Balade à la rencontre des peintres

La Giraudiere, with the help of it’s volunteers, will be one of the places preparing for the “Balade à la rencontre des peintres” ,an art exhibition, to be held on the 16th August 2014. Other places taking part in the expo will be La  Maire de Brossac,  salles des fetes de Brossac, Salle Bel Horizon and the Galerie Marmajoux.

Exhibitions will be open from 10.00 to 12.00 and again in the afternoon from 14.00 to 18.30. There will be 14 exhibitors and over 200 paintings.

You can see more information at our Facebook page where there are links to the Charente Libre post about this event.

Working Day at La Giraudière  – Part Two

Last week I wrote a post about a typical workday at La Giraudiere.  As I become a more seasoned

Precision is the key as Matthew measures a wall in the main house of La Giraduiere

observer and participant here, I’ve come to realize there is no such thing as a typical workday.  Last week, I watched Marlene and Colin happily working in the garden.  The weeds and neglect had required some tender loving care which they were happy to provide. But with the garden taking on a new life, they have moved onto other ventures.  Colin has joined Matthew and  Paul in the main house to try his hand at plastering.  Matthew, under Paul’s guidance has becoming quite proficient and may be find himself soon in the capacity as a supervisor. Meanwhile, Marlene has taken over the kitchen for preparing lunchtime fare.  Everyone takes a turn at preparing a meal at La Giraudiere but sometimes lunch can be a catch as catch can affair.  Under the watchful eye of Marlene, however, lunch is often as nutritious and delicious as the evening meal.  Not one to forget her past loves, Marlene can still be found in the garden on most afternoons but she has stepped up her game a bit, pruning roses and clearing ivy.

English Rose Marlene prunes her French cousines.

Last week Sal  restored the aging picnic tables back to their youthful luster with fresh coats of paint.  He enjoyed the task so much that he took his expertise to the front gates. Looking a bit like Tom Sawyer but refusing to give up the brush, Sal claimed he had been able to listen to all of Beethoven’s nine symphonies as he brought back the youthful vigor of the picket fences. A music student from Queens University of Belfast, he may never find a paintbrush in his hand again or possibly he may take a fancy to  listening to all of Mozart’s concertos and find painting to be the perfect excuse.

Colin tries his hand at plastering

Leon and Bridget arrived last week just as the work week began.  Besides a couple of suitcases, they also arrived with a massive case of jet lag, as they had traveled directly from Melbourne, Australia.  Just the assorted odd job here and there was suitable for their somewhat fragile conditions.  A good long weekend restored them to the vitality so associated with the folks from The Land Down Under.  This week they could be found on ladders plastering and smoothing out the seams of the drywall. It’s a skill that will follow them home and come in handy whenever they buy their first home.

Jacques, back in the office, however can ill afford to take time off to pursue other pursuits.  The daily operations of La Giraudiere require that someone be on top of the daily correspondence, bills and phone calls.  However, don’t let the French first name fool you.  Jacques will be an Englishman Abroad next year as

Bridget and Leon make good partners as apprentice plasterers

he takes a year to study in Bordeaux.  Several times a week he takes a little time off for an advanced French lesson. Although the rest of La Giraudiere volunteers get weekly French instruction, he is literally in a class of his own.  His volunteer work at La Giraudiere coupled with his French lessons are leaving him with a confidence that he will manage quite well in his year abroad.

Finally, your blogger, although keeping the same task, gets to live vicariously through all the activity that makes La Giraudiere thrive.   Taking pictures and interviewing the other volunteers gives me a great appreciation of all the contributions the volunteers make at La Giraudiere.

Jacques maintains a pleasant office atmosphere

Sal shows Tom Sawyer a thing or two as he paints the gate.

Posted by Travel writer Terrence Cremin while on  working holiday at La Giraudière

For information on volunteering in France  or A working holiday in France

La Leçon Francaise

La Giraudière volunteers come to Southwest France for many different reasons.  However, most visitors will mention that at least one of their purposes is to learn more about the French language.  Few would foolishly expect to become fluent in their three week stay, but even in such a short visit,  the most basic beginner will pick up a wealth of knowledge about the language.  Whether, it is improving your ear for the sound of French or adding vocabulary to what you already know, the weekly French lessons at La Giraudiere are a boon to the volunteers.

Precisely at ten o’clock Madame Lynn arrives from the village of Brossac.  A cheerful woman, her perfect French belies the fact that she is really from London. She greets everyone with  Bonjours and Comme ca vas and then proceeds to converse with everyone as if they are native speakers.  Surprisingly, much of what she is saying is understandable by the volunteers.  Of course, many words are lost but the gist of her dialogue breaks through the curtain of language barriers. Guessing that perhaps one or two people may be totally lost, she kindly peppers her conversation with English words to facilitate some basic understanding.

Madame asks us to join her in the living room where we gather around her as she invites us to sit down,  Assisez -vous, sil vous plait.  The hand motion towards the chair is a marvelous visual cue to her request.  She jumps right into the lesson by passing out a rather sophisticated quiz about French history – all written in French, of course. This appears a bit daunting at first, as it tests not only our knowledge of the French language but of French history as well.  its a coin toss as to which one we are most deficient in. The first question is a total washout  Ou se trouve St. Malo?  Many of us have the background to understand the question, Where do you find St. Malo.  But no one knows its in Brittany or en Bretagne.  However, the speed at which we decipher the question puts us at ease for the rest of the quiz.  The next question proves we are more experienced with France than we realize.  We are asked what is produced in Bordeaux.  The word produit is an easy translation and as we have had many encounters with the pride of Bordeaux, we know the answer is vin. Real life experience is invaluable.  By the last question we don’t really care which Louis built Versailles.  We are just proud of the fact that we understood the question.

Next Madame takes us on an imaginary shopping trip to the village.  She spreads word cards across the table with a few picture cards and asks us to categorize them. Some of the words are instantly recognizable – chemise is in the same group as jeans, patisserie with pain (we have already learned those words well on outings into the village;  But cuir gives us pause and quincaillerie doesn’t look like anything recognizable. Amazingly the word cuir comes in handy the next day at the market when one of our group wants to buy a leather belt, une ceinture cuir. A quincaillerie is a hardware store.  That can come in handy if you need to buy a drill (une perceuse.)

By the end of the lesson, everyone remarks how comfortable they have felt withe their exposure to the French language under the friendly guidance of Madame Lynn.  No one expects to be holding lengthy conversations with the villagers at the next petanque game, but perhaps ordering a vin rouge or a biere peche wont be such a frightening task.  Most amazing of all is that everyone is looking forward to next weeks lesson.  Cest Marveilleuse, Madame!

 La Leçon Française at La Giraudière

Post Written by Terrence Cremin USA while on his working holiday volunteering in France