Snails. Everywhere!

So I have arrived at the chateau, settled in and put in a few days worth of work.  Let's be clear on this, this is not a vacation, I am working.  It's a nice little deal, the volunteers, of which there are six of us at the moment all work about 5 hours a day, Monday through Friday.  In exchange we get a place to stay and three meals a day. On the weekends there are French and business lessons taught here. 

On the grounds there is the chateau, a moat, a well, a pool, a garden, two pigs, three cats (and a bunch of less than week old kittens, fun :), greenhouse, barn, chicken coop, 3 chickens (soon to be many more, Chris and Rachel are picking them up as this is being written)



The typical weekday goes like this.


8:00am-9:00am
Wake up and grab a quick breakfast, and get ready for the day.

9:00am-Noon
Work.  The work consists of whatever needs to be done.  So far I have weedwacked a whole overgrown area, filled in an useless ditch, and cleared out a room filled with about four tons worth of stones, then got rid of a 4 inch layer of dirt on the floor.  Lots of heavy lifting, which is quite different than being a server or bartender where the heaviest lifting done might be a rack of glasses.  Needless to say after the past few days, I am sore as hell, but that only means I am getting stronger.

Noon-1pm
Lunch! All work stops and we eat a prepared meal.  I'm learning not to be a picky eater here, usually I don't eat ham or pork, but after all that work I don't care.  I still won't touch mayonnaise though, seriously that stuff is revolting.  How does everyone love it? I guess it's one of those mysteries of life that will never be solved, like the JFK assassination or Bigfoot.



1pm - 3pm
Continue work.  Work at this time is a little tougher, after the hour long siesta, but it always seems to go by quickly.  Two hours is nothing.

3pm-Rest of the day.
Relax.  Take a shower. Read. Nap. Write. Internet.  Explore.  Whatever tickles your fancy, this is the time we relax and hangout and enjoy the French countryside.  The rest of the day after work is for nothing.

We only work five hours a day, it goes by rather quickly (unless you are moving 12 different 500 pound stones.  That just draaaaags on).


I am scheduled to be out here a month, I don't know exactly how long, could be longer.  I'll know in a few weeks.  I mean I am working hard, but it is on a freaking castle in the middle of the middle of nowhere France.  Much better than a 9-5 in my opinion.

This is just a quick overview of the basics here.  It's lots of fun so far, even though the work is tough.  Everyone is really nice and laid back, after all, we are living and working in rural France, the pace of life here is a tad bit slower than in the rest of the world. :)