In June I worked at a farm in Fougeré, just outside of Angers. The farm was mostly a fromagerie which meant there was fresh goat cheese in the fridge every day. And it was soooo good.
The farm was also a sort of horse ranch. Families from Paris would come down on Sundays and go for balades and then canoe rides on Le Loir. Not to be confused with La Loire, this river was really quiet and there were old French men fishing on the riverbank. At one point we stopped in the backyard of the chateau and went swimming in our undies. My canoe mates were a little girl and her Portuguese father, who has lived in Paris for the past 15 years, but before that, lived in Winnipeg for 20 years on SHERBROOK. How crazy is that?!!!
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| Regular site in my room. Add buzzing flies, a candlelit bathroom and the smell of goat and you've got the general idea. |
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| Some of the best food I've ever eaten, alongside cavaliers, canoers and many bottles of Coteaux de Loire. |
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| Most of my time was spend tending to this sandy soil. |
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| Chèvre! |
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| Guardian of the gate. This loner coq could be found sitting here every time I open & shut the gate. |
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| Next door (across the fields and through the woods) there was another WWOOF team building a house. Here's the inside of the bus the family slept in. |
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| Ma voisine, 'tit chou Lilou |
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| Gamine, crazy beauty. My French roomie Manuela looked after the horses. We used to go galloping in the forest and sometimes end up on the path up to the chateau. Kind of like a fairytale. |
If anyone is wondering, I used HelpX to find the
farm. It's an awesome site and has a variety of organic farms and homestays.
There were about 530 hosts in France alone, much more than I found on WWOOF
France.
