Our Life at La Fargassa…and a trip to the beach!
These past few weeks at La Fargassa have been very happy ones indeed as Jon and I have settled into a lovely routine. We are high in the French mountains, nary a car or neighbor in sight, just rugged hills and waterfalls and butterflies and birds. I can’t imagine a more beautiful landscape and we’re quite content to go about our daily chores amidst this lush paradise. The land we’re on has several functions: a large garden to supplement food for the family and guests, a large orchard for fruit in the fall, several donkeys for children to ride and just for them to be happy living here I guess, two chicken coops for eggs but not for the eating of chickens, and three areas of the main house plus one separate small house plus lots of land area for renting to campers or guests looking for a more rustic vacation experience. At the moment, for example, there is a group of seven Dutch people involved in a week long writing workshop. They’re staying in a lovely private wing of the main house called the Gijt and we cater their meals to them which has been lots of fun. In addition to the Dutch writers we have Dutch campers, Kim and Wim, who also join us for dinner when they’re here. Last week there were two Dutch ladies here and two large Dutch families. Notice a theme? I wouldn’t have guessed it but the Dutch are absolutely crazy for France! Apparently it’s the place to go for any sort of vacation, and they especially love rolling mountain vistas they don’t get to see in Holland so….Jon and I are learning to speak their very complicated language (not that we need to, all Dutch tell us “Dutch people all speak English but they don’t like toast”. And so far that’s been true on both accounts!)
This picture shows walking up the path, over the small river and approaching the main house. It is a grand old house that was a ruin on the property when Shabuti and Madhu (a Dutchman and an English woman) bought it about ten years ago. They have pictures of the renovation and it’s almost unfathomable the amount of work these two people put into creating a beautiful chalet out of half-standing piles of rocks. But beautiful it is, and now the main house stands three stories with a full commercial kitchen on the bottom floor, a living room in the middle and bedrooms for the family above. That’s about a third of the house. Another third comprised roughly the same but it’s refinished all fancy-like and is rented out as the Giit, and then the other third is kind of rough finished and is used for office space and storage.
Jon and I reside in the lap of luxury, across the stream in this charming camper that Europeans like to call a “caravan” which makes it sound even more charming. It’s really wonderful, though, we have a lot of privacy and a very comfortable bed and enough space to feel like we have a little home. There are several caravans on the property that are used to house all the WWOOFers working. Yes, that’s right, I said WWOOFers as in plural as in there are many people here forming a great community of helpers and campers and visitors but you can sometimes hardly tell the difference as we all come together to eat communally and sit around the campfire pit in the evenings playing music and singing songs.
In this picture, besides Jon and I, are (from left to right) Mariah from Kentucky, Lenneke from The Netherlands, and Marie (French) and Samuel (German) who are travelling across France on foot with their donkey, Flock. We all work together and eat together and get along well and it’s a great group of people to live and work with.
Our weekly schedule is as follows: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are gardening and other round the property project days. Things like planting and building beanstalk trellis for me, things like making a compost holder and digging an addition to a septic system for Jon. Thursday is cleaning day, including laundry and possibly preparing the chalet or giit to receive new renters. Friday is big: baking day! I didn’t mention that in addition to the aforementioned this place also functions as an organic bakery. On Friday we spend the entire day (and it is a loooong day) baking whole wheat bread for our consumption, the guests consumption, and for selling at the Saturday market. We also make cookies, scones and dessert breads for selling at the market. It’s a full day but lots of fun as everyone gets in on the bustle of baking and by the end of the day we’re all covered in flour and exhausted and happy for the weekend since we get Saturday and Sunday off!
After our first week, we got a ride to the market in Céret where Madhu sells her yummy cakes and breads. The weather was perfect and the lanes were full of wonderful carts and vendors. We enjoyed accordion music followed by folk-jazz music in the plaza by Madhu`s stand.
This past weekend Jon and I volunteered to work in exchange for Monday and Tuesday off since the Dutch writers needed to be catered to and we both have really enjoyed meal planning and cooking in this beautiful and well stocked kitchen. The weekend went fine and on Sunday we made a special treat: pizza from scratch! Then on Monday Kim and Wim, the Dutch campers were heading to the beach and invited us along which we were thrilled to accept. The day was warm and breezy and we headed to Colliour, a quaint and very charming coastal town which I’m sure is shoulder-to-shoulder with people in the high summer but on this day in May was laid-back and inviting.
We went walking through the streets lined with little art galleries and bakeries, then went and sat by the beach for a while with its old forts and rocky jetties. Later we went for a drive and ended up at a high peak overlooking the bay we’d just been at.
It was really a fantastic outing for us and we were very grateful to Kim and Wim for inviting us along.
So for now we’re enjoying our days here and are planning on staying for at least another week and a half. After that there is a farm about a three days hike from here which we plan to visit for a few weeks before returning to La Fargassa and working through June, or until a ride to The Netherlands shows up. We’d like to spend July and August visiting all of our new friends in Holland, and since at least half of Holland passes through La Fargassa we hope it won’t be too much trouble to hitch a ride that way!
Check out our hosts website for a great idea of where we are, in their own words: www.fargassa.com
And thank you again for the lovely comments thus far, we are always really excited to see who is reading the blog and to receive feedback. Thank you for being excited along with us! Much love!
Tags: Second Month, Travel, Tag Index
seeingspain
May 9th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Wow, this spot sounds and looks like the ultimate vacation! I’m so glad you are having such a variety of experiences at each location, and encountering so many interesting people. My news? My snowpeas have sprouted! Keep your fingers crossed….
May 11th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
You two look so peaceful and happy in that little alleyway. I’m really happy you’re enjoying your new lifestyle!
May 11th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
hi,wonderful blog glad to see you are having a great time, Rain just showed me how to find you. God bless and enjoy.All my love Mom
May 13th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Hello!
Hows life at ‘fargassa’?
Nice to read your stories!
I really liked the day at the seaside.
Can you send me the photo you took from us? Lots of love,
Kim and Wim.
kim_verheijen@hotmail.com
May 13th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Just wanted to let you know that I’ve been following your travels, which sound like true adventures. Your reports have served as pure escapism from writing my dissertation. I’m glad to hear that you are both having such an exciting time.
I hope Jon’s french has kept up better than mine. I can only remember Mdme Phillipe telling us that showing the soles of your shoes to someone was a terrible insult.
Enjoy the Netherlands! Make sure you rent or borrow some bikes. It’s a perfect place to ride.
-Eli
May 14th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Hi lovelies- it is so wonderful to hear of your travels. what amazing stories! I’m missin’ on you both!
heart: annie
May 15th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Hey! What a great place!
Such an experience!
It doesn’t sound like you’ll be heading into Paris any time soon…but let me know if you go so I can connect you with my friends there. Much love to you! Enjoy your beautiful surroundings and this great adventure!
p.s.
Christian actually spent all of his summers as a child not too far from where you are now! Small world!
June 4th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
“hngh, hngh, hngh” – nasally French laugh à la Aaron Schwartzbard.
Well Eli, what French that has slowly returned has indeed helped me through phone conversations here at La Fargassa, as well as being the primary achèteur in the shops and cafés where they don’t speak English. French is really all about accent like the subtle differences between doux and deux; and sur and sous. It can be quite annoying and I miss the days where the Spanish wasn’t so dependent on pronunciation. Fortunately here, hardly anyone is French!
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