Volunteering In France | Interning in France

Friday 17th August 2012

Although Friday morning usually means it’s time for French lesson, Lyn couldn’t make it today so it has been rescheduled for tomorrow, which meant we had the whole day off today. We didn’t want to sit around and do nothing so Yan, Lynne, Mark and Emily decided to head off to Angoulême for the day. After changing stations there all the time, we thought it was about time to see the beautiful city itself. For those of you who don’t know, Angoulême, which built on an old volcano, is famous for its art, which you can witness just simply walking along the streets.

Paul was kind enough to drive us there to give us an extra two hours there. We first went down the high street to see all the shops, then afterwards went to the old part of town with the tiny cobblestoned streets with the cute little restaurants.

The weather was a beautiful 39 degrees – although with the lack of wind, we did seem a bit crazy walking around in it! After lunch in a nice restaurant with mist fans, we went to see the cathedral and also to the free museum behind it with it’s paintings and African sculptures.

In the evening, we came back to a delicious salad made by Paul – it was too hot to do a bbq and we welcomed the refreshing food after the hot day.

Of course afterwards it was time for pétanque, so Paul, Mark, James and Emily headed down there to shoot some boules. There was a great turnout tonight, and we all played together by swapping teams and players so everyone had either played with or against one another – a brilliant end to a busy day!

Thursday 16th August 2012

This almost sunny morning, Yan is working on her map and the guys and Lynne have all been working together on the walls under gîte 4, with Mark and Paul doing the plastering, James doing to restoring and Lynne doing the painting under Sydney’s strict instructions!

Tonight was Yan’s turn to cook and she made us an amazing Chinese chicken curry accompanied by rice.

After dinner, we headed down to the lake for the free concert – this week was Flamenco. The band and dancer were good, and we enjoyed a great evening listening to Paul’s usual hilarious commentary when some of the members were late!

Wednesday 15th August 2012

Today started off a bit cooler than the past week and we even had some rain in the afternoon which quickly dried up once the sun came out. Paul and Mark were busy making the finishing touches to the wall of the disabled toilet, and new guy James helped Lynne finish restoring some walls, ready to be repointed. Yan once again was busy on her map (below you can see a picture of her brilliant work in progress, although the picture doesn’t do it any justice as you can’t see the amount of detail she has put into it)! In the afternoon, Emily tidied up the room she worked on in the old house two years ago – what was once tidy and organised was a little chaotic, but now it is back to how it was!

For dinner, it was Lynne’s turn to cook. She wanted to make chili con carne, but we were out of kidney beans so Paul pops to the shop but everything is shut – it was “Assomption” or “Assumption of Mary” day so it was a public holiday and nothing was open. Instead, Paul went around some neighbours and got some white beans and Lynne made a delicious chili con carne with them and potatoes while we enjoyed a quiet evening in watching France v Uruguay football.

Tuesday 14th August 2012

So it’s that time of week again – the start of the working week – and everyone carried on with their assigned tasks. Paul and Mark were busy on the wall of the disabled toilet under gîte 4, while Lynne has been restoring one of the walls, which will be repointed after with a “pierre” look to it. Yan has started putting paint to wood for her map which is already looking amazing – we can’t wait to see the finished masterpiece! Our newcomer of course had the day off, as you do after the day you arrive, so he went on bread run. Luckily, Paul gave him a lift to the Spar – no chance of him getting lost this time!

This evening, it was Emily’s turn to make the dinner so she made roast dinner – how very British! We had roast pork, roast potatos, carrots, peas and gravy, or “English sauce” as non-Brits know it as. Afterwards, we headed down to St. Bernard’s where it seemed the whole village was eating at tonight! We sat outside and enjoyed some lovely desserts as the weather has been beautiful all day. It did start to rain however towards the end, but it was much needed after a week of really hot weather!

Well this weekend at LG has been jam packed full non-stop of fun! On Saturday, Fiona, Lynne, Yan and Emily spent the day in the beautiful city of Bordeaux. We took Paul’s good advice about taking the bus tour before exploring, and we spent the day doing lots of eating and lots of walking! I think I can safetly say that the highlight for all of us was the reflecting pool – a definite must-see if you’re going to Bordeaux!

In the evening we all (except Fiona who was staying the night) headed back to Chalais meet Paul and Mark at O P’tit en K for dinner before watching the horse jumping (and guy jumping – three young guys who could jump over bars as tall as them)!

On Sunday we headed to the small village of Berneuil for a Bric à Brac and lunch where Yan and Lynne picked up some great bargains, and for dinner, we got invited to Quai Sud by some of Paul’s friends where we all enjoyed a nice evening.

Yesterday was the usual Chalais market where we stayed and had lunch. In the evening, Mark made us a really refreshing dinner while Paul went down to Chalais to pick up the new guy James (his older brother Ed was here three years ago and had recommended it). Slight dilemma though – he got off at La Roche-Chalais as opposed to just Chalais and started to walk to LG with all his luggage, which would have taken him over four hours! Luckily, Paul knew where he was and went to pick him up and we spent the evening at some neighbours for a drink and then went off to pétanque to shoot some boules. So the moral of the story – always make sure you get off at the correct stop!