Volunteers at La Giraudière Sample French Cuisine

Posted on June 11, 2018 by La Giraudiere

This past Sunday, Paul took a group of volunteers out to sample some authentic French cuisine. The meal was an eight course, 3-hour experience that everyone really enjoyed.  We went to the nearby village of Bardenac to Restaurant Poirier.  Restaurant Poirier serves traditional work man’s lunch during the week, but then on Sunday lunch, this family run restaurant serves some extravagant and fabulous French cuisine.

Restaurant Poirier

Restaurant Poirier

We all sat down at a cute table outside surrounded by beautiful flowers. 

Volunteers at Poirier

Volunteers at Poirier

Paul suggested we start our meal with an aperitif.  We tried Pineau, a traditional drink that only comes from this area of Charente.  The sweet drink comes in both red and white; our group sampled both.  It was perfect to wet our appetites.  Soon afterwards, the food began to arrive.  The meal started with a delicious homemade vegetable soup.  One of the volunteers, Jan, even tried the soup the traditional French way known as Chabrot; she poured in a little of her red wine with the soup and then sipped out of the side of the bowl.  Next we had a melon charcuterie course, a fish course, and then a meat course.  At this point we were all starting to get quite full.  Luckily, we had our dessert stomachs ready to eat the cheese course and the dessert course that followed.  

Homemade Vegetable Soup

Homemade Vegetable Soup

The vegetable soup was creamy and perfect for dipping our bread in!

Salad Course

Melon Charcuterie

The melon charcuterie featured fresh juicy melon, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella with tomatoes, and foie gras.

Meat Course

Meat Course

The perfectly cooked medium rare steaks were served with yummy mushrooms, and potato quiche.

Cheese Course

Cheese Course

The cheese course came with a wonderful variety of cheeses that we all loved sampling.

Dessert Course

Dessert Course

The dessert had fresh strawberries, creamy ice cream and was topped with whipped cream.

We hope you enjoyed looking at the photos of this wonderful meal!  We are all so grateful to have tried this delicious French cuisine.

 

 

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Volunteers Immerse in French rural life

Posted on June 1, 2018 by La Giraudiere

Volunteers discover what is a Randonée

Volunteers at La Giraudière join local French community on a randonnée in Passirac.

Sunday the 29th April dawned like a November day in the UK. However, despite this, most of the volunteers set off for the little village of Passirac to begin the much anticipated walk, in French Randonnée, organized by the local Gym Club.

We were amazed at the number who had turned up but as soon as we arrived, people began to set off. In no time at all, the walkers were stretched out across a large area of the rolling lush green hills of south Charente. We enjoyed the beautiful fresh greens of Springtime whilst chatting among some new found French friends. There was a choice of a short route and a longer route and at the half way point, we were welcomed with hot tea or coffee and biscuits to spur us on our way. Red and white plastic ribbons were tied to the trees to ensure that no one got lost on the way. The weather gradually began to clear so that we could appreciate better the distant views.  However, we had to watch our feet as parts of the walk were extremely boggy and it was impossible to keep our feet dry and our trousers from being covered in mud!

volunteers pause

Part of the April 2018 volunteer group

From around 12 noon, people began to gather at the Village Hall and paid 10 euros for a wonderful meal. Everyone took their own plates and cutlery but these were supplied for those who forgot. We were welcomed with a drink of either rosé and grapefruit juice or soft drinks for those driving, we then helped ourselves to a variety of salads which turned out to be the first of five courses in typical French style! Red and rosé wine was supplied to each of the four very long tables which seated over 100 people.

Next came pain grillé with wild boar (le sanglier) cooked in a delicious red wine base. This was followed by pork and green beans then a vinaigrette salad and cheese. Finally the locals produced a great selection of home-made desserts, all melt in the mouth and what I would call very “moreish”.  The meal finally concluded with tea or coffee and the company gradually went their separate ways happy to have been part of this community effort.

volunteers immersing in France

4 volunteers for aerobics class

Following this meal volunteers were invited back to take part in the aerobic class which is held every Wednesday evening in the village hall – another great way to be immersed in rural French life.

“Thank you Passirac village”

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A Day in La Rochelle

Posted on May 30, 2018 by La Giraudiere

This past weekend we, the volunteers took a day trip in La Rochelle. This beautiful city is right next to the atlantic ocean and the sun was kind enough to stay shining all day as we explored all the gems La Rochelle had to offer. Some found a Brocante, the French word for Flea Market, others jumped from cafe to shop looking around, and some enjoyed the beautiful architecture and history of this city. Frances visited the Bunker where the Germans kept submarines during the second world war. Paul went museum hopping and found that the numerous choices could keep him occupied for several more days!

Architecture in La Rochelle

Architecture in La Rochelle

Our lunch consisted of mussels, bread, pasta, salad, more mussels, and more bread! It was a superb meal that kept us energetic throughout the rest of the day. When it was nearing the end of our excursion, everyone met at the boat bus that carried us back to where we parked. We were all sad to leave but the beautiful memories and photos are something we will always cherish.

A Meal of Mussels

A Meal of Mussels

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Flowers in Bloom Brightening up La Giraudière

Posted on May 17, 2018 by La Giraudiere

La Giraudière Springs into Life

Here at La Giraudière, we take great pride in our landscape and we try to ensure it is always well maintained. As part of this, we have numerous flowers that bloom at all different times throughout the year of varying colours and sizes.

For you avid gardeners out there, we’re always looking for volunteers to help with the garden maintenance and we thought it would be nice to document the current flowers in bloom in Spring around LG.

We would like to bring you a follow up to this post of the other plants that bloom later on in the year to show you the wide variety of flowers we have here!

Garden Rose

Garden Rose

Garden rose

Garden rose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These Garden Roses are often hybrid roses that are one of the most popular flowering plants throughout the world. Most of the older types of hybrid roses only flower once per year and require very minimal pruning.

Floribunda

Floribunda

Floribunda

Floribunda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Floribunda” is latin for “many  flowering” and is again a hybrid rose. During one year, these plants can flower numerous times but never a specific amount of times as it depends on the temperature and frost of the country.

Ranunculus Repens

Ranunculus Repens

More commonly known as a Buttercup, this flower can be classed as a weed by some gardeners but here at LG we love the colour they bring to the garden! A little fact about Buttercups that many people don’t know is that they are actually poisonous hence cattle and other animals avoid eating them!

Oxeye Daisy

Oxeye Daisy

Another plant that is often marked as an invasive species is the Oxeye Daisy (sometimes referred to as the Penny Daisy in the UK). In plant symbolism, the Oxeye Daisy represents patience.

Oxalis corymbosa

Oxalis corymbosa

 Another name for this plant is a Pink Woodsorrel. This plant is the only plant on the list that is edible but only in small quantities as there is a high quantity of oxalic acid in the leaves. This quantity can be reduced by cooking the leaves.

Unknown

Unknown

We found this plant in the back of the garden and after hours of googling and asking our friends, we still don’t know what it is! If you could help us identify this plant then please get in contact with us as we would love to know!

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A Change of Plan for the Volunteers

Posted on May 16, 2018 by La Giraudiere

A Last Minute Plan Change for the Volunteers

A panoramic view of the coast at Talmont.

A beautiful view of Talmont.

Friday the 11th of May, a working day… Right? WRONG! The 4 remaining volunteers and Paul took a day off to enjoy the sunny weather while it lasted (not very long) and went to the seaside!

A very fast turnaround was in order after breakfast on Friday as everyone received a 15 minute warning before we were due to leave to start our day out. We started off by driving 45 minutes to the local town of Pons. Paul acted as our tour guide during the day, providing us with lots of information about the Donjon de Pons whilst we sat drinking hot drinks and eating croissants at a café that overlooked the donjon.

After our 30 minute break, we set off on the road again to our second destination of Talmont – One of the most beautiful towns in France. On arrival at Talmont, we were greeted by a mass of kites in the air and as we soon found out, it was the day of the fête du vent! After exploring the beautiful little town for an hour (and also doing some shopping), it was time for well deserved stop for lunch. Whilst some volunteers had salads or sweet crepes, John tried his first ever savoury crepe and loved it!

It was then time to drive to our final destination of the day, Saint-Palais-sur-Mer. During the drive from Talmont, the weather took a change for the worse as the clouds started to cover the sun and the temperature dropped to 18°C compared to 23°C when we set off. However, this drop in temperature didn’t stop Lily and John taking a dip in the freezing Atlantic sea!

Two of our volunteers swimming in the Atlantic sea.

Lily and John taking a dip in the Atlantic.

After a very long day, the car journey back to La Giraudière was a quiet one as most of the volunteers took a nap the whole way back. We’re excited for our next trip out!

There is a very simple process to be part of the team at LG so check out The process of volunteering in France

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