October 2018
Travelling on the cheap, my brother had introduced me to housesitting and we embraced this wholeheartedly.
Our first housesit was looking after two cats in the french countryside, in Tournon-d'Agenais. This was Ben's first experience with cats, and probably didn't leave him with the best impression as we soon learned these were in fact, demonic cats.
Aside from this, the house was quaint, the kitchen small, but we made some excellent red wine tomato lentil stews, and ate our weight in cheese.
Our first housesit was looking after two cats in the french countryside, in Tournon-d'Agenais. This was Ben's first experience with cats, and probably didn't leave him with the best impression as we soon learned these were in fact, demonic cats.
Aside from this, the house was quaint, the kitchen small, but we made some excellent red wine tomato lentil stews, and ate our weight in cheese.
Semi feral, one of the cats especially would attempt to attack the other when she tried to eat, and they had to be separated. Neither of them liked people (aside from their owner, whom they sat by her usual door meowing forlornly for days until they eventually decided she was never coming back and eschewed all people in great depression).
This wouldn't have been too problematic, except we had been told to keep them inside each night, leading to a highly stressful game of tempt the sulky cats in with food and then lock them in for the night, or try calling their name in desperation into the empty night, knowing full well they would rather be friends with each other (hah!) than come when called.
The swimming pool helped, though it was too cold to swim by the time we arrived, it was pretty to look at in the soft autumn sun.
The surrounding countryside however was simply outstanding, and we went for walks pretty much every day, sometimes in the morning when everything was shrouded in mist, other times in the evening, watching the sunset over hay bales, and the chateau over the hill.
The morning mist was my favourite time of day, when buildings and trees loomed out of the grey quite suddenly, and there wasn't a soul around. We wandered through empty orchards and past derelict cottages without seeing a single person.
In saying that however, our neighbours were incredibly friendly. An English couple in one direction about a ten minute walk away, and an Australian couple just down the road, they made us feel incredibly welcome, and both had us over which was more than any other house sit I've experienced!
The elderly English couple had us over for dinner once, leading to us trying courgette soup - strangely one of the nicest things I have ever had.
We were regaled by amusing stories from their youth, having traveled the world to many interesting places. They dropped enough comments for us to realize with dawning fascination that the cheerful, rather forgettable looking husband who had made us such lovely soup was most likely an ex-British spy. So interesting!!!
We managed a couple of day trips in the weeks we stayed, including to the town of Villefranche de Rouergue, which was incredibly special to me, as it had been my first place I workawayed, back at the age of 21 when I had no idea what I was doing at all (really, not much has changed)
We also went to the Chateau de Bonaguil, which has the interesting fact of being one of the very last great fortified castle to be constructed in France.
Originally built in the 13th century, it was not until the 15th century that it was heavily fortified for an attack that never came - and was oddly done at a time when other castles were falling into ruin. Several sources mention the Bérenger de Roquefeuil - the owner in the 15th century chateau who put such fortification innovations in place - as a highly unpleasant man.
However the only details I could find for this were from a questionable website mentioning how he tried to suspend a charter which had allowed the local peasants to not pay duties on small quantities of goods - this failed horribly and he was forced to pay a fine for trying to do so.
In response to this, he apparently sulked and built a big castle. Good a response as any I suppose?
Interesting facts aside, my favourite moment was when Ben had his first snake experience (he jumped about a foot, it was glorious)
Another day trip took us to the Abbaye de Beaulieu which was just gorgeous.
My birthday also came around when we were staying at the housesit, and although it felt strange having no friends or family around, Ben made a brilliant effort with balloons and banners and a delicious home cooked three course lunch in the sunshine (and lots of cheese. He knows the way to a girl's heart). Did I mention the cheese?
And the apple and berry tart with icecream?
