Day 62-70 Our Time At Vallee Magique

I am posting our time at Vallee Magique into one post, because honestly our days were pretty simple for the most part, working etc… so to save some time, and to help catch up…I thought I would post the time there in one big post!

The first 3 days there, I headed to a retreat, and they boys were on there own. It was time for my years old high school and college French to get a workout.  I was headed to a retreat about love with 8 other people…all except 2 were French…and those 2 were Italian

The workshop was interesting….thankfully there was a very kind French lady in attendance who was always willing to translate for me if I needed it…and I needed it a lot!  I do have to say by the end of the 3 days…my French was getting better!  Especially if I knew what the topic was, I could pick up almost all of what was being said!  Hooray!  This is Laure’s passion…helping people by hosting seminars and she is good at it.  The seminar made me step out of my comfort zone in so many ways, it was an experience I will never forget.  What I was touched by was the warmth with which I was welcomed in the group.  The people at the seminar came from a variety of backgrounds, and I really enjoyed having the chance to get to know them all.

While we were attending the seminar, the boys hung out together.  They went to a bike-a-thon in the neighboring village, they hiked, and did some work.  They were in boy heaven.

After the seminar weekend, our WOOFing gig really began.  Russ and Christian spent a majority of the time working in the small village about 20 km away.  Christian and Laure own a 400 year old (give or take) building that they are turning into apartments.  So Russ spent most of his days working on clearing rubble and demolition.  Reid and I spent our time helping Laure out. We cleaned, worked in the garden, helped to organize, worked on some English lessons, etc… Tom was having a birthday the final weekend we stay with the family, so the last several days were spent preparing for the party and then enjoying the party as well.

During our stay, I learned how to cook a lot of delicious food thanks to Laure’s help, I learned about container gardening, how to dry herbs, what different herbs are, we engaged in a lot of lively conversations (Christian has a super dry and hilarious sense of humor that we all enjoyed), we got to hike around the beautiful property, we met interesting people, and Reid got to hang with another child his age.  All in all it was a fantastic experience for all of us!  We learned a lot from our time a Vallee Magique!  We appreciate Laure, Christian, and Tom’s generousity in hosting us! We will never forget the time that we spent in this beautiful place!