Coming into this workaway I had no idea what to expect, but looking back I know without a doubt it was the best workaway I have ever done, and felt far less of a job, and more of a home with chores, surrounded by friends and good food.
The house itself was stunning, a real country villa from the 1700s. There were a number of formal and informal rooms, a study, a hallway that looked like a ballroom and each of the bedrooms had names - for example mine was the Lilac Room (It felt like a game of Cluedo, where any moment someone would jump out and shout 'It was Professor Plum, in the Dining Room, with the candlestick!)
My room itself was lovely too, a double bed (such luxury!!) and even an en-suite bathroom! It was like being in a hotel. The view out my window was nothing to scoff at either.
The house also had a lot of land, including the forest, a small lake, an even smaller pond and a couple of fields as well as a large overgrown garden. The entire property backed onto train tracks, which on paper sounds unpleasant, but the trains were fairly quiet and I quickly found the familiar noise of the train wooshing past rather comforting and familiar. It was especially nice to walk along the path next to the tracks at sunset.
The other two workawayers who were there for most of my stay were both great and I am so glad to have met them. Kate, a friendly English girl who knew far more about DIY than me, and Magali, a quiet boy from the Netherlands whom I became firm friends with after we discovered we read all the same fantasy books and played the same computer games.
The type of work we did varied, but our one big task was to take all the shutters off the windows (and there were a LOT) and sand them back down, fill any holes and then paint them again.
Here you can see the last day of the project (after almost three months of slogging through them) when we are putting them back up (something just as hard as it sounds).
We did other work of course, from pulling up a bathroom floor and re-laying the tiles to completely transforming the garden. I wish I had before and after shots, however you can see the almost finished product here. Imagine two months before an overgrown field (the main stone path existed but was so overgrown it wasn't visible) not only did we weed the entire thing, we also laid paths, cut down dead tree trunks to create the borders and planted and tended all the plants that can be seen below. As someone who is certainly not a gardener, it was satisfying to see it take shape even though I had no prior experience with what we were doing.
I also had the experience of cutting down my first tree (alas with a saw and not in true lumberjack style with an epic axe). Our last task was building a huge compost box and moving the old compost (oh the smell) which was probably the worst task out of everything, however there was the highlight where I poked what I thought was an old soft potato only to realize it was a toad! It seemed un-bothered by my accidental attack and I think out of the two I was more traumatized.
And of course, we certainly had fun too. When I first arrived it was freezing, but it gradually grew warmer and sunnier until we were spending our afternoons lying in the field, soaking up sunshine and watching birds of prey soar above us. I also tried my hand at archery for the first time as Magali had brought his equipment with him. Although I proved to be utterly useless at it, he was a patient teacher and I had a great time trying. I also finally achieved my goal of learning to whistle with my fingers (after many many many countless attempts which ended with me spitting all over my hand and little else) and we even built a tepee!
Our numbers soon swelled as we were joined by the lovely American couple Nick and Laura for two weeks. It was then that our dangerous habit of making cakes was born. With so many people and so many new recipes to try, it got to a point where we were all taking turns making a cake every two days! (And with nine people they went rather quickly too)
From Laura's epic caramel cake to Kate's vegan chocolate ganache cheesecake (pictured above) to the best carrot cake of my life, we tried them all! Cooking was also something popular in this house, the owner Debi was a wonderful cook as well as wine enthusiast which made for an excellent pairing. I tried homemade Cassoulet, Moroccan tagines, Indian curries, Mexican wraps and many many other things. I also tried Artichokes for the first time! I'm still not sure how I feel about them however, as although the flesh was rather nice dipped in salt, oil and vinegar, it was a long and messy business for little to actually eat. And then imagine my surprise when I reached the middle of this strange plant only to be confronted by a strange fluff-ball that made me feel like I had massacred a rabbit's tail! It was a strange vegetable to be sure.
The area around was definitely worth exploring as well, the local village had the ruins of a castle built in the 12th Century and still perched upon a hill. Although little was left of it now, it made the landscape dramatic and also proved to be the perfect spot for a picnic, overlooking the nearby river. Unfortunately I never had the chance to visit (it was by guided tour only) but apparently there were a network of tunnels beneath the castle which could also be explored. We also did a number of day-trips to local areas, but more on that later.
I can happily say that my fondest memories are lying out in the tepee hiding from the sun and surrounded by greenery and serenity.
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