Wwoofing...An amazing experience!

    The past month spent Wwoofing in the Pyrenees was one of the most amazing months I can remember. It surpassed all of my expectations that I had for the program and gave me memories I will never forget. If you are not familiar with Wwoofing, it's a worldwide organization that allows people to work on organic farms in exchange for food and lodging. There are many countries involved in the program with a large array of opportunities from goat farms to sustainable construction projects. After signing up, I searched for "pain" and "boulangeries" and I was so pleased to see pages of boulangerie opportunities! As I have mentioned before, as a pastry chef from Canada I came to France this year to work in boulangeries and gain some valuable European experience so you could imagine how excited I was after reading this. Immediately I applied to several different hosts and within a week I had four locations finalized which would take us from the beginning of September to the end of December (with several days in between for travel between hosts). The first and third hosts were a mix of bread baking and farm work as well as some eco-construction projects (I thought my fiance would enjoy this) and the second and fourth hosts were strictly boulangeries baking bread and pastries every day!
    The first Wwoofing location brought us to the beautiful Pyrenees in the South-West of France along the border of Spain. I cant even explain how nervous we were when we arrived in Lourdes that afternoon to be picked up from complete strangers. We were pacing the train station and wondering who these people were...we scanned each person that came in wondering if it was them. Would they be nice to us? Would they feed us enough food? Where were we exactly going? These were all questions going through our mind at the time in our state of nervousness and excitement. Eventually two women walked in and seemed to be searching the crowd like us...I smiled...they smiled...then eventually they made their way over to us and asked us if we were the Canadian Wwoofers? We laughed and said 'that would be us!'
    We piled into their tiny Audi A3 with our backpacks squished on our laps peering out the window curiously as we drove half hour out of town through twists and turns, hills and tiny villages. The mountains were absolutely breathtaking! The bright green hillsides reaching up into the sky's dotted with sheep looked better than any picture I'd seen. I felt like I was going into a different world...it's very hard to explain but it's that feeling you get when you are somewhere so beautiful you feel like it cant be real.

Eventually we stopped in a small pullout by a river and were warned we had a hike ahead of us to the house. Luckily we had been doing so much walking in the last two months we were in pretty good shape, so we loaded our bags on our backs and trecked up the mountain.

   Gasping for air, we arrived at their home and were shown our flat for the month. A cute little loft built in an old barn separate from the main house. The flat was perfect, with a bed, sink and shelves to store our clothing. The craftsmanship inside the loft was amazing with hand-cut timbers to fit the exact shape of the old barn. The main house was built from a barn as well with stone walls and slate roof tiles.

The inside was amazing...it felt like a tree house for adults. There were wooden paths criss-crossing overhead leading to open rooms. The kitchen was filled with glass jars of herbs and teas and the there was even a bread oven in the corner. A large wooden table filled the dining room area with baskets overhead full of fresh vegetables, herbs and plants. There were multiple cooking areas in a nook beside the bread oven where small fires could be made and cooked over. The house was so inviting and felt so...french.

   After visiting with Marie and Fanny (our hosts) we were instantly relieved of any prior nerves as they were so kind and inviting. They spoke both French and English and were excited to help us with our French. Their homestead was not only amazing because it was beautiful, but also because it was nearly completely self-sustainable! They had solar panels for electricity (and were very conscious not to abuse the power), plant filtration systems, spring water, compost toilets and used everything available to them including plants and mushrooms.It was such a fascinating lifestyle to be part of for a month that changed both my fiance and I for the better. It made us more conscious of consumption when it comes to power, water,meat and pretty much all aspects of life. They showed us that living positively both ecologically and for your health doesn't take away your quality of life...it only improves it!
    We did so many different tasks over the month ranging from firewood, cutting the fields naturally with Scythe, plowing the potatoes with the donkeys and baking bread. I had so much fun working with the donkeys, Afghan and Cotton (pronounced koo-ton). They were amusing animals with so much character and unforgettable donkey calls. I definitely understand now why the expression, "Stubborn as a donkey" is used!

 The best part was eating the fresh potatoes that same evening after seeing them be collected from the rich soil. Our first French phrases leaned there was the donkey language as they called it: Aller Aller!-Go Go! and Va-zee (not sure exactly how to spell it still!) meaning 'You go first'. At one point there was a neighbour pushing the plow with his baby strapped to his back loving the whole extravaganza!
    Another very interesting activity I was excited to participate in was bee-keeping! It was so exciting to see how the honey is retrieved from the beehive then extracted from the honeycombs. The whole process was very lively (as you could imagine) and somehow I managed not to get stung...I can't say the same for poor Marie though who got stung MANY times. When I asked later in the evening if she was ok, she just laughed and told me that's part of it. The honey was delicious as well...especially since they are not fed any sugar, just strictly wildflowers naturally.

 Baking bread was wonderful with Marie. She made her bread traditionally, all by hand without using any machines.

 

The bread was made with a natural levain (natural yeast) and baked in a large bread oven. The bread baking was done at a different house located actually in the small village of Gazost where there was more space to do the weekly 25KG amounts. Marie was so knowledgeable and helped me learn so much, one week I even got to make the Brioche dough. Watching how to prepare the bread oven was fascinating, as it was a long 5 hour process to get the oven to the correct temperature with many specific steps in between. She had to move the fire in stages until the ceiling bricks were white, remove the hot coals completely and even wash the oven's floor quickly.

 The skills required to make the traditional bread was so impressive and I am so lucky to have been able to watch and take notes and videos. It was exactly what I came to France to learn.

    Aside from our daily work, Marie and Fanny were kind enough to recommend weekend activities for us to do. One weekend we went on a three hour hike up a surrounding mountain where we spent the night in an old Shepard's house that was 300 years old!

That evening we lit a small fire inside the house and huddled over our Pate,wine and cheese as a storm rumbled above. It was so cozy inside the stone walls and exciting to be on the top of a mountain far from anyone!

The only things around us were the horses and sheep grazing on the mountain sides with their bells ringing lightly. It was such a fantastic experience!
    Another weekend they invited us to come along with them to the seaside for the weekend to a small town called Vieux-Boucau. I was so pleased that they liked us enough to invite us with them on one of their own weekend activities. They brought us to a campground in town (after loaning us their tent and sleeping bags) along with a bag loaded with food for the weekend! The campground was wonderful as it was located at the sand dunes and the entire campground was sand.

 We could also walk easily to the village center for ice cream and to the beach to play in the enormous waves. It was such a change from the crisp air of the mountains! That was one of my favourite parts of the Wwoofing experience...being able to go where the locals love to go in their free time, otherwise we would of never even known about this beautiful weekend escape.

    Our last couple days in Gazost were sad for me as I was beginning to get used to the daily life up in the mountains. We had started to get to know the people in Gazost, and it always brought a smile to my face when we waved and said bonjour to a familiar person. Marie and Fanny held a community dinner the second to last night, where neighbours were encouraged to bring food to cook in the bread oven. People brought home-made quiche, clafouti, braised chicken and olives and of course everyone brought a bottle or two of wine. I have to say I have never eaten a more perfect quiche in my life! The crust was to die for! Perfectly layered and incredibly flavourful and if I would of known more French I would of been asking what her secret was. Another man brought in a large cake in the shape of a tube. Fanny told us that he had made this cake in his basement for the party, a Gateau de la Broche. It's a very interesting cake that is a specialty of the region made by slowly pouring batter onto a spit, layer by layer. The cake is a very respected cake, and takes nearly 5 hours to complete....and it was worth every minute! I think the Gateau de la Broche moves up the list of my favourite pastries in France.
    Our time spent in the Pyrenees will never be forgotten and has gotten me even more excited for the Wwoofing to come. I am so proud of my fiance and I for getting past that comfort barrier and just putting ourselves out there. We were very nervous at first to live and work with complete strangers, but by the end we loved it so much and were looking forward to meeting new people every day. That small amount of time changed us dramatically. I think we left feeling more conscious of the world, our food and our actions. We learned so much french while staying in Gazost and now feel more confident speaking to others. The Pyrenees were truly magical and I am so happy to of had the opportunity to live and work there for a month. Merci beaucoup Marie et Fannie!