Seems like we just got here and now it's time to go

I can't believe we have been here for nearly a month! The days have just flown by and now we have just 2 days until we leave for Auch (southern France). We will be sad to leave as we have so enjoyed our time here: the nice chats with our hosts, wonderful food and drink, having just a short drive to the beach, etc... I think we would just stay forever, if we could!

Carter has been working on finishing an outside wall of the house (I'll try to get the pics in the next post) that they were renovating. The old stone wall had been covered with cement and plaster, so they had to chisel off all the old to uncover the stones. Now they (Carter and Alex, our host) are working on putting in new lime mortar to finish it up.

While Carter has been supplying the heavy labor, I've had it pretty easy: a little cooking, cleaning, helping to watch the kids, and helping Mathilde make a ton of diapers for her uncle's twins and for her own baby that is due in just a couple of weeks.

I would have to say that this past Sunday was just about as perfect as could be... We got up late (they had a small party the night before that lasted until very late), packed up a picnic (an enormous loaf of bread packed full of butter, ham and 4 different kinds of cheese) and headed to the beach near Marennes. It was just a gorgeous day: not too hot, not too cold. So there were Carter and I sitting on a beautiful beach in France watching our kids running through the sand and giggling whenever the cold water would rush over their feet. It was perfect.

Now it's on to Auch! We look forward to meeting our new hosts, but we will miss the friends we made here. It looks like we will be in Auch until the 17th of April then we set out on our long trip to Bulgaria: 1.5 hr bus from Auch to Toulouse, 2 hr train from Toulouse to Montpelier, 1.5hr plane from Montpelier to Frankfort, Germany, plane from Frankfort to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and then a 6 HOUR BUS from Plovdiv to Popovo! We are trying to break it up by couchsurfing for a couple of nights along the way.

We plan to stay about a month in Popovo, so hopefully it will be worth the extended travel. We will be staying with an Irish couple that moved there a few years ago, so at least there we won't have a language barrier with our hosts.

A beautiful day off

The weather was great yesterday and our hosts were kind enough to give us the day off and the use of their car to go enjoy it! We decided to take the kids out for something they would enjoy, so we headed to Royan to the La Palmre Zoo. There were a couple of let downs because of it being the slow season and a weekday when all the kids are in school here...all of the zoo shops and eating areas were closed and they normally have a sea lion and bird show. We did at least get to see the sea lions practicing a little for their shows.

We realized shortly after we started looking around that the animals must be used to being fed by visitors (although I'm pretty sure there were signs asking people not to) since most of the animals that were awake were keen to get as close to us as possible in hopes of getting a snack. The zebras followed us all around their habitat and the meerkats watched our hands intently and seemed to be yelling at each other that whatever we happened to drop was theirs.

Here was the super-friendly giraffe we met...

When I asked Evan what her favorite animal was, guess what she said...the pelican!

They also had a little petting zoo with a bunch of goats where we saw first hand why all the animals are so friendly...one man walked up and starting throwing popcorn to all the goats!

So all in all it was a good day, and the kids had lots of fun. We meant to stop by the beach on the way home...we were told it was really pretty and that wild pigs like to go down and splash around in the water (and that part of the beach was clothing optional but should be "safe" this time of year), but the kids were tired and it was getting late. Perhaps we will go back next week before we leave.

Speaking of traveling, it looks like we will be headed to Bulgaria when we leave France.

Yet another castle

Can you get tired of seeing huge impressive castles? We haven't yet, so on our day off yesterday we headed over to Chateau La Roche Courbon. It was a massive chateau (well it seemed big to us but apparently two thirds of it burned in a fire a long time ago) with beautiful extensive gardens.

I wish we could have seen this in summer...the tree blooms bright red.

Who knew they had "air hockey" in the 17th century?

Looking at the pictures, this place almost doesn't look real...too much like a fairytale.

We attempted to tour the chateau, but I ended up having to duck out early because there was no way Elliot was going to be quiet through the whole thing.

Evan has enjoyed watching movies with the girls we are staying with...she doesn't even seem to care that they are all in French, but she did get a treat the other day when she watched Tinkerbell in English (They call her Clochette)!

Daddy, Elliot's bleeding!

Sorry I'm so slow to post these days but we've been busy, and there is no wifi here to let me post from bed at night. What's been going on? Well yesterday was busy with our hosts' friends and family over most of the day...there were 9 kids running around here! Evan and Elliot were having lots of fun with all the kids eventhough none of them speak any English.

We had a brief scare the other night after the kids had gone to bed...Evan came running out saying "Daddy, Elliot is bleeding!". Carter went to check and found Elliot's face covered in blood. It turned out to be a nose bleed (combination of the dry air and his already irritated nasal passages). He was fine after we got him and his bed all cleaned up.

Carter has been happy to finally have some work to do...yesterday he spent a few hours tilling up the garden to get it ready for spring planting. By the end, he was tired but satisfied that he had accomplished something.

We had some free time earlier this week and Matilde was nice enough to let us borrow the car to do a little exploring of the area. We visited Brouage which is a very old citadel. It is now a very cute town with little shops scattered about and the entire town is enclosed in the old stone walls.

Here is Evan doing one of her signature dance moves inside the city.

A view down the main street...

We have emailed some more prospective hosts to see where we will go next, but we haven't had a lot of responses. If we don't hear from someone else soon, it looks like we will be going to another host in France. There seem to be more hosts here than anywhere else! We will keep you posted.

Rochefort

We finally made it to our first Helpx host! We have been here for a few days now, but I just now got around to posting...I have been intimidated by the French keyboard. I have to hunt and peck so this post may be short.

The family we are staying with have 2 little girls (Camille, 5, and Eloise, 3), so the kids have people to play with (although they do not speak English). I have been helping sort through childrens clothes to get ready for their new arrival next month (another girl!). Carter was happy that he finally got to do some real work today cleaning out the garage, making some shelves and other jobs.

The house we are staying in is around 250 years old and the family here has done a wonderful renovation/restoration of it...I will post pics when I get a chance. They have hand-cut stone blocks around the doors that a friend of theirs cut himself.

We have been stuffed on wonderful bread, cheese, and wine regularly as well as tons of tasty French food.

I think I have had enogh of this keyboard for now, but I will post again soon!