Tuesday 24th
We finally got into work today with Day One of the working week for the volunteers. We all scattered in different directions to do our allotted jobs:I got down to emails and the blog; Susan wrote an article on the excursion that the others took to see the replica ship, L’hermione; Dan made and installed a handrail for Gite 4 and learned some carpentry skills; Courtney, our trusty painter, was hard at work, as usual, painting in Gite 4; and Cullen was being Mum by cooking and cleaning for us all. Paul’s day was spent building walls in the old house (and organising and overseeing the whole process, of course). Every now and then we tried to communicate in French to keep the rust off our brains, but we always ended up reverting back to Franglais.
Our next volunteer arrived just in time for lunch. Brianna is from California, USA and will be doing general bits and bobs during her three weeks here. She has just recently finished a semester of study in Florence, Italy and is eager to practice her “Franglaitalian” with us all.
After dinner the entire group went for a lovely walk with Sydney, our new best friend, down to the lake restaurant, Quai Sud, to have a desert. Much to our disappointment, we found it was closed, but we quickly diverted to the Village and found ourselves in ‘St Bernard’. They were very quiet indeed and glad of our company. Most of us got strawberries and cream and Sydney, the dog, got lots of cuddles and biscuits from Magaleine, the wonderful young woman who works there. Magaleine helped us to practice our French with her and each other, as she does every time we see her. It was a lovely evening full of exercise and followed by a nice walk home in the quiet evening darkness.
