Au Revoir Paris

After a month in France, I am leaving for Thailand tomorrow. Finn and I spent three weeks in Thézan with Jimmy, Charlette, and Francisco. The two weeks were wonderful. We got to visit the winery where they made the wine from their grapes, go to the castle in Carcassone, go to the ocean, and more. They were so welcoming and brought Finn and I into their family. I plan to visit them again someday. Meeting Francisco, another woofer, was also very fun and it was interesting hearing all of his travel stories.

Finn and I arrived in Paris about a week ago. We took an overnight bus from Toulouse and met Zac Blachon at the bus station. In the past week we have seen the Louvre, gone to the Pompidou, gone to musee de l'orangerie, gone to the Eiffel tower, eaten amazing food, gone out to bars, and more. Paris has been amazing. I am sad that I had such a short amount of time here, but I will definitely be coming back, perhaps for a semester abroad. Paris is wonderful.

Tomorrow morning I fly out to Bangkok to meet Bailey. She and I will be traveling throughout Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Nepal for the next month or so. I'm excited to bring more updates.

Je suis à la ferme en France!

I am at the farm in France! Finn and I arrived two days ago after a long day of train rides. The ride here was beautiful with glimpses of the Pyrenees and a full view of the Mediterranean Sea. We are in a huge house in Thézan-des-Corbières, a small own outside of Narbonne, France. The house has been in the family of the Bardy's for a long time and was built by Jimmy's family. I believe they have had it since before WWI. The actual farm part is two kilometers away. They have a lot of land with different vineyard plots and different types of grapes in the plots. They have a 35 year old horse, two donkeys named Gringo and Picolo, and five cats. Jimmy and Charlette Bardy are the two owners of the house and they are great. Charlette doesn't speak any English so communicating with her is all hand gestures and the small amount of French I remember from middle school. It's surprising how much I actually remember! Jimmy speaks a small amount of English.

Finn and I have so far helped with feeding the animals, pruning the grape vines, and evening out some of the dirt roads by the vineyards. We have been lucky with the weather so far, everyday has been at least 18° C. Next week is supposed to get up to 22°! Today we worked on the roads in the morning and had a big lunch with Jimmy, Charlette, Charlette's mother, David (Jimmy and Charlette's son) and his girlfriend! It was really fun and delicious. After lunch Finn and I went for a walk through the hills outside of the town. It's magnificent here with blue skies, vineyards everywhere, blooming almond trees, lush green trees everywhere, and cracked red dirt. Towards the end of the walk the clouds rolled in and it started to smell like the desert in Arizona right before it rains, one of my favorite smells. 

I'm really happy here. The family is so welcoming even though there is a language barrier. Tonight another wwoofer named Francesco from California is coming to the farm, he's been here before, and speaks French fluently so he will be able to help. I hope I become sufficient in speaking French by the time I leave. So far the work isn't hard and I'm looking forward to more hikes, trips to the beach, and trips into town.

Night in Milan.

Finn and I woke up intending to make it all the way to the farm today. We had a lot of transfer trains to make and because one of our trains was late, we missed all the following trains. After a lot of research on different ways to get to the farm we decided it would be cheapest to spend one night in Milan and leave tomorrow, bright and early. We are at a nice hostel about fifteen minutes away from the train station. On the bright side, Finn found a delcious restaurant/cafe on yelp. It was a middle eastern restaurant with falafel and burrito-esque things. It was quite delicious. I love falafel!

Last night in Venice.

Finn and I have been in Venice for four days now. Today was our last day. Venice is beautiful and makes me a little homesick because the whole city smells like the ocean. Yesterday we went up into a tower that looks over all of Venice. From up there you can see all the way to the horizon over the water, the mountains in the opposite direction, and all the different islands that make up Venice. The pigeons here are very aggressive. They flock to pedestrians like ravenous zombies and I'm always afraid I'm going to get pooped on. Today we went to an amazing mask shop that my uncle David recommended. It's a tiny shop, but full of colorful, unique masks. The mask maker was in the shop painting a devil mask at the time of our visit and he talked to us for awhile about all the different celebrities he knew. My favorite mask was a mask that my uncle actually has in his dining room, a moon mask with a small woman bordering the side. I'm glad we got to go to a shop that is authentic, unlike the hundreds of vendors all around Venice selling plastic masks. Tomorrow morning Finn and I have a 6:20 train, meaning we'll have to get up around five to walk to the train station. We'll be on trains from the morning until 9:30 at night! We are traveling from Venice, Italy to Narbonne, France where we will be picked up by the owners of the farm we are working at. The farm has another wwoofer working with them so we will (hopefully) make a new friend. I'm sad to be leaving Venice because it's smells so pleasant and Is gorgeous, but I'm excited for a new routine at the farm. I am really missing my glow in the dark stars that are on my ceiling at home, so if anyone is feeling loving and generous and wants to send me glow in the dark stars, or even a letter, it would be much appreciated. My address on the farm is 30 Avenue de la Mer 11200 Thezan des Corbieres France. Keep in mind it will take mail awhile to get there and I'll be there until the 27th of March. All is well!

Sunset on the water.