2 weeks crammed into 1 blog - I will do my best but don't want to write forever so I will be brief b/c we are going out tonight in Nice and I need to take a nap before hand.
I had 2 roommates - one from australia and one from Chicago. We did stay in restored houses that were originally part of the "old city" of St. Victor La Coste. While I did not participate in breakfast - no surprise there, lunch and dinner were amazing and I got to help uin the kitchen for two meals. So I,ll talk about that first:
Marta, originally argentinian, has been in France for 20 years. The cook everything naturally, everything is fresh. We got to make salad dressing plus assist with the cooking/marinading of the meat. I'm so excited to bring back some of the tips/tecyhniques I've learned/ I'm going to start making my own salad dressing plus start using lore fresh products - no longer being intimidated. Plus there is a knife I will be getting when I get back to help with cutting (it is a shallow U shape that you roll back and forth to dice items. I'm in love with it!
As for the work, we would work for about 3 1/2 hours to 4 hours in the morning. I was on the crew working higher up on the path. My group - me plus 2 other guys - basically dug the path down to the bedrock and then rebuilt the wall, laying mortar and rocks layer by layer until we could add the pavement chips at the end. Took us about 7 days to do and then the other 2 were used to start a new section of the path. The path leads up to the medevial castle (10th/11th century) and 4 different groups were working on different parts of the path. It was great getting to see our small project through.
Afternoons were spent visiting local wineries, towns (Arles, Uzès, Avignon), reading or sleeping. After dinner, we would either hang out at the main house or head to the village bar, which was located in the village square. A lot of wine was drank in the last 2 weeks by the La Sab folks! Last Saturday night was particularly exciting. The town had a festival - the entire town came - with a DJ that played french music plus disco plus songs like "highway to hell" - très ecletic.
It was really a great experience and it was neet to be with people that were of like-mind regarding their prupose. I was ready to be back in the non-Provènce world at the end of it though. One of the girls is from Scotland (edinborough) and decided to join me on my next leg.
Of course, tons more happened but I can't wait to tell you all about it when I get back. Off to Nice, France with Terri and the beaches of the Meditteranean.
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