Workaway!

Hey folks!

The Country side!

So you've heard our adventures in the car from Renee, now let me give you the skinny on the workaway experience. First off, it was in a little town called Tillac.  Population 300 or so. A small commune isolated from any big city.  When we arrived it was the exact same time that a Californian couple was leaving.  So for Tony, our host, it was a really a goodbye and hello moment.  When you sign up for some thing like this on the internet you always have some apprehension (and we were quite apprehensive).  But the people leaving seemed cool and our host, who's in his early 60's (pretty sure), looked nice (qnd British!)  For me, being that we'd been in France for 2 or so weeks, this was exciting.  I could talk and express myself without hand gestures and looking at Renee in desperation!

Tillac's main drag.  Known as a medieval gem.

The car ride to Tillac was nice.  Tony seemed to be interesting and well-educated.  He explained a few thing about the area around us.  More importantly, he let us know about a few thing we may be doing while we where working for him.  He went on about his dog Ulla, who's a very sweet black lab.  We connected over some lab stories (and this always comes to a pissing contest on who's dog has the most personality). Tony was very excited that Ulla would get some one on one training from a dog trainer.  Guess who that was....  Renee who, according to what they thought, is a professional dog trainer!  Although later on we read the fine print of our qualifications and it didn't say trainer it said "a keen interest" in training dogs.  Needless to say Renee was excited!  I on the other hand,  was hearing a mile-long list of things that I could be doing.  We were also told that we would be sharing our gite (which is our place. Gite = bed and breakfest-ish) with a older, also British couple.  She was a decorator and him, a retired civil engineer.  I was starting to think I should have given them some lower expectations.

Ulla saw Tony  missed a spot.

We got to Tillac and met Tony's wife Madeleine.  We were instantly told to sit down for lunch and tea...we could get use to this!  Cheese, meats, patties, and salad.  Yes please!  While we where finishing up our meal Mel and Jill came in to do some work in a sun room.  Mel the civil engineer is a 66 year old "Dude".  Just a really calm funny guy's guy.  Jill the decorator (hair dresser by trade), Mel's younger wife by a fair margin, (never mention a ladies age, after all) is a mother hen.  She is funny, outgoing and a ball of energy.  The age difference (us and them)  made us wonder if we would have a pretty quiet time living with then at the gite. After tea we went and got settled into the gite.

Everyone in there proper chair.

Nice gite eh! That's our house.

The gite, other than the death watch beetles living in the beams, was really nice.  Very modern with a wood stove, T.V., DVD, dishwasher, washing machine, and a cramped kitchen with a gas stove.  Getting set up for a three week stay was like a dream come true for Renee and I.  We put our cloths in drawers and hung things up.  Paper went on tables in organized piles.  We where staying for three whole weeks! Feels nice to unpack your bags and know that you won't be packing them back up for a little while. Mel and Jill came home to the gite after they had put in there 5 hours (which each of us had to do for 5 days a week or 25hrs in a week).

The other workers (left to right)  - Mel,Jill,Dan

We instantly hit it off with the old farts.  That would carry on through till the end.  That first night before our welcome supper we meet our neighbor - an  Austrian woman named Verina.  She is one of those characters we all wish to be like when we get older.  Full of energy, young spirited, always busy,  involved and very interesting.  She really made us think of Oma.   Her house was amazing too!  She also had a dog named Ila.  A mutt but still a lovely dog. She reminded me of black Sandy, my brother Ryan's dog.  Verina introduced us to a wonderful regional drink called Floc.  A combination of Arminac (local booze made from grapes-strong drink) and wine. Verina had a workaway as well at that time, Susan a German girl.  She was wrapping up a 3 month stint.  Actually, if I went back to the area again for a cheap get-away for a month or so, I'd go to Verina's. She just likes to have fun.  Susan made a  huge spread for the California couple that left the day before and we HAD to finish it.

 The boys of the house - Chris, Dan and Mel

We wobbled over to the house T&M (Tony and Madeleine) being sort of full already and sat back down for what was a two hour meal.  Meals went like this:  Suppers 2-3 hrs, Lunches 1-2 hrs. We really had to try to cut them off after a while or they would just keep going.  The food that they provided was amazing!!  Madeleine was a great cook ! There was a lot of fancy names for things and different cheeses and meats for lunch.  Renee was well served as well most things were veggie and if they weren't there a nut cutlet.  I think most nights we ate way too much.  Also, everyone LOVED cooking at the gite so we would always have an appy, a main course and a dessert for every supper.  It's a nice problem to have but it literally kept us up at night.  Some examples for meals that I can remember:  souffle, quiche, duck (the area was foie groi central), moussaka...the list goes on.

Having a good time before going out on the town.

The Gite had it's own kind culture.  Four days after we had arrived, where it had only been the four of us (Mel, Gill, Renee and I), another workaway came to join the fun.  Dan was his name and debating with Tony during supper was his game.  Another damn Brit! i thought we where suppose to be in France!  They had us surrounded!!!.  Renee kept them entertained with accent attempts.  They loved that shit.  Mel would crack up and almost fall over while they kept telling her things to say.  Dan and I were the beer drinkers.  All I'm going to say is there was high bottle count.  In our defense, the bottles were small.  Dan was an economist and 22 yrs old.  He just graduated and landed a job in London, so this was last "hoora" before he started in the new year.  Dan was also a big eater who was always thinking about food and what the next meal could be.

Every Monday and Wednesday we went to markets in the area.  It was great for getting everything from clothes to food.  Everything was local.  We are going to miss these markets dearly.   Canada has them too but they aren't the same.  Here, markets are cheaper than grocery stores, even organic markets.  In Canada, they're more expensive (well, in Edmonton anyway).  We would get cheese sausages, fruit, veggies, booze and spices.  Everything else would be picked up a grocery store.  Would would plan big meals and all take turns cooking.  Every night we would be horribly full.  Poor us.

 

One of our suppers.  For this one, we invited Madeleine, Tony, and Verina.  

Getting out of bed in the mornings was pretty tough most mornings.  It was a good thing our T&M wouldn't be up most days until around 10.  There was never any pressure to get going and putting five hours wasn't to hard unless you got sucked into a 2 hr lunch after a late morning.  Our work days were different for each of us.  Renee was put to dog duty, walking and training.  Then, doing light chores and eventually weed a few of the many out of control flower beds.  I started with planning projects and then starting a book shelf that took me forever or most of the time anyways. The tools I had to use to build this bad boy was a skill saw and a router with a cutting bit. Oh, and a sander and nail gun that I convinced Tony to get.  He wouldn't go for the table saw though.  Mel, Jill and I worked close together because they were doing painting and electricity things to the sun room where I built the book shelves.  Dan was stuck clearing brambles.  I hate those thorny bastards (I helped him the last couple of days).

 

 Renee and her best buddy Ulla.

 

Setting up some fences.  

  

I built this !

Working was mostly good.  We definitely had some challenges, working with french systems or the stone walls.  T&M weren't the most organized people either.  Trying to get them to make up there minds about how they wanted something to look would make you pull your hair out.  All in all it was a good experience (although that doesn't mean we didn't have venting and bitching sessions once in a while). 

One day, we went to Toulouse for a day trip. We left this artisic masterpiece on the table in case M&T came in to snoop !  

If it wasn't for Mel and Jill having a car we would have been pretty isolated.  They were kind to bring us to Auch one day and Toulouse another. The road trips where a lot of fun and we would separate and meet up with them after a few hours.  On the way back, we'd sing along with Gill and Mel's music. Spice Girls are great to sing along with.. Auch was a nice French city.  It had some of the best stained glass and wood carvings in France.  Both marvels were in a huge church in the center of town.  Toulouse is a very nice place with narrow streets and an obvious Spanish influence.  We mostly shopped and walked around in Toulouse getting lost and finding our way again.

The church in Auch. 

When we had time (or on Sundays, our day off) we would go for walks and explore around Tillac.  Dan and I went for a bike ride to a market in Marciac.  Renee made some friends when her and Jill went to a cookery type party. For those who have seen the movie "Calandar Girls, it was EXACTLY like that".  
They all had to make dessert from their area, and present it to a group of ladies all the while explaining the recipe.  Being that Renee is franco-canadian, she presented her Memere's specialty, sucre a la creme.  Madeleine brought them to this event and when they got home, they were laughing so hard that Mel and I thought they were drunk (they weren't. Turns out Jill fell on her face getting out of the car).  

A few desserts that were presented at the cookery night.

Renee presenting her Memere's Sucre a la creme.  She got a lot of "ooohh...I love your accent. It's definitely french-Canadian!" that night.

Going for a walk with Verina.

A castle's ruins.  A regualr sight in France.

This was also where Renee had our first and only engagement party so far.  It was very nice Verena and Susan came over.  M&T made a fancy french drink with appetizers.  Then we toasted and went to the town hall where we ate casseolet, a regional dish. They had a band playing music, celebrating  a release of a local wine.  We danced a lot !  Good times.

Our time was really nice in Tillac!  We are going to really miss the whole gang but we have so many new friends now.  You can't ask for more from a experience like this.  So long Tillac!