Sun 14 – Sat 20 June 2015
Sunday was another lazy day. Our host, Frances was away cycling so we had a nice lie in. We lazed about and had a stroll into the village, however from noon on Sunday until 8am on Tuesday everything was closed so there wasn’t much to see.
Frances’ brother Sean and another workawayer, Tam went fishing so it was just Nat, Matt, Louise and Fran for dinner. Fran made pork and veg for dinner and updated us on the plans for the week. Sean and Tam were going to be working on the roof. Matt would work on replacing the garden steps and Nat and Louise would work in the garden. Fran is an artist so she would be working in her studio. We helped ourselves to breakfast, coffee break at 10:45 and Fran would make lunch at 1pm and dinner in the evenings would be around 7 or 8pm.
We were up and ready to go Monday morning by 9am. Nat made some porridge for herself and Matt then headed out for instructions. Matt started by ripping up the old stairs and Nat did some whipper snipping (or weed whacking). Fran made the most glorious salad for lunch with veg from the garden and fruit and lot and lots of olive oil. There was a load and bread and cheese as well. After lunch Nat helped Matt with the stairs as it was very laborious. Dinner on Monday was a wonderful frittata with the most delicious black olives.
The rest of the week followed a similar pattern. Tuesday was more work on the stairs as was Wednesday. We finally finished that project. Not being builders or having any tools to produce stairs, they were questionable but hopefully satisfactory.
Tuesday’s dinner was liver and onions but the most fresh and well cooked liver and the onions were slow cooked in a mustard and cream sauce. Mmmm. Wednesday’s dinner was was a chicken and olive bake with veg. Thursday’s dinner was pot-au-feu – a traditional French beef stew done over the open fire. Friday’s dinner was mackerel with roared veg and mushrooms all done on an open fire.
Work wise, it was drizzling a bit on Thursday morning so Nat, Matt and Louise cleaned the living room and bedroom. After coffee break we headed out into the clearing drizzle and did some weeding and clearing of weeds. On Friday Louise helped Sean with insulation on the roof as it was Tam’s last morning. Nat and Matt spent the day burning lots of cuttings on a bonfire and clearing more weeds.
Saturday was our last day. We took Fran and her brother to the ferry in Dieppe as they were on their way back to Brighton for a few days. We (+ Louise) strolled through the market at Dieppe and got some food for lunch and dinner. We had the most amazing (and really rich) crepe stack. Slices of crepes layered with different fillings like smoked salmon, prawn mayonnaise and hard boiled eggs. We also had a croissant sandwich filled with ham and cheese. We bought bread, cheese, olives and cured meats for dinner. We stopped for a really fancy and expensive coffee at a coffee house that was established in the mid-1700s!
We drove to a little seaside village, Pourville and strolled along the promenade and had our lunch. We headed back to Fran’s to do some more planning. We nipped down to the village music festival around 9pm but didn’t stay too long. We were all really tried from a long week so we watched Under the Tuscan Sun and went to bed.
All in all, our first workaway was the most wonderful experience. Hard work yet rewarding. We learned lots of new things about land management, building and food! We can hardly wait to start our next workaway adventure but that will be in a few weeks to come. In the meantime, more trucking through Europe.
Purple Moose Tales 