A volunteers weekend at La Giraudiere
Chateau de La Rochefoucauld
The winds of change swept across Brossac this week, as five cherished and much-missed La Giraudiere volunteers departed for (generally) less sunny climes. Marcus also left. Ah, humour. In their place were summoned three volunteers of utmost speed, strength and, most importantly, culinary prowess: Ange, Ian and Vitor. Together with Pete, Bridget, Rob, Luke and Dom – and under the ingenious, innovative and deeply inspirational leadership of Sidney, along with his glamorous assistant Paul, we make a pretty good team!
The weekend was a real mixture, with all sorts going on! Pete and Bridget explored the wider region, first visiting the Martyrs’ village of Oradour-sur-Glane, where 642 villagers were murdered on the 10th June 1944, four days after ‘D-Day’. The fact that the occupation of France was nearing its end only adds to the tragedy of the story of this emotive place, which has been preserved intact as a memorial. After leaving Oradour, they also visited the supremely elegant Château de La Rochefoucauld and cultural Limoges, famous for its porcelain – all being within a couple of hours of La Giraudiere! Meanwhile, Luke, an American volunteer aged 20, headed to the coast! Along with a bunch of ever-welcoming Brossacians, he camped overnight on the beach and had a great time whilst improving his proficiency at French.
Back at LG we had a pretty laid-back couple of days, with a BBQ on Saturday night and Sunday’s customary trip to St Bernard’s! Blessed with gobsmackingly beautiful weather, we had a trip into nearby Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, visiting its bizzare yet beautiful monolithic church and – much more importantly – a fantastic ice-cream parlour! My selection was a classic cookies and cream with candyfloss combo, which scored 26/30 on my complex personalised rating system – the best score since last summer! That’s something to put in the diary. Or maybe I need to get out more.
In any case, we had a lovely time, and capped off our long weekend in style with the first floodlit petanque session of the summer on Monday evening – playing until after 11pm! Whilst late-night petanque may sound incongruous to the uninitiated, it’s deadly serious stuff. As Americans, Australians, Brits and Brazilians, we each drew on our nations’ (presumably) long and proud(ish) histories of competitive petanque-ing and, on the whole, came away with reputations intact! Of course, we had to let the locals win a few to do our bit for the ‘Entente Cordiale’!
So, as the working week is underway, we can look back upon a cracking few days of R&R! Next weekend are the Bastille celebrations – so watch this space!
