The Alps

My next destination was the french Alps, and a little village called Martinville. Here I am trying out an au pair job with two children, a little girl who is six, and a little boy who is two. 

They are very full on, she is a lovely little girl although very headstrong, and the boy is a lot to handle. The location is pretty cool so I am still working out how long I will stay and if it will work out.

My little Kitchen 

My Bed and Fireplace

The view out my window

The little village and the mountains in the distance

The Village

I went for a little explore of the village, it is very pretty and the occupants friendly, although they don't speak a word of English. It is a very small village, a collection of houses and a church, no shops. Down the mountain there is a larger village where the children go to school, it has a small supermarket, a post shop, a bank and a few other essential places including a cafe. With no car as yet I haven't had the chance to explore the place, but at least there are some shops somewhat nearby. 

Last Day

On my last day of Workaway, we went to the nearby town of Figeac for the afternoon which was lovely. 

The central square

We went there because of a museum which resides there. A museum of writing, which I thought was very interesting. Called the Champollion Museum. Just outside the building was a huge replica of the Rosetta stone set into the courtyard.

the first floor was dedicated to Champollion, his life and his work on the Rosetta stone. 

 Including portraits and letters he had written

This was surrounded by a huge number of Egyptian artifacts and hieroglyphics. 

It was a shame all the descriptions were in French, but the artifacts themselves were interesting enough that I enjoyed looking at them regardless. 

Beautifully carved face

A copy of the Rosetta stone

Insanely detailed 

 

Some beautifully carved works

The rest of the museum traced the progress of writing in all cultures, from Cuneiform to the language of the Maya. It went right though to modern day and the progression through time which I found fascinating. 

Cuneiform!

Maya depictions 

The advent of printing 

We then spent some time exploring the town itself as it was extremely pretty.

After the rain

Narrow alleys with medieval houses tucked away in a state of disrepair 

 

The main cobbled street

The old fortified walls 

New Friends and Bike Rides

The next week, back at my first work-away I spent most of the week weeding and clearing up the garden. Katie and Nathen, a British couple were also Workawaying there so we had good fun together.

They spent most of their week on different tasks, from digging a stream to getting the poultry ready to sell. As a result we had to try Sangeet, a strange omelette type dish of milk, eggs, parsley, onion and-the main ingredient, ducks blood. I was not a fan. Not only that but later that night when I broke out in a rash from head to toe that then started to swell I decided I must have had an allergic reaction to it. A great reason to never have to eat it again. 

On Saturday our hosts decided to have a big dinner party so we spent the morning in the kitchen helping to prep everything from vegetables, to homemade chicken stock, to making mayonnaise, it was good fun. As we had the afternoon off we decided to go for a bike ride.

Easier said than done when the tires are flat (we realised halfway through) and the brakes don't work. And don't even get me started on the gears! The scenery however, was nice. 

we took a short break at the serene lake before heading on.

Our cycling path/road

It was a hot sunny day so after about forty minutes we reached our destination and had a well earned ice cold drink.

Nathen and Katy

We then went for an explore around the quiet village 

The central square

It was a very small but cute collection of houses, only taking us a few minutes to explore.

We then went home to help with the very ambitious 5 bird roast we were attempting to cook. After 9 hours of cooking it was finally done and the party was on!

The weekend-Sunday

My Room

The next day we had a quiet an relaxing morning and lunch, followed by an outing with the car to do some more sightseeing. 

We stopped in a little village off the bathroom and I had to admire how every townperson happily greeted us a we passed them on the street with a cheery 'bonjour' we responded in kind of course, but it was nice to note how friendly and welcoming they were.

We then headed to a little village which was a  villages fleuris (one of the prettiest villages in France). It was a very rainy cold day which made things a little miserable especially as we had forgotten umbrellas. However we wandered the pretty town for a while enjoying the view.

The town was beside a river which made it even prettier. 

It was so cold we decided to find a cafe and stopped for coffee and desert. Best idea ever. We found a tiny little place where we were the only occupants and the owners were very friendly. The coffee (cappuccino of course) was delicious and the desert was awesome.

I had a raspberry tart that was just awesome, and Sullivan and I also exchanged some desert so I could try her vanilla custard flan thingy which was the best I've ever tasted. 

Warmed and full we continued to wander around until we couldn't stand the cold any longer.

There was a beautiful castle overlooking the village it unfortunately it was closed, I very much enjoyed the architecture of the houses in the village regardless.

A lovely house with a beautiful ivy covered well.

Next we went to the town of Nevers which had some lovely buildings. 

The cathedral and my group of Workawayers.

I'm not sure how visible it is in the photo but there was a beautiful old fresco on the wall here. 

The inside of this church was by far my favourite in Europe. Not only was it beautiful but also very serene without being gloomy, we all sat and talked quietly near the back for a while, soaking in the atmosphere.

An interesting old clock in the cathedral.

We took some silly photos (although they were sillier than we expected them to be as Mateusz keep making us all laugh) 

                      

Our lovely car.

                                

After that as it was my last night with all of them we went to the local pub in Saint Pierre le moutier, they were so nice there and it was such a lovely little bar that we stayed a few hours, had a few beers and enjoyed each other's company.

Once we got back to the house we played dominoes until a ridiculous hour in the morning. It was a fantastic last night.

The weekend -Saturday

The week was long and the work was hard but if the afternoons we often went for bike rides and walks.

The old well by the house

The mist in the morning is always very thick

The heavy stone bench we put back together after a fallen tree had fallen on it and cracked it clean in two. 

We got two new workawayers in the course of the week, a Spanish girl called Elisa and a Malaysian girl called Sullivan. Together with Mateusz us four decided to go exploring on the weekend, and our hosts kindly lent is their old car.

We decided to go find some church's and castles in the nearby villages, ending the day with a visit to the town of Moulins. 

There are many Gothic cathedrals in the area which had fantastic stonework and stained glass windows.

                         

As it was a Saturday all the churches were empty, although open which made them lovely to explore.

We passed by a fortress on our way so stopped to have an explore around. 

Only one wall and a few towers remained but it was easy to see how heavily fortified and impenetrable it must have once been.

The view from the castle. 

Some more castle remnants.

We decided to see one more church and then go in search of lunch as we were quite hungry by this time. 

The grand entrance to the cathedral.

The beautiful interior and stained glass windows. 

                        

The little town of the cathedral, I never did get around to learning it's name.

We headed to Moulins to try and find some lunch. The problem was by the time we arrived (2 pm) everything was closing, we ended up having to go to an Asian restaurant as it was the only thing in the town that was open and at that point we were about to give up. Although we had been after traditional french cuisine, it was actually quite nice and as it was a buffet we had fun trying all sorts of different things, from spring rolls to sushi to strange unpronounceable deserts. 

After our adventurous lunch we explored the town for a whole, first going to an impressive gothic cathedral (I lost count of how many church's we saw this weekend) 

There were some creepy figurines which intrigued me, as well as more beautiful stained glass windows.

We then walked to the second cathedral which was much newer (1800s) but very beautiful.

The monochromatic architecture reminded me somewhat of Siena, but this cathedral I really enjoyed, it was one of my favourites so far.

Quiet and beautiful. 

There were some beautiful very very old houses. 

The highlight of the day for me was this beautiful old house, the plaque below it reads that in the 1400s Jeanne D'arc stayed here.

Although I didn't get a photo of it the town closest to the house (Saint Pierre le Moutier) had a statue in the centre square of Jeanne D'arc victorious and valiant with the french flag flowing out behind her, it is in thanks for her freeing the town from the English. Awesome stuff.