half way up the mountain where we could decide if we wanted to go any further. God was on our side, and when we got to Murren the sky had cleared so we continued up to the Schilthorn by cable car. The view was breathtaking. I can’t use words to describe the magnificence of it all. We could see into 10 countries, as well as the biggest mountain in Europe, Jungfrou. It was pretty cold on the summit, so we headed inside to the revolving restaurant for a nice cup of Swiss hot chocolate. For you James Bond fans, the film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1968) was partly filmed in this restaurant and this mountain. This was pretty cool for Dad, being a hard core 007 fan. Of course, we bought the souvenirs J

Heading back down the mountain, it was hard to believe that the mornings weather had been so bad! It was hot down in Lauterbrunnen (the base camp for most of the big mountains) where we had some lunch and did a bit of sightseeing and more obligatory photo stops. It was with regret that we hopped back on the train to Interlaken, we all agreed we could have stayed there all day!

On the road again, this time on our way to goodness knows where – literally. We drove through the mountains, up to 2300m the back down again! We even found glaciers on the side of the road, so we had to stop and play with them, it was exciting for Mum who hasn’t seen snow since she was very young. The views were once again, breathtaking, and we found we were stopping the car to pull over and take pictures more than we were actually driving! Waterfalls, glaciers and tiny little towns were everywhere, with clouds actually beneath us, making their way up the mountain to try beat the summit.

Maybe it’s best not to mention where we are staying tonight…where I am currently typing this from, but I have to share it. The ‘town’ is called Hinterheinn, located right off the A13 but looking like it was built sometime 100 years ago, without renovations. The place is a ghost town, and we found ourselves looking into empty windows of houses trying to work out where we were supposed to be sleeping! The one we went inside (a nice looking place) wasn’t infact our accommodation. There was no one in there though, and the place was open! Weird… Eventually a lady came out to meet us and show us our accommodation, a nice, clean little apartment with a fridge and breadbox full of food for us. In the end, not too bad, but that’s the last time Dad books accommodation!

Geneva

We had another one of those micro stops here in Geneva, but we figured we didn’t need much more. Although the city is beautiful and there is quite a lot to see and do around the city, we weren’t too interested in spend too much time in such an expensive place! We didn’t make it to our hotel until late afternoon, and we decided to head into the city for a poke around and some dinner. We got stuck in traffic, so a few delays later, we finally made it. Our first impression was how clean and organized Geneva is! We walked along Lake Geneva and made our way into the Old Town. It was very beautiful, with it’s narrow cobbled streets and flowered window sills. I’m fairly sure they have a ‘city perfume’ as I kept smelling the same grape lollipop smell in random places and times. Maybe a little overboard? We had dinner at a little Italian restaurant which was nice, if a little expensive, but we knew this would be the case for Switzerland!

We walked back along Lake Geneva again, back to our car, to be greeted at the parking lot by a ridiculously expensive parking ticket. Well, we are in Switzerland I guess!

Fontainebleau and Fouvent Le Bas

After leaving Paris we were well and truly ready for some fresh country air. We had a stop in Fontainebleau to visit the chateau of not so long forgotten French Royalty. The Chateau housed people from King Francis to Napoleon. Again, I got in for free, but we had audio guides which, although we didn’t actually want them (slight misunderstanding with the French ticket lady) were actually quite good. We saw the Grand Apartments, the lesser apartments as well as the Ball Room and the Trinity Chapel, the place where Napoleon married Josephine.

We continued on our drive through fields of sunflowers, wheat and many, many cows, stopping for the occasional photo here or there. We finally made it to out to a little B&B which was tucked into the forest about 3km out of Fouvent Le Bas, a small and unassuming town in east, north-east France. We took a walk before dinner through beautiful fields of golden wheat, silent except for the sound of jets flying miles overhead.

The house we were staying in is slowly but surely being converted from a barn into a house. The owners bought it in the 80’s and have been working tirelessly ever since. The Lady of the house, Anne, is a tiny little thing with bright orange hair and missing teeth, but she sure does know how to cook! She cooked us an amazing vegetarian meal with 4 courses! Everything was from her garden and was all organic (except the lentils, which she told me were not worth the effort and were from the supermarket). Here’s what we ate:

     Vegetable soup with home made bread

     Tofu and salad with beet, sauerkraut and a herb dressing

     Baked potatoes, peas, carrot, lentils, rice and herbed zucchini

     Pancakes with Quince and honey

     Home made lime blossom tea. 

We somehow managed to roll ourselves to bed where we all slept like babies! Had another delicious breakfast the next morning then we were off again, way to soon.

Paris

What can I say about Paris! It is one of those cities which has had all the superlatives used on it already and still continues to top them all. Everything is like a picture – as in everything is so photographed even if you haven’t been there before you already feel like you have!

We stayed in a little apartment in the outskirts of the city centre, nice and close to a metro station. It was actually the apartment of a young girl who we rented it off, so it was like living in a home away from home!

Day one in Paris was the most hectic, a full 14 hour day out and about! We tried to see a lot of the main sights that Mum and Dad were interested in as I had been before with Jon in 2009. We began at the Opera, moved to the Vendôme palais with the massive column made out of cannons taken from Napoleon’s wars with the combined countries of Europe. The Column shows Napoleon’s victories with a figure of himself as emperor standing on the top.

Notre Dame was next, where we managed to find ourselves on a free walking tour! The guide was a little armature, but hey, it was free. We moved to the Louvre where we made the obligatory pilgrimage to see Lisa herself (Mona Lisa), but I was more impressed with the massive painting hanging opposite her! There were heaps of people and I think the Louvre should invest some money into air ventilation. I was happy though as being under 25 and an EU citizen, I had free entry! Doesn’t get much better than that!

I found a walking tour path in my Lonely Planet guide up Monte Marte to the Sacre Cour which we did after the Louvre. It was great because I was able to direct Mum and Dad on a walking tour, giving them the facts as we went, and they just had to come along! We began at the Moulin Rouge, so Dad was happy, then we worked our way up the monte. We found a gorgeous little restaurant to have dinner at which overlooked the city where the food was delicious and the service was super friendly! We continued our walk until we got to the Sacre Cour, with it’s magnificent views over Paris. Inside the Cathedral we were greeted by a huge mosaic picture of Jesus with his arms stretched wide, up over the nave. It felt like he was reaching his arms out to you as soon as you walked in the door, inviting you in, never wanting you to leave.

We stopped off on the way home to have a look at the Eiffle tower by night and get a few pictures, it was beautiful! We somehow managed to fight our way to the front of the tourist lines and take a photo with no one else in it but us! Amazing and totally breathtaking.

The next day we took it a little easier, having more of a general look around. We decided to head straight to the Champs Elysees, where we headed away from the Arc de Triumph towards the Luxor Obelisk, a 3300 year old obelisk given to Paris by Egypt in 1829. A super quick detour took us to the Church of St Mary Medeleine. We walked down some amazing streets full of designer stores we could have sworn were on the street before as well!

Crepes for lunch in the park took us back onto the Champs Elysees for a little retail therapy! Dad loved the amazing car concept stores, his favourite being the Citroen one (of course) with it’s 6 levels of amazing vehicles, he could have spent all day in there!

The Palace la Grande and Petite were absolutely amazing too. Just off the Champs Elysees, they seem to get only a little wrap by tourists! They were built for the 1900’s World Fair and are testament to what man could do without the technology we have today!

The Arc De Triumph was next, and although it was a few too many steps up to the roof for us to mention again, the view was well worth it! It was actually free for me again (bonus)! From the top of the Arc de Triumph you can see all of Paris, and all of the Grand Boulevards which come off the World’s Craziest Round-a-bout. It seems as though there are no rules for this round-a-bout, and we watched with horror as one too many cars nearly crashed!

We walked over to the Eiffel Tower from here, to sit and have a gaze at it from the Champs de Mars, the park directly in front of the Tower, which once served as a parade ground for the French military. For the thousands of people who were milling about, it was surprisingly peaceful and a great way to end our day. Our feet were killing us!

Back near our apartment, we had a nice meal and a few too many wines then went to bed. After two days of intense sightseeing, we were all looking forward to a nice quite night spent in the forest.