Summer comes to an end and the Autumn Volunteer Group arrives at La Giraudiere

           Over the past two weeks, new arrivals have been steadily showing up at La Giraudiere.  Now every room in the house is occupied and the Autumn Volunteer Group is all present and accounted for!  The newest members of the team are:

• Katie, my fellow American, who is also from my hometown of Denver, Colorado. She arrived  a week and a half ago, eager to see the sites and get to work.

• Cordula and Frederich, a mother and son from Berlin, Germany.  Cordula is here to volunteer and Frederich is attending a local school.
• Liat, an American from San Jose, California.  Liat is a French tutor and her excellent French skills have already come in handy.
• Peggy and Jim, also originally from Northern California but now full-time world travelers.  The couple recently spent several months in Costa Rica and they are now beginning a European adventure.
• Steve, from Sydney, Australia.  He arrived yesterday afternoon and immediately jumped into action, helping out with dinner preparations.

We’ve all stayed very busy the past two weeks, both working and playing!  The main project at the moment is getting the walls of the main entryway and dining room of the old house finished.  Grace, Cordula, and I put all our energy into sanding, plastering, and painting the walls of the future dining room.  The room is now bright and shiny. Dan demonstrated a great deal of care in the restoration and painting of several doorways.  Katie spent last week in the yard and is now our gardening expert.  Last Thursday we decided to take advantage of the warm weather and have a group gardening session.  We lopped branches, pulled weeds, mowed grass, piled branches, and trimmed vines…Now the back garden looks very civilized!  This week the gang is working on the main entry hall of the house.  In addition, Peggy has graciously agreed to be our “house mum” and has started taking over the cleaning and cooking duties.

Aubterre, a lovely little village

During our time off we’ve found plenty of activities to keep us occupied!  The weekend before last we visited Aubterre, a village that has been officially listed as one of the Most Beautiful Villages in France for the past ten .years–and for good reason!  The whole town had a Mediterranean kind of charm; it’s laid out on a hill, crossed with winding footpaths that lead past red-roofed houses and gardens full of colorful flowers.  Everywhere you look there are beautiful views of the rolling green hills of the surrounding countryside.  During our time in Aubterre we visited Eglise St. Jean, a breathtaking subterranean church constructed in the 11th century.  Later that day we also experienced an absolutely heavenly meal at Poirier Gaston, a restuarant in the local village of Bardenac.  The restaurant is only open for lunch and is a favorite meal spot for local workers.  Lunch lasted for about two and a half hours,  during which we ate soup, bread, salad, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, turkey with vegetables, a cheese platter, wine, and dessert and coffee to top it off.  All for only 13 Euros!

Dan and Grace at Restaurant Poirier

            Last weekend we each had our own mini-adventures.  Katie and Grace went off to the Dordogne for three days, where they stayed in a centuries-old house and enjoyed the gorgeous views alongside the river.  Peggy, Jim, and Dan went with Paul to watch the Brossac football team play.  They also visited a brocante (flea market) in the local village of St. Quentin, where they perused the secondhand goods.  Cordula and Frederich spent some time cycling and exploring the area.  Cordula has become our resident botanist, researching the local fruits, flowers, trees, and incorporating wild herbs and berries into our meals here.  Liat and I spent some time practicing our French by hanging out with the local youths, including swimming at the lake, going to a BBQ (which, after spending three weeks here, I’ve learned is a weekend tradition during the summer), and attending a small birthday get-together for one of the local lads.  On Sunday evening a big group of us went out to weekly dinner at St . Berndard’s, the local restaurant in Brossac.  We were joined by some of our French friends and ended up with a bilingual English/French table (which resulted, as always, in lots of hilarious attempts to translate conversations back and forth).  Overall it’s been a wonderful last few weeks of summer and we are ready to see what the fall brings to Charente!