Volunteering In France | Interning in France

Hi everyone! Today I  (Marlou) am the choosen one to provide you with the daily update.

So today it was time to start clearing the inner garden for the guys. They had to dig to a lot of rubbish before they could expose the actual soil. A lot of hard work but we did manage to get the garden cleared from all the rubbish. In a few days we probably be able to plant the grass seeds in the ground. After lunch I got to help them as well, and although it was hard work, i like doig the work in the garden and to work outside.

Irvin is currently working on updating a website which will contain a lot of touristic information about Brossac. Since everyone has been working hard this day the lunch was well deserved for everyone. Today I prepared the lunch since I had the task of being mum as well.

After lunch we continued our work untill about half past 4 and finished up early. We then welcomed our guests Niko, Jean-Michel and Indira. They were so kind to bring us some local drinks and they enjoyed the dinner together with us. After dinner we continued our bougondic evening in Saint-Bernard. All in all I had a very good day and I believe everyone else had as well.

After lunch was French lesson with Alison who would be teaching our next three lessons while Lyn is on holiday. We enjoyed a pot of tea and were happy to see the sun had decided to make an appearance!

We had dinner a bit later tonight as Irvin went slightly over time but it was well worth the wait as we enjoyed such delicious chicken and fresh green beans accompanied with rice! The rest of evening was spent under the beautiful starry sky, drinking tea while watching shooting stars.

Today the guys finished off putting up the last of the beams up in the old house while Marlou and Emily formed a perfect team working as mum and handling the emails.

Brossac lake

After work Hugh, Irvin, Marlou and Emily went down to the lake to take a dive before John served his Italian dinner. As he lived in Italy for a while when he was younger, he had a lot to live up to, and he succeeded well as his pasta tasted amazing!

After dinner Paul did some extensive research on our interests in the kind of film that should be watched tonight. We voted comdey and British but ended up watching the American comedy White Chicks on a little TV which we all found hilarious. Afterwards we all made our way to our beds to get a good night’s sleep.

Hiroko in the streets of Brossac

It’s Monday morning again which can only mean one thing – Chalais market! However, firstly we sadly had to say goodbye to Hiroko beforehand as she headed off to Carcassonne. LG has enjoyed the past four weeks with her here and her cooking will be greatly missed as she was one of the best cooks we’ve had here!

In the afternoon the big excitement took place. Mr. Fong and Mr. Goddard are the first two volunteers to take up residence in the long awaited gite 4. Their job over the next week will be putting together a list of things to make their stay even more pleasurable than that we normally experience.

Tense game of pétanque with the locals

Despite it being a Monday, Mark was being cook today so we enjoyed a lovely spag bol followed by pétanque. We all had a great couple of games and once again, Paul wound up the locals when he won. Underneath you can see a postcard given to us from Raymond after the pétanque competition last Thursday. We hope you find it as funny as we did!

A pétanque present off Raymond

This Sunday morning, Paul and Emily took Sidney for a walk to the Spar followed by a quick drink at St. Bernard’s while the majority of LG had a nice long lie-in. We all had a lazy afternoon as we headed down to the lake where we stayed for a while before coming back due to the cold-ish wind.

At Saint Bernard's

Sadly, it is Hiroko’s last night tonight so the whole of LG went down to Saint Bernard’s to enjoy a goodbye dinner. There, we saw Jean-Michel and Indira who joined us too. We must have been hungry as the LG volunteers all managed to finish off their pizzas – a rare accomplishment for us at Saint Bernard’s as they are so big and filling! Only Hiroko had some left, but our dustbin John soon made her plate clean! After Hiroko saying her goodbyes to all the locals, we all headed back to LG as she and Paul would be having an early wake up tomorrow!