Aventure française de Darcie: Vines, Cows, and Tea

Second week of work went like this: wake up at 5:45 every morning. Work 6-8. Break at 8 for breakfast and coffee… must drink coffee. Back to work until 1. Lunch from 1:30-2:30. Nap from 2:30-4:30.

After that it varied a little. Some days I would spend a few hours labeling and boxing wine, some days I would be free the rest of the day until dinner at 9:30. On free days, you can find me reading by the pool or sleeping by the pool. On Tuesday, Louisa and I were both free so we hopped in her car and went exploring for a place by the river to relax and swim. We found a pretty good one after a bit of searching. On Wednesday night I went with Pierre to eat dinner with some of his friends at a little river side restaurant in town. The food was good and the company was really fun even when they all spoke to each other mostly in French… I sit there and search for words I know and just make up a conversation they may be having in my head. I laugh when they laugh and sometimes I am lucky and the person next to me with quickly translate and fill me in. It's entertaining and also very humbling. Also this week, two baby cows were born in the property which was pretty cool! I watched one try and learn to walk. Another upside to work is that I have begun to listen to audio books while working the vines which makes the whole job so much better and actually gets me excited to go to work because that means the story continues! The work I am doing is very mindless and repetitive so it is perfect for getting lost in a book.

So that was my week… but now lets flash back to the weekend before! I spent that Friday afternoon helping Wilfred to set up his stand for the Saturday market in St. Foy. And then on Saturday, Louisa and I adventured out to the market in search of tomatoes and herbs for Jackie. Once we found what was requested, we spent some time walking around enjoying the market before finding some yummy Asian street food for lunch which we consumed while sitting on a doorstep with a view of a picturesque small French town street. On Sunday, my host mom had a big High Tea event in her tea room so I was recruited to help out with that. Louisa and I spent the day setting up and then serving the guests when they came. It was lovely. The tea room here is adorable and I could spend hours in there enjoying the décor, tea, and Jackie's amazing cakes and scones (her Chocolate Guinness Cake is to die for!) I also decided to attend the church service with Wilfred on Sunday morning. It was Protestant but I thought it was better than nothing and was very excited to see what their services were like and learn something new! It was all in French and mostly solely focused on the readings from the Bible. I didn’t understand much language wise, but I could still feel and understand God's presence. I also stuck out like a sore thumb but the other parishioners were so excited to meet me and all said hello! I got to practice some of my awful French but it was fun and they were all very sweet. It was a good weekend of catching up on some sleep and also enjoying the property and family here.