Do we have what it takes to be farmers?...

We’re sorry our blog has been abandoned for over six months. It’s mainly because we’re rubbish, but also because we’ve been very, very busy.

As we mentioned in November, most of the campsites in France had closed by the end of October and we had spent much more money that we planned to on our cycling trip. Basically, we needed somewhere free and warm to stay over winter. Thank you workaways!

We arranged to stay at two different farms, a 50 hectare Porc Noir farm in The Gers from November to December and a smaller 5 hectare farm, with sheep, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats, in the Haute Pyrenees from December to January.

One of our dreams for the future is to live somewhere in the countryside where we can try to be as self sufficient as possible, by growing our own veg and farming some animals. This was our chance to find out if we have what it takes to be farmers…

Feeding sheep was easy enough

Louise used the hose to fill all the water troughs

While Rob preferred soaking Louise with it

We did have some concerns… Although Louise was brought up in the country and spent her childhood climbing on hay bails and running around with sheep, goats and horses, she fled to the city as soon as she was old enough, developed a fear of chickens and is terrified of rats and mice.

But we needn’t have worried, within a few days of our first French farm experience Louise was grabbing dead birds, ripping out their feathers and pulling out their insides at every opportunity.

Don’t worry, Louise’s fear of chickens didn’t turn her crazy, plucking and gutting poultry was a job that we learned a lot about while we were at both farms.

Louise is much braver around mice and rats too. Although she did bring a cat to bed every night, just in case, and wouldn’t go into the barn without these little rat hunters.

Rob added to his driving portfolio.

and Louise enjoyed getting a lift to piggy breakfast time

 It’s easy enough going forwards, even with mountains of pig food

But reversing takes a lot of concentration

Of course Rob perfected it, even on a muddy slope with a trailer full of piggies

We loved the pigs, especially the teenagers as we called them.

They were getting pretty strong by the time we left and we had to develop a tag team system of feeding them so we didn’t get knocked over. Louise would attract their attention, by pretending to feed them at one side of the field, while Rob made a run for the other feeding trough - it usually worked.

Not sure how Rob will get to the trough

They're on to us, run!

Moving them wasn’t quite so easy. We thought we were pretty good at running, but pigs are faster than they look and they ran circles around us on more than one occasion. We were very excited when some piglets were born at the farm, super cute.

The piglets keep warm under the heat lamp

Although we got quite attached to the pigs, we always knew that the reason they were on the farm was of course to be sold and eaten.

We were a bit nervous about butchering, thinking that we might be squeamish, but surprisingly we ended up really enjoying it. We helped the butcher by cutting, cleaning and packing different cuts of pork and we learned all about jambon, cured meat that is covered with a specific measurement of salt and pepper and left to hang in a cool room for a year, then sold for lots of euros.

We all love a sausage or twenty

And of course we enjoyed eating the meat. Unfortunately for us, most of it got sold at a local market, so we only got the leftovers. The flavor was amazing and it felt so nice to know where our food had come from, a lovely farm where animals live a happy life eating organic food.

French markets are wonderful and we love that so many French people still go to there to buy their food.

Apparently the French spend around 80% of their wages on food, while in the UK the average is closer to 20%. People in France seem to prefer to buy high quality food and like to support the local economy, it’s rare to find imported food even in the supermarkets. And don’t even ask for wine that isn’t French…

We helped out at the market in Mirande

Living with English families meant that we weren't speaking much French, so helping at the market was a good opportunity to practice our French. Then a night at the loto (bingo) got us up to speed with our French numbers. We couldn't believe how many people of all ages went to loto, we were lucky to get seats together.

It was exciting to be getting closer to the Pyrenees. And even in December, it was warm enough to sit outside looking at the beautiful views.

 Du pain, du vin, du Boursin 

Stunning view from the house, you can just see the Pyrenees

We managed to explore more of France on our days off.

We met D'Artagnan in Auch

Getting closer to the mountains...

Fresh mistletoe just in time for Christmas, lucky Louise...

The second farm we worked at was even closer to the Pyrenees, so we finally got to go and play in the mountains. We spent one day snowboarding at Perisud and another day walking and playing in the snow.

Shame we forgot the sledge...

Working at the Pork Noir farm gave us lots of experience that we used and adapted when we moved on.

It wasn’t just animals we learnt about. We spend a lot of time with some super cute and slightly crazy kids on both farms. We had a lot of fun running around, climbing trees and playing on trampolines.

We did some more butchering at the second farm, this time it was with sheep and we got even more involved. We assisted with the dispatch of two sheep, used a butchering saw – it’s really hard sawing bone - and learnt some new knots.

This time the meat wasn’t getting sold, so we could try out some new recipes. We tried to use as much of the sheep as possible.

We made black pudding with caramelised apple

Amazing kidneys with lentils

We also made some not quite as tasty lung soup... We enjoyed a very tasty leg of lamb and it felt exciting to be eating food we had helped dispatch and butcher, especially when we added veggies from the garden.

We think we might just have what it takes to be farmers after all… And are really looking forward to having our own place, where we can put all the skills we’ve learnt to the test, in the not too distant future.

Our little velo ride

As we write this update, we are relaxing at a gite in a small village called Mauroux, in the Gers region of the South of France, before we start our next workaway on 11 November. 

Time to relax :-)

We even get a free cat with the gite

And a free dog, meet Brador

Looking back at our diary and photos from the past couple of months has made us realise what an incredible adventure we've already been on during the 1900 or so kilometres we've cycled from York, camping in our tiny green tent every night. Ok, not every night in the tent and we might have had one or two rest days. We stayed in a lovely gite near Moret-sur-Loing for five nights, with a day trip to Paris, then there was the four nights camping at Braxieux, and maybe a rest day at Avanton and another two at Périguex, there might have been a few more...

People watching fro, the Sacre Coeur in Paris

Can you spot our lock?.. No, of course we didn't, Rob wouldn't allow such romantic gestures!

Worth taking the metro to Belleville Park for this beautiful view of Paris. 

We’re very proud of our bikes, Juno and Jimmy - don't judge us, we've been on our own for two months -  who had rarely ventured outside The York City Walls before this trip and had all but accepted a life of tiny commutes before living out their days in a cold shed, bickering about what could have been. Instead, they’ve travelled across three countries enjoying the beautiful countryside while carrying baguettes, with only one puncture repair, a little oiling and no complaining when they had to sleep outside every night.

New challenges everyday

Lovely quiet roads in Northern France

One of our hottest days at the end of October on the way to Mauroux

We’ve not done too bad either, our legs have definitely had to get stronger as the hills have got bigger and steeper on the way South.

At the top of a very big hill in Beauville

On our way to France we could have probably crossed Belgium in a couple of days, but in keeping with the philosophy of our trip we wanted to experience all that Belgium has to offer - mainly chocolate for Louise and beer for Rob. A friend recommended visiting Leuven, so we spent a couple of nights in an apartment there, nothing to do with the Stella brewery, but of course we went on a tour.

Inside the Stella brewery 

Cheers, the 7 euro ticket included a few drinks

And of course you should always wear hi-vis when drinking Stella

Leuven

Look at the moon, Leuven

This blog is just a lot of waffle...

Whilst in Belgium, we also visited Charlois so we could see Europe’s biggest photography collection which is housed in a brilliant museum just outside the city. The leaflets about Charlois gave us the impression that the city would be very interesting, so we decided go into the centre for an explore. Unfortunately the city hasn’t quite caught up with the marketing blurb and we didn’t stay long. The friendly locals were a bit scary. The first man to approach us had long matted hair, a scraggy beard and long tobacco stained fingernails. He told us that the city has lots of problems and we should be careful of our security. Outside the post office while Rob was posting a parcel, Louise met another two locals who were equally friendly and equally scary. Shortly afterwards, a group of students approached us, they were compiling a survey on reasons why anyone would want to visit Charlois and hadn’t had much luck finding tourists… This all happened within 10 minutes, so we decided to cut our visit short, very happy to be camping in a quiet campsite about 10km away.

We enjoyed exploring the Netherlands and Belgium, but as soon as we arrived in France we felt at home. It was lovely to graduate onto the quiet country roads of Northern France after completing our cycling by numbers journey in the Netherlands. We also enjoyed trying to speak to the locals, after failing miserably at Dutch. It didn't help that everyone in the Netherlands speaks impeccable English. We're getting much more practice in France where even if people can speak brilliant English, they refuse to speak a word of it to us. Probably because they're enjoying the spectacle of our terrible French in Yorkshire and Scottish accents. 

When we first arrived in France, we set off each day pedalling in the general direction of the farm we’re heading to for our next job, which is quite near Toulouse. We enjoyed lovely mornings taking in the beautiful views as we cycled for hours without seeing another person, except on Sundays when we had to watch out for the men with orange hats, guns and dogs – hunting season runs from September to February and we wouldn’t be the firstpeople to get mistaken for a pheasant. 

We've been hunting for our own food too.

Walnuts

Chestnuts

Lots of chestnuts

Brambles

At home, it's often said that your never more than a few feet from a rat. In France, it's much more appealing as you're never a more than a few feet from a Boulangerie. This meant we could stop in tiny villages to pick up fresh bread for lunch everyday. Note from Rob: to anyone travelling to France, they don't understand if you ask for a French stick even if you say a stick de Francais! 

After lunch, we would often start to stress out a little, worrying about whether we would find somewhere to sleep that night. It's possible to get away with wild camping in France, but it's technically illegal and we were quite scared of the men with guns roaming the woods. We preferred to find cosy campsites where we could relax, cook dinner and have early nights. After a few days we decided to purchase a campsite guide, choosing the Routard guide because of the front cover.

Aww, Louise thought we'd be doing this, but Rob pointed out that the sleeping bags would get dirty.

Another reason for buying the guide was that we were travelling a little out of season and had started to notice a worrying trend for campsites to shut down for the winter. Our new book showed us that there were enough sites open for us to join the dots between them and plan a route south, we just had to finish our trip by the end of October when almost everything would be closed. The guide did let us down twice, the campsite we'd planned to stay at in Amboise had already closed for the season when we arrived, so we watched some people pedalling a little quicker than us, had a quick look at the town and continued cycling along the Loire. We knew from the guide that there was another campsite 12km away in Montlouis-Sur-Loire and luckily that one was open. 

Bike race in Amboise

Unfortunately, we weren't as lucky when we arrived at another closed campsite which was in the middle of nowhere near Guesnes and this time there were no backup options nearby. We'd been cycling in the rain all day and couldn't face trying to find anywhere else to sleep. The toilets and a big room full of picnic benches had been left unlocked, so as there was nobody else around we did some 'wild camping'. Louise got a little bit scared when what was scenic beauty spot during the day became a creepy, remote, Blair Witchesque forest at night. This wasn't as scary as when we accidentally left our rubbish tied to the side of the tent and an animal rummaged through it looking for food in the middle of the night. With only the thin tent separating the animal, hopefully a cat, from Louise's face, Rob refused to swap sides and went back to sleep leaving Louise awake and slightly terrified. 

Wild camping in style at Guesnes

We’re not sure what criteria were taken into consideration when Routard selected its ‘best campsites'. Our favourites have had lovely managers, free wifi, toilets with seats and paper, soap, hot water and somewhere to hang out if it rained. Our all time favourite was Camping Du Futur which had the nicest campsite manager in the world ever. He gave us free beer, let us take over the games room and cafe area to cook our meals and even complimented us on our French before waving us off.

Dinner at Camping Du Futur

The guide book wasn't interested in the standard of the toilet blocks and seemed much more concerned with choosing campsites in very pretty towns and villages, surrounded by as many trees as possible. This took us to some interesting places and helped us plan a very beautiful route south.

Stepping back into the 1920s in Périgueux

Assault course at our first Routard guide campsite in Nouvion-en-Thierache 

Western style camping in Suzi

However, it did leave Rob a bit bemused to what was required when going to the toilet in France. Sometimes there was a seat, sometimes not, and sometimes no toilet at all. Sometimes the toilet paper went in the toilet, sometimes it went in a bin and quite often you had to bring your own. Yes, he does sound like an idiot abroad, but he's getting better and has adapted to some aspects of French life very well. He confidently pees at the side of the road in full view of everyone just like the French men who don't seem to have any inhibitions when it comes to getting their willies out. He also enjoys sitting outside a tabac with a small beer instead of a pint and has learned how to fill up on red wine at a Maison du Vin.

Outside a tabac in Cadouin with a demi Stella

5 litres of red please, Fleurance

Our journey through France has been taking us through some incredible scenery. Louise got excited when we cycled past baby animals.

Lots of calves made us smile on a hard day

Through fields of dying sunflowers.

Or wild flowers

Or vineyards

Cycling through the Champagne region

Rob was more impressed by the sights that made him feel like he was in an episode of Eddie Stobart Trucks and Trailers.

Chipping wood along the Loire

Crushing cars near Charlois

Generally after cycling for four or five days we would start to get grumpy with each other. We took this as a sign that we needed a rest day. Excited to explore France, we didn't want to waste these days. But with our bikes as our only method of transport, we would often end up cycling even further than we did on normal days so that we could visit tourist sights and supermarkets. Rest days were becoming very tiring, so we decided to have regular stops of several days enabling us to do some sightseeing, try some local delicacies, stock up at the supermarket, wash some clothes, plan the next stage of our trip and get a little rest. 

Market day in Périgueux- spot Rob

An evening stroll in the very beautiful Chinon

After a tasty meal with some local wine

Hotdogs in Moret-Sur-Loing

Too many gallettes to choose from in Paris

Travelling by bike isn’t all glamorous of course, we’ve had a few rainy days when we’ve been lucky to find a bus shelter to eat our soggy baguettes in. 

We've set ourselves a goal to learn to speak French before we leave France and it's going reasonably well. We quickly learned "pouvon-nous rester pour une nuit" so we could stay at campsites, "où est l'eau potable" to keep us hydrated and 'pouvez-vous couper la baguette' so we could fit baguettes in our panniers to stop them getting soggy! 

It hasn't been necessary to learn to ask for directions because everyone in France seems to want to give them to us, and then repeat them several times, even when we’re not lost. In Courplay, this went a step further. Five minutes after getting directions from a council worker and setting off towards a campsite, a van pulled up next to us and another council worker rolled down his window asking us to follow him… We obliged and it was hard work keeping up with a van going uphill for a couple of kilometers after a hard days cycling, but luckily he took us to a very nice campsite.

To increase our vocabulary, we're invested in some audio books that we listen to and repeat every day. They’ve taught us all the important things, like how to book a room in a hotel, how to say we prepared the coffee and how to tell someone their father is exotic!... We try to practice these phrases as often we can, but don’t always get it right. Sitting outside a little restaurant in Périgueux, we successfully ordered a three course meal. We’re on a very tight budget, so chose the set menu and carafe of water. This would have been a very cheap meal, but Rob got a little mixed up with his French and accidentally gave the waitress all our money as a tip. 

View from the cheap/expensive restaurant

As you can probably see from the photos, food and drink have played a fairly large part in our journey. Well, you have to keep the energy levels up. However, we might have got it slightly wrong as we've both managed put on weight despite cycling more than 1000 miles! We're going to have to work extra hard at our new job to get back in shape.  

Au revoir, xx