Volunteering In France | Interning in France

This early morning saw Irvin off; today he has left for Brussels and then Paris before heading back to America. The past three weeks have just flown by with him here and the Brossac website is looking very good thanks to him! Gayle and Derrick also left this Saturday morning but they’ll be back on Monday after going back to the cave painting times in Dordoigne.

After lunch we all headed down to the lake to enjoy the sunshine where we made our way to the infamous rope swing where we had great fun swinging into the cool water until our arms ached from all the fun.

In the evening we met our new arrival Marisela, our first Venezuelan here at LG, before we all headed down to Barbezieux for the Charente fête where we enjoyed some delicious roast chicken, fresh strawberries and home made ice cream.

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This Friday morning we all woke up bright and early for our three-weekly day trip! Firstly however, we had to say our goodbyes to Hugh who has been here for the past five weeks working hard on various jobs; he will be making his journey back to England this afternoon.

We set off towards La Rochelle, stopping at Pons on the way for a coffee before carrying on towards our destination. On arrival, we headed down to the Bus de Mer which would take us across the see to other side of La Rochelle for a spot of lunch. Afterwards was free time, so Paul, Mark, Gayle and Derrick decided to walk back instead of taking the Bus de mer to see some other parts of La Rochelle while John, Irvin, Marlou, Emily and Emilie took the Bus de mer back so that we could explore some of the La Rochelle towers. La Rochelle has three famous ones by the harbour, we chose to go up the Tour de la Chaine (The Chain Tower in English) to see some nice views of La Rochelle.

On our way back we ate at Trucker’s for a delicious meal at a great price before making our way down to pétanque for Irvin’s last evening here at LG. We played some great games and headed down to Saint Bernard’s after for a well deserved drink and said our goodbyes to Irvin seeing as he’d be heading off early in the morning. Despite the early start we headed back around midnight to get some sleep after a fun packed day.

Here are some photos from the day:

Left tower: St Nicolas Tower; Right tower: Tour de la Chaine

St Nicolas Tower at La Rochelle

The Lantern Tower

A beautiful view of La Rochelle from up the Tour de la Chaine

Mark works hard on repairing the shutters

This Thursday the LG group worked extra hard this morning as for us it would be the start of the weekend (tomorrow Paul would be taking on a day trip). John and Derrick continued to work hard on planting their grass seeds while Marlou and Hugh continued with their work in the old house. Mark carried on with fixing the shutters, he’s been sawing and cutting them into shape so they can fit properly onto the windows!

We enjoyed a delicious lunch from Gayle before having our French lesson. Today Alison brought her friend Sarah with her to work with the group as there was 10 of us. After discussions about food, Irvin went off to cook dinner as tonight it is his turn; he made a start early this evening! We enjoyed a refreshing chicken, lettuce and tangerine salad followed by an amazing prawn dish with rice and broccoli. For dessert we headed down to Saint Bernard’s as it is also Hugh’s last evening with us. For Gayle, Derrick and Emilie it was their first time there and we all enjoyed it greatly!

Hugh and Marlou have made a start in what will be the kitchen in the old house and Irvin has been showing his new assistant Emilie a bit about editing websites as she will be taking over from him when he leaves. Irvin has been working extremely hard for two weeks on updating the new Brossac website and making it more user friendly and today is the day where the website has been uploaded for the public to see! This is the link for all you Brossac fans to see how the website now looks!

Brossac Village Charente

In the evening it was Emily’s turn to cook – she made a chili con carne for everyone to enjoy; the bad weather meant eating indoors. After dinner the LG group enjoyed some card games accompanied with wine and beer before heading off to bed after a very productive day!