A Day at the Beach and Moules Mariniere!

Posted on October 4, 2011 by La Giraudiere

Today was another day off to complete the long weekend for the LG volunteers.  Our first stop was a break for coffee in Pons with a wonderful view of this fortress.

 

 

 

 

We then continued on to Talmont, a quaint little village situated right on the coast.  It is home to an old stone church built on the bluffs and it was voted one of Les Plus Beaux Villes de France.

The village of  Meschers was next on the list.  We went there to play at the beach. Sidney probably had the most fun of all!

 

 

We found lunch at a delicious restaurant where many of the group members enjoyed the French speciality des moules mariniere. 

The last stop of the day was the beach town Royan.  It’s about two hours northwest of our little Brossac and we had the luck of avoiding the rain!  While most of us wandered into the town shops, Elizabeth decided to take a nap on the beach.  Maricela, Katie and Paul bought some fresh crepes as a delicious late afternoon snack!

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A Road Trip and a Fancy Dinner!

Posted on October 3, 2011 by La Giraudiere

Today we had an early start and we split into two groups:

Denise and Gabrielle went with Paul to Aubeterre to see a monolithic church.  It is the largest underground church in Europe and was carved in the 12th century.  They also visited a church of the knights templar.

 

In the evening, they were honoured to go with Paul to a dinner thanking the volunteers of the 3B’s: Brossac, Barbezieux and Baignes.  Even the Conseil general de la Charente was there!  He represents the Charente region of France in Paris.

Jim drove the rental car on a one-day road trip with Brenda, Marisela, Elizabeth and Katie.  They headed northeast and their first stop was a street market in Saintes for a petit dejeuner.  They hiked around the city and made stops to see roman ruins and what was left of an original roman amphitheatre.

 

 

Afterwards, they continued on to La Rochelle.  It’s located right on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the old city gates that overlook the harbour still stand.

We are off to bed early tonight because Paul is giving us another day off to go explore somewhere new tomorrow but he won’t tell us where yet!

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Let the festivities begin! An action packed day for LG’s volunteers.

Posted on October 2, 2011 by La Giraudiere

The big day arrived! We gathered up at Brossac’s center at 8:30 am to say bon jour and have a cup of coffee before our walk; before we knew it Raymond was blowing the whistle letting us know it was time for the walk to begin.

I can not tell you how beautiful the walk was, passing sunflowers and grapevines; up and down the hills filled with chestnuts -which, I discovered were quite scary looking in their natural form- and (as Elizabeth would say) cute cattle.

 

 

 

 

 

Halfway into the walk we saw Jean-Michel, Raymond and part of the organization committee with a little table, cheering for us and offering the walkers wine, and our chestnuts!

 

After the walk, all the volunteers were exhausted and hungry so it was perfect that a nearby village called Rioux Martin had a autumn fête.

 

When we got there, after taking a look at the local vendors and produce, we realized we had been invited to a real French treat, a 5 meal course, including a lovely squash soup, local cheese and –Denise’s favourite homemade Pate!

 

 

 

Our bellies were happy and off we went to our next appointment: Brossac’s football match against Pons. Pons is a very important player in the region, and unfortunately we had pas de chance (no luck) with our rival and lost. We’ll get them next time!

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It’s a chestnut party and an Edith Piaf sing along… how much more French can it get?

Posted on October 1, 2011 by La Giraudiere

Saturday morning arrived faster than we thought!

Some volunteers agreed to meet early Saturday morning to walk to Brossac and had a quick a petit déjeuner at the local bakery and made a stop at Saint Bernard’s for a coffee.

 

We had to be fast because the festivity committee was meeting us at LG at 10:30 to start the preparations for the community walk scheduled tomorrow. Every autumn after the vendange, Brossac and the surrounding villages do a 10k walk around the area while eating chestnuts and drinking vin bourru a very -very- new wine that almost tasted like a sparkling grape juice.

This year La Giraudiere has been chosen to be the place where the chestnuts are prepared for the walk. So when we got back to LG from our breakfast, there was already a full table of people peeling and chopping away!

The walk offers two types of chestnuts to the participants: roasted and boiled, so the chestnuts had to be prepared in two different ways.

 

 

 

 

All in all, they made LG smell delicious and in the end we even got a live rendition of La Vie en Rose to cheer us up!

 

Thanks Alan!!

 

 

 

That evening, we went to Saint Bernard’s for dinner. It was the last day they were open before going on vacation for two weeks, so we decided to stop in and say goodbye to our friends Marciel, Magdalene and Christophe and wish them well on their vacation.

Sleep well everyone. Tomorrow is a big day for Brossac, 10k walk! Anyone want to join?

 

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Brossac gets a taste of Cincinnati Chili

Posted on September 30, 2011 by La Giraudiere

Lovely Friday arrives and everyone is wrapping up their chores and getting ready for the weekend.

Today we say goodbye to Stephanie and Michael, it was a shot stay for them, but highly productive. As of today, every single room of LG is now adorned with lovely garden roses thanks to Stephanie!

The rest of the volunteers are hard at work. Jim is finishing up his beam and getting ready to install a new one on the other side of the shed. Brenda, Katie and Gabrielle are making new steps for La Giraudiere and it’s Elizabeth’s last day of work as a mum, and she is getting ready to do some handy work next week, while Denise’s’ project is ready to be launched (stay tuned for updates early next week).

Today is Brenda’s turn to cook and she is making Cincinnati style chilli, which goes with pasta and has a bit of (non sweet) cocoa powder in it. It was a first for everyone but it was delicious!

After diner we went for our traditional Petanque match, and met with the Jean-Michels, (all 3 of them!) Raymond and Indira.

The match was short and sweet, and once done we headed to Saint Bernard’s for a quick drink before heading to bed.

We have a packed weekend ahead of us, so we better get a good night sleep.

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