France – Kiwis Do Fly

We Put The Turbo Boosters On And Found Our Wings

Published on January 15, 2025January 15, 2025 by kiwisdofly24 Comments

2024 – it’s a wrap!

Recently I made a reel of all our 2024 house-sits, it was awesome, it turned out so well. Trusted House-sitters prompted that reel as a competition and I was hoping we would win a go-pro haha – of course I thought our house-sits and our pets were the BEST, and was very surprised that we did not win the competition.

As I was going through the photos and making that reel, I realised that the house-sits for last year were only a part of what 2024 was for us. Since 2017, (excluding the COVID 1.5 years and 2018 when we tried time back in the real world and worked), House-sitting has been our top focus. We have traveled around the world several times. Like bees, we have moved from flower to flower and from country to country. We always have the next 6 months or more booked up. But last year was different, we tried to slow things down a bit – HA!

The years go by so fast, don’t they? We are already almost half way through January and If I wanted to wrap up last year, then I better get on with it because before we know it we will be half way through July!

So, 2024, what did that look like for us? 12 months from the beginning of December 2023 looked like this:-

Lumin and Rana, Engin Germany, the snow was outstanding!

December we were in Engin, Germany, doing a new (for us)house-sit. We fell in love with 2 beautiful Sight Hounds, were enchanted with the village, especially when it snowed, and made awesome new friends. Then off to Leros, Greece to do a sit we have done before, we feel so at home on Leros. That was house-sits 1 and 2.

A few nights in Athens being tourists then off to Paris. 3 nights in Thure, France, catching up with friends we made while house-sitting there in 2019, then up to The Netherlands. We never visit Europe without a visit to our friends in Holland, we always have the best time, even though it is often years between visits.

Château de La Barbelinière, Thure, France – She still looks stunning through the mid-winter fog (house-sit 2019)

We cannot be in this part of the world without a visit to Belgium – even if it is purely to drink beer! And that is exactly what we did. 3 nights in Brussels, 1^st time visiting this city. Now, across the channel, House-sit 3 and 4 in South England, Weymouth then Shoreham-by-Sea. Some more new pets to get to know and love, and awesome homeowners/new friends.

We want to head over to Puerto Rico, not to house-sit this time but purely to visit all the wonderful people we had met there during the 2 X 6 month sits we have done in the past. So, this time we jump on a ship and sail from Southampton to Miami. 11 days crossing the Atlantic – truly a bucket list item! On arrival we fly straight to Puerto Rico and then on to Vieques. Two weeks was not enough, but we must move on.

By now it is March and our next stop New Zealand. Now this is novel, haven’t had much time here in the last few years. We have a full immersion into our family and friends. It is awesome! Exhausting but fantastic. We make our way up and down and around the country and have a great old time. Chris spends 8 weeks here and I have 6. I opted to head over to Queensland, Australia for 2 weeks to spend a bit of time catching up with friends and family there.

Precious time with the family – all in the same country at once for a change!

It is now May and we each jump back on a plane. Chris flies from Auckland. I fly from Brisbane. We meet in Langkawi, Malaysia. Back to a house-sit we have done before; this is house sit-number 5. From Langkawi it is a quick 3-day visit to Kuala Lumpur to be tourists again. We just love Malaysia, the food, the people the warmth – everything! But now time for Thailand.

We have been to Hua Hin, Thailand several times now. While there, we have made great friends. We have 3 house-sits here over the next 2 months, all through word-of-mouth for friends. Of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to Thailand without a sit for the 44+ dogs and our dear friend Cristina. We are so glad to be able to be there so she can get away for a break. That was house-sits 6, 7 and 8.

August we head to The Sunshine Coast, Australia. Maybe put our feet up for a bit? Fat chance! Chris stays for 4 weeks and heads back to Langkawi to do that sit again that we did in May. House-sit number 9. I chose to sit this one out and stayed put in Australia for about 2½ months. Meanwhile Chris finishes in Langkawi. He heads first to Kuala Lumpur then to Tioman Island, Malaysia to be tourist for a few weeks. He absolutely loves it – though he says it was not the same without me…..

I have 2 weeks in New Zealand again and by late October Chris arrives into New Zealand also. Only for a week though, November we head off to the most remote house-sit we have ever done. Uoleva, Tonga. House sit-number 10. And here we are, halfway through this 4 month sit. Lots of time to reminisce over the past 12 / 13 months. Wow we have been busy! I am feeling exhausted just thinking about it.

What a year!

10 house sits, 63 pets. 13 countries, we won’t count USA, we only transited, 12 international journeys together and 7 separately, that’s average 15½ each.

We travelled between places by ferry 3 times, bus 8 times, train 3 times, were driven by car twice and sailed on a ship once. I can’t remember how many domestic flights we took while in New Zealand. It was more than I can count on two hands!

During this year, we celebrated an awesome milestones. Our daughter Tayla and her partner Jesse got engaged! Huge congratulations to them both, we are so very proud. Such a privilege to have been there to celebrate with them! WOW, It has been quite a year.

So that is a year in the life of the house-sitters. How did we ever have time to work a 9 – 5?

We often get asked how do we do this? How do we step away from the conventional? My answer? what is normal? And often a comment comes back, oh I could never do that! but you know what? you can! All you need to do is put your mind to it and just take that first step. It’s just one foot in front of the other. I say just go for it, go on! give it a chance. Life is too short and you never know what you’re gonna find out there. There are so many wonderful people to meet and sights to see. Give it a go! you might just surprise yourself.

We have each and every one of these stories in detail with loads more cool photos. If you want to see more, check out the rest of our blog……https://kiwisdofly.blog/

Boarding the Ferry in Leros heading to Athens

A big year but nicely balanced, exhausting and exciting all at the same time.

Thank you for reading our story

A Little Bit Of Stress Is Good For You

Published on January 24, 2024 by kiwisdofly2Leave a comment

Greece to Belgium and two countries in between.

We seem to be encountering more mishaps, or stressful moments as we travel these days. I am not sure whether it is all “Post COVID” fallout, or just that we are getting older, but we are finding that travel is not as easy as it used to be. And it is so much more expensive.

We flew from Brisbane to Zurich via Doha with no problems at all. Leaving Germany to get back to Zurich (train ride) was fraught with stress, but we got there on time and made it to our flight to Athens.

To read that story, click here – https://kiwisdofly.blog/2024/01/10/be-careful-what-you-wish-for/

Getting to Leros Island, in the Dodecanese island group, there are 2 options. A 10 hour ferry ride from Piraeus or a flight on a 30 (or so) seater plane 3 or 4 times a week – depending on the weather. We chose the flight and it was perfect, on time, smooth and spectacular views as we flew into Leros. We could recognise the whole island from above and got pretty excited to be coming back.

Our awesome house owner came to pick us up and we fell instantly in-love with the island all over again. We were here at the end of 2019 for 7 weeks doing this same house sit and we loved it. It is so wonderful to see Michael and all the cats again.

Life on the island has not changed a lot. We felt instantly at home and spent many hours walking the tracks and hills, finding new routes and going over old favourites. The scenery is fabulous and the hospitality is still very Greek – ie so welcoming and generous. Chris did a bit of snorkelling and found more WWII relics including a pistol thingie and many bullets.

Sadly all our house sits have to come to an end at some point. The weather had been really nice, around 16-18 degC most day until the last week. The temperature dropped and the wind came up. 5 days out from our departure, we were studying the weather forecast. We had booked the plane to leave on Saturday, the forecast was not looking good. We had 2 nights accomodation in booked in Athens and a flight to Paris booked for Monday.

What are we going to do if the flight is cancelled? Just to put it into perspective, we have been on the island and experienced 4 departures, 2 were cancelled, so that is 50% chance of being cancelled and the weather was not looking good. We found there was a ferry leaving on Thursday night and Sunday night. If out flight was cancelled then we could get the next flight on Tuesday or the ferry on Sunday, but either way we would lose our accommodation and miss the flight to Paris.

Thursday morning we made the decision to leave the island early. We took the overnight ferry on Thursday night and arrived in Athens a day early, but at lease we got there. We had a fabulous extra day in Athens and on Saturday we watched to see if the flight we were supposed to be on went ……..it did not! We made a good call! But how stressful was that for the last few days on Leros?

Athens is a great city, we loved being there and it turned out to be a bonus that we had an extra day. The Parthenon and the Acropolis were breath-taking. The history and ancientness is almost incomprehensible.

Next stop Paris. Then a very easy trip from Charles De Gaulle through the Metro system to meet a BlaBlaCar in the city centre – I think the Arc de Triomphe was right above us! Our driver took us to Chatellerault. Yes! We are going back to the Chateau!

Read our Fairy tail castle story here – https://kiwisdofly.blog/2019/11/15/our-fairy-tale-in-france/

I cant really describe how wonderful it was to be back. We feel very much part of this family after having 3 months here with them in 2019. They have been super busy the last four years and there are many changes and improvements, and the whole estate is looking amazing! We met the current house sitters and had 3 days of wonderful company, food and lots of laughs.

But, again, it is time to move on. Train, Train, bus – all the way to Amsterdam. When we get to Paris we have 90 minutes to get from Montparnasse to Bercy Seine, google says it is a 30 minute journey. Cool, we can make it. Oh no, here comes our friend “travel stress” The train from Chatellerault, on time. Train to from Poitiers to Paris – delayed 45 minutes. Oh crap, we have a good idea how to get from Montparnasse to Bercy, but it will be 11pm and dark. Sitting at the station, tap tap tapping our feet just praying it all works out. The bus from Paris is an overnight bus, leaving at midnight, if we miss this, then what? Tap tap tap….. 45 minutes late becomes 35 minutes late – yes! And once we were on the train, the driver must have put his foot down because we were only 25 minutes late getting in. phew. we did it!

The Metro system in Paris is so easy. The sign posts and information is so clear, we made it to Bercy Sein Bus station in plenty of time.

The bus ride was great, Blablabus this time, really comfortable seats and we both managed to get a bit of sleep.

Our friends were there at 0630 to pick us up and oh what a fabulous weekend we had. There was still some snow in Holland, which made everything look so beautiful. We did some sight-seeing, saw clogs being made, saw loads of windmills – even went inside one! Saw a frozen lake, watched Mama Mia (well the girls did, the boys went to the brewery!) and ate a lot of wonderful food! So the motto of the weekend was “I am so full – or am I just still full” Again, so wonderful to see friends we have not seen in 4 years.

But yes, it is time to move on again! This time down to Brussels to meet the plane to London. Denis drove us all the way from Holland which was over and above, but we appreciated it so much. A rainy day in Brussels, a few beers and of course frits (French fries) and that is it, our 90 days here in Europe is done and dusted.

Fun Fact

French Fries actually originate in Belgium. Yes its a fact! During WWI, American soldiers stationed in Belgium discovered these fried potatos. But because most people in the southern part of Belgium spoke French, they ended up calling these little slices of heaven “French Fries”

Thank you for reading our story!

We are off to Greece!

Published on December 24, 2019 by kiwisdofly22 Comments

We are off to our next house sit location – Island of Leros, Greece. It will be very sad saying goodbye to France and our wonderful hosts Marie-Laure and Arnaud. Our time in France has been an incredible experience, we have been exposed to so many new things and learnt so much, and best of all, made wonderful new friends. We will definitely be back!

So off to Greece! We fly out of Charles De Gaulle so booked a train with enough time for check in etc but the French rail workers have decided to go on strike right at this moment. This strike is looking like it wont be resolved any time soon. The train is too much of a risk so we cancel that and book a private bus. On the day of travel (Wednesday), the strike is still in full force and it is causing havoc on the roads in and around Paris. This was one report …

On the roads in and around the city traffic is likely to be bad again, recent days have seen traffic jams of up to 600 km at rush hour in the greater Paris area.
And anyone driving in France is advised to be aware that blockades are continuing at seven of France’s eight oil depots, meaning that many petrol stations are running dry.
In the air things have improved with fewer cancellations and most services running, however there is likely to be some knock-on effects after 20 percent of services were cancelled on Tuesday. Passengers are advised to check with their airline.
Reported night before travel

This will be an interesting and a bit stressful trip. We have 3.5 hours from arrival on the bus to take off, so even if we get held up for 2 hours we should still have time.

As we travel, we watch the GPS closely and things are going good. We get to 7 km from CDG and have not been held up, so we know that even if the worst happens, we can walk from here and still make the flight! But we didn’t need to worry, we count the kilometres down. We had no hold ups and got to the airport exactly on time! So early in fact, that we couldn’t check in our bags! Oh well, better this than the alternative. What a relief!

Hanging out at Athens airport – all a bit tired!

We get to Athens at midnight and meet up with the two Mexican girls we had met in France. Vale and Laura have been at the airport since 6 this evening. We couldn’t believe it when we met 2 months ago that we would be at Athens airport on the same night, so this meeting was pre-arranged. It was so good to catch up with these two lovely girls!

By about 3am we were feeling exhausted so went to find a place to sleep. Athens airport is not the best for overnighting in. There are almost no seats without arms in the middle. There were plenty of people staying all night though so quite noisy too. We said goodbye to the girls (they were flying back to Mexico at 0600) and found a place a bit out of the way and tried to sleep. By 0500 we gave up and found coffee and a pie! Yes a pie – though be it spinach and cheese rather than mince and cheese – a pie no less, haven’t had one of those for months!

We get to Leros at 11am and were met by Michael, our next house owner. He takes us for a “tiki tour” of the island and introduces us to a few people, a couple of cafes and the laundromat etc. This place looks amazing, I think we are going to like it here! We get home and are introduced to our temporary furry family and our home for the next 6 weeks.

Out for dinner for a typical Greek meal and a trial of the local wine, Retsina, oh yes, this is going to be good! Grab a few groceries and home to bed. Its been a big day!

Big adventures to come as we get out to explore this beautiful island.

Mont Saint-Michel

Published on December 1, 2019April 2, 2022 by kiwisdofly2Leave a comment

0600 the alarm goes off. We are staying at Saint Malo which is 50 minute drive to Mont Saint-Michel. High tide is at 0833 and the advice is to get there 2 hours before high tide so that you can see the tide rushing in. I am so fascinated by the 15 metre tidal range. They say the water comes in at 30km per hour, as fast as a racehorse. We are at the end of the spring tides so we want to go today to see it as high as we can. So we choose the morning tide as, being winter, the afternoon highs are in the dark. We intend to get there about an hour before high tide and see what we can see.

Navigating with Google Maps again, we find our way out of Saint Malo, and get to St Michel about 0730. Oh woops……. Its still dark – like really dark! We came to a barrier arm which needed a code or credit card to go through, its pitch dark and we don’t really know what to do. We reverse back out and find there are many many car parks. Only 2 other cars, not many other silly buggers here in the dark! We didn’t realise that the whole of the town/village was actually out on the “Mount” we really thought there was a village on the mainland before the access to the mount. But NO, there is a hotel and a restaurant and this car park – this HUGE car park, numbered 1 – 14. Google says it is still 3.5 km to our destination of the tourist office. We start walking and can see the majestic Mount lit up in the distance, but we are actually heading the wrong way, we are just heading to the far end of the furthest car park! We re assess and follow some lights to the road and make our way. We do get to the causeway and by now it is getting light, we make it onto the bridge right on high tide, so we don’t get to see the racehorse rushing in. We never would have though as we mis-calculated the darkness.

Yesterday the water was meeting in the middle

She is a beautiful site! We have had rain this morning and it is overcast, hence so dark so late, but still……WOW!! The end of the causeway was closed yesterday so we really are seeing her at her highest. A construction worker shows us the way in up a ramp, as the entrance was blocked by water, this is so cool! Legend says that the archangel Michael appeared to Aubert of Avranches in 708 and instructed him to build a church here. 1300 years ago! Then she was seized by Vikings, then, in the 10^th century, the Benedictine Monks settled here and expanded the church. The English tried to capture her during the 100 years war and the abbey was closed in the 17th century and used as a prison until 1863, she has seen so much! But now she can rest as she has been declared a Historic Monument, since 1874.

We stayed on the Mount for about 2 hours, wandered around all the streets, went up and down many stairs, took many many photos but I feel they do not do her justice! This is a spectacular place and we are so thankful we got here!

We may not have seen the tide racing in, but in the 2 hours we were there we saw the evidence of the tide receding, it is quite a site to see

A Trip to Brittany – or was it Normandy?

Published on December 1, 2019 by kiwisdofly24 Comments

I have just finished a book called “All The Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr. Actually I didn’t read it as such, I had it read to me via Audible. I love reading on my Kindle, which is the perfect thing for traveling as you only take one small device and carry a whole library, but I also love using Audible when you need to be doing other things at the same time. So I have been raking leaves, mowing lawns, cooking etc listening to this wonderful story. It is set in France during WWII, about a blind girl who survives the bombing of her village of Saint Malo. So taken with this book, I wanted to see where Saint Malo was. It is on the coast of Brittany, only 4 hours drive from where we are staying. It is in the same area as another place we were advised to visit if possible, Mont Saint Michel. Great opportunity for an adventure, lets go.

We walked the 3 kms to the walled city from our Hotel. Beautiful walk along the beach just as the sun is starting to go down. The mandatory “beer on the beach” on the way. We are so taken with the huge houses built all along the waterfront. The beach is really deep and there is a wall which must be 3 metres high going up to the footpath. Infront of the wall in one area are tree trunks set in concrete, about the same height as the wall – interesting. So many people are out, its windy and only 9 deg but so gorgeous. Surfers are out, just crazy!

We get to the old town and walk around part of the wall and explored as much as we could as it was dark by now. We will come back tomorrow and find the street which features in my book tomorrow. As we leave the old town we go to walk along the edge of the path but the water is splashing up a bit. Ok cool, don’t want to get wet so we will walk on the other side. As we get further along the waves and splashing up higher and higher. There is quite a crowd forming and the water is washing right across the road, the drains and gutters of the road can only just handle it. We keep walking and it really is getting bigger and bigger, as the wave comes up to the wall, the water flies right up in the air, sometimes up to 10m, it then goes back out and crashes into the next one coming up. Now we understand the reason for all the tree trunks! We meet a lovely Moroccan family twice as we made our way home, stopping to chat and compare our amazement of what we are seeing. There were so many people out, all in awe of the show. The road is getting covered with seaweed! We half expect to see a fish flapping around. We wonder how on earth did they build this wall in the first place with this tidal flow. There is a restaurant which is right on the wall and looking through from the road side we see the water foaming right up the windows! Wow how do they not break! This is quite amazing.

Well, we think our night will not get better than that! But wait – there’s more! We arrive back at our Hotel and they have 1 other couple at the bar so we order a drink. The couple happen to be related to the owner and are there on business for the night. 6 in the bar, 2 owners and 4 guests, and the bar gets closed to public – never been in a “lock-in” before! We have another drink. Then food arrives! Prawns, langoustines, fish, spring rolls, chips, and 6 plates! We are being included in with the family – this is amazing, such wonderful people. It didn’t matter that none of us were truly fluent in each others language, we still had a great laugh and a really fun night. We finally went up to bed thinking – did that really happen?

An interesting fact came out about Saint Malo that night, they have conflict over their province. Some say it is in Brittany and some say it is in Normandy, and some say it is neither, in fact some say it is not even France – it is Saint Malo….full stop. So funny, What a great night!

It was a different sight here last night!

A bit on the slow side the next day but still able to get on bikes and explore. As we head out we check the information sign and while we are figuring out which way to go a lovely old French Monsieur stopped to see if we needed help. No English! He understood we were from Nouvelle Zealnde and when he saw the world cup shirt Chris had on he did an imitation of the haka! This made us all laugh and he seemed delighted! He pointed to the fort as if to say we should go there, up the Avenue John Kennedy. We said we would then we all shook hands and he headed off, but not before saying “vive le Rugby” – long live rugby!! friend for life! We have had some amazing interactions with some beautiful French people!

We found the Fort de la pointe de la Varde, so many remnants of the German defences during the war, it was so much top of my mind from reading my book. The book was so well written, I could picture this place in 1944.

Back into the old town and we found the address from my book – 4 Rue Vauborel! WOW. We walked right round the walls and around the outside. It was low tide now so we walked out to the Grand-Be. We knew That Mont Saint-Michel had a huge tidal range and should have known it would be similar down the coast at Saint Malo. 13.36m here, but unless you see it, it is hard to picture.

When in France……Eat Crepes!!

Alarm is set for 0600 tomorrow – we are off to Mont Saint-Michel in the morning!

A Day in the Dordogne

Published on November 23, 2019November 26, 2019 by kiwisdofly22 Comments

So I am sitting here at the Gare or train station at Lebourne. I am 1.5 hours from home. I have just spent 2 nights with a dear friend Tricia and her husband Berjen, at their “home away from home” in Beaumont de Perigord. It is fascinating being here with lots of people around speaking French, people watching…… but I can’t eavesdrop on any conversations, it’s a true reminder that I am in fact, in France!

Just had a very interesting encounter with a young woman who was sitting beside me at the station, she was talking on her phone. When she hung up she jumped up and down and was clearly excited and started talking to me, telling me her obviously great news and all I could do was smile and say “I am sorry, I don’t speak French”. She didn’t get put off by my non-responsive response and explained some more, so, not to disappoint I said “yaaaa! So cool!!! ” she said “oui” then hugged me! Then offered me a cookie and then Bounced off – quite bizarre, but I feel very honoured to have been part of it! So cute!

Tricia and I, we met through a wonderful mutual friend, Karen, in 1992

The Dordogne is a beautiful area. The afternoon I arrived I went for a walk around the village of Beaumont. I don’t think I will ever tire of these beautiful villages with buildings dating back hundreds of years. The narrow streets and cobblestones, the ornate shutters on every window, the solid wooden doors with iron work or carvings, massive door handles and locks or tiny doors for the smaller people of the time. A lot of the villages in this region are Bastide villages, they all have a covered in central place in the square where villagers meet to socialise, dates back to medieval times 13^th and 14^th century, it’s so lovely.

Such a pretty village, Beaumont du Perigord

The next day Tricia took me for a tour around the area, oh WOW, such a beautiful part of the world. A lot hillier than where we are staying further north. Each village we went to was amazing and had its own special magic.

First was Cadouin. A huge Abbey right in the middle of town. How and why they built the churches and Abbeys this size for the amount of people around is staggering. Impressive door-way, as they often are, sure makes a statement. We went inside and felt the peace. The floor in parts was pushed up as if an earthquake, this building would have seen a thing or two in its 900 years life!!!!!

Next, Le Bugue, great little village on the river Vezere which comes off the Dordogne. There was a market just closing up in the square by the river when we arrived. Fresh fish, veg, cheese, meat, bread – oh boy! The French really know how to do their markets. You could go to a market every day of the week if you travelled just a few kilometres, there is always somewhere having a market – its great! Another really cute place. Tricia said each time we moved to the next one, “oh you will like the next one its beautiful” I was quietly thinking to myself that it doesn’t get any better than this!

Our next place, Les Eyzies, was something else, so different from anything I have seen so far, the terrain and rock formations were indescribable. This was an area of the Troglodyte, the people before people! How amazing is that. In March 1868, a geologist discovered the first five skeletons of Cro-Magnons, the earliest known examples of Homo sapiens. People would build houses into the rocks, and that was their homes. We walked along a small road as far as we could to see the rocks right up close. They are all different colours and completely over hanging the homes beneath, it’s a wonder they never fall down.

And then the jewel in the crown of our day, Beynac, with more of the quaint stone houses, shutters, iron railings, beautiful lamps, but this village is built as if a fortress, extending back and up a slope, up up up she goes to an awesome castle! We find the track and head up on foot. This would have been the main road up to the castle back in the day, narrow, winding and rough cobbles. Many houses on each side of the road, all so cute and very well maintained. Tricia said that these are mostly holiday rentals now days and being the off season would mostly be empty. We certainly felt that we had the place to ourselves! The view from up the top is outstanding. I can see 3 other chateaux, the beautiful Dordogne river winding past, green padlocks and the beautiful church belonging to the Castle. We look inside the castle, wow, you can just imagine the Knights coming in in their armour after battle. The kitchen table had slots at each end for them to put their swords safely into while having a meal, amazing!

Last village for the day, Belves. We have come here to see where Tricia and Berjen used to come for holidays. Another village built onto a hill, so stunning to see, impressive Abbey at one end overlooking and protecting, even if just spiritually, the whole village (see to photo) Signs saying XIc ,11th century throughout the village. I am in awe of the age and the fact that this was right here 100’s of years ago, it never ceases to amaze me! It’s been an incredible day, thank you Tricia!

What a trip, a great catch up with an old friend, as well as the stunning Dordogne! There was so much fun and laughter of old times and new, many bottles of wine and loads of cheese, olives and pizza – yes pizza! The sun came out to show the place off at its best. AND I didn’t miss the train, or even get on the wrong train! Arrrrr, I DO love France!

Our Fairy Tale in France

Published on November 15, 2019April 2, 2022 by kiwisdofly26 Comments

We have been here for about 7 weeks now and we are loving every minute! We will be here for 11 weeks all together. This is a really cool house sit, very different from any we have done before. We are at a Chateau in the Loire valley, outside a small village near Chatellerault. We arrived by fast train, the TGV, it travels at about 300 km/hr, though you would never know when you are on it. We flew from Brazil to Portugal, then to Orly, got a bus into central Paris where we got the train south. It was a pretty long day all up, but worth the effort ––

We are now in Europe!!

The Farm House – its like our own little castle

We were picked up by the previous house sitters, who were leaving the next morning. The property has a main house, a gate house and a farm house, along with many other out buildings, an orangery, barns, workshops, garages, wells and caves. We are staying in the farm house. There was a meal waiting for us of traditional Confit de Canard – OMG SO GOOD!! and a very welcoming bed! Our first mission was to take Greg and Nam to the train station in Poitiers the next morning at 0600, they were heading back to Australia. This was no bother for us as our body clocks were so screwed up, we didn’t really know which was up or which was down. In reality it was a real baptism of fire! Driving on the wrong side of the road, in the dark, no idea north from south, jet lagged! HA! Thank you google maps! We drove back very slowly concentrating so hard on keeping to the correct side of the road. We made it in one piece and as the sun comes up we see the beautiful place we have landed ourselves in. WOW this is like a fairy tale, – it’s a castle! A real castle and so beautiful. The weather is great, blue sky and pleasantly warm. I think we are going to be very happy here.

Our hosts are amazing, we have been welcomed in as part of the family. It is a privilege to be here and we feel so lucky to be able to have this opportunity. We are living in rural France, just like a local and are learning so much of the culture and lifestyle, the language and traditions. It is truly amazing, almost too good to be true! We help out on the estate, gardens, painting, collecting wood etc. It is a huge upkeep for a property this size and we are so glad to be able to help out. Of course there is wine and cheese to try on a fairly regular basis, all educational of course!

We were taken for a day at the local farmers market. A small town about 20kms from here has a huge market on the first Monday of the month. It was so much fun! Our lovely host took us which was great because he was able to explain a lot of things. I don’t think there is very much that you cannot get at this market! From pet rabbits to every variety of eating fowl, snails and eels to cakes and wine to lawn mowers and orchard trees. No beer tent like our markets in NZ – but a wine tent. The old boys there chatting, catching up with the last months gossip over a wee Rosé, this happens from 0630 by the way! The atmosphere is so friendly, everyone happy and glad to see everyone else. Crepes, cheese, garlic, sausages, everything you could imagine, its all here in abundance and so fresh and delicious. We got all sorts of wonderful things, 3 trips back to the car to unload! Then best of all back home to cook and sample our purchases for lunch. Our lunch menu today? Oysters, white wine and 1^st cut of wine (yes it’s a thing, not quite a fruit juice, not quite wine, prob about 3%) Boudin noir (French Black Pudding – soft velvety texture, nothing like our black pudding) with corn, fresh soft goats cheese and to finish, a local delicacy, the Tourteau Fromagé Which is a cake made with cheese and has a blackened top – looks like it has been left in the oven for too long. Delicious! How lucky are we to experience this! We are really pinching ourselves.

The history here is staggering! Coming from New Zealand, we don’t have the everyday appreciation of the history that is here in Europe. When you can walk down a cobble street and know that it was here, in this actual spot, 600 or 800 or more years ago – blows my mind. I always wish we could snap our fingers and be back there then – just to have a look and see what life was really like at that moment. But we have the history books, and we have Google, and we still have the buildings and the cobble streets so we can imagine, we can picture in our minds the life here. The things we see on TV, the movies etc, the things we think are just made up for impact are actually normal life here and we are loving being part of it. Buy a baguette every day – yes its normal! EVERYONE does it, Eat cheese at every meal – yes its normal, Have to navigate narrow country roads with blind corners and only room for 1 vehicle – yes just a normal day! We are not on a movie set, this is real and that is why we love it! These experiences are why we travel.

So, each day when we can, we walk to our local village and buy a baguette traditional. Chat to the lovely ladies at the wee café, sometimes have a coffee, then stroll back. We have a bit of a French lesson while there, it is hilarious, most people here do speak a bit of English and between hand gestures and puzzled looks, we seem to get the point across. We were doing pretty well in Brazil with our Portuguese, but French is eluding us a bit, the Portuguese has confused our mono-lingual brains – but we keep trying! Our fridge always has at least 3 different types of cheese and a typical lunch will be that beautifully fresh baguette, butter and cheese. Sometimes a bit of pate but that’s it. So simple yet so satisfyingly delicious. Our Friend Tricia, who lives in Holland, came to stay for a night and we had this discussion… what is it about France that all you need are the simple things? Is it because those simple things are so good? I don’t know, but it is so true. Evening meals are simple too, no plate filled to the brim of a multitude of flavours, just two things, two perfect things paired together to be amazing. Often there is more than one course though.

So to say we are loving France is somewhat of an understatement! Together with its beautiful countryside, wonderful people and stunning cuisine, we feel like we have died and gone to heaven! We are in a real life fairy tale, truly Amazing!

Lots more adventures in to come!!