Written Saturday July 4th. Not posted until today because of internet issues…go figure.
At this moment in time, as I sit at 11 Rue Leon Lepage in Brussels listening to cars drive by on the street below surrounded by filmmaker paraphernalia, I have to say for the first time in a long time I am completely at ease and content. As you can gather, I made it to Brussels and before I tell you all about the two weeks I spent in France let me just say that I am incredibly blessed to have this great apartment to rent while I am here. Not only is the apartment fantastic, but the friends of the owner that live upstairs have been wonderful. To begin, the women met me at the Metro station so I didn’t have to try and find the actual building by myself. Then we went on a walking tour in the afternoon, and last night we went to the Brussels Film Festival. The movie showing was a Swedish film “Together” with French and Dutch subtitles. I was so excited because I could actually follow the French subtitles. It was definitely not a Hollywood style movie. Believe it or not, the movie started at 10:30pm and with the after party socializing we didn’t leave until 2:30am! What a way to be introduced to Brussels. It was really a good time and since I had no reason to get up early this morning, slept in until 11 ;)
So, back to the point of this post… The Bed and Breakfast called La Merveille situated in the lovely, very small village (15 houses) of Le Luot. Getting off the train to meet my host I was naturally a bit nervous. There is always that shadow of doubt that you’ve made a bad choice. My take on this feeling is that it’s actually a good thing; it keeps you on guard. In any case, as promised my host (whom we’ll call Ray) and his dog were at the platform to meet me. My first impression was a good one. No alarm bells ringing except that his car was quite dirty with dog hair all over the place. Thankfully he had a bed sheet to put over the seat and assured me that his regular partner never sits in the car without covering the seat. So he knew it wasn’t a normal state for a car to be in.
As we arrived at La Merveille I was relieved to see that it was just as it looked on the website. No Tom Foolery on the location. I casually asked about how many guests there were at present and I was, not going to lie, a little unsettled when he said that the guests from the night before left this morning and there were no guests at the moment. I wasn’t super keen on that fact, but I still felt okay with the situation. He gave me a tour of the yard, the house and my room which was on the 3rd floor. It was actually like this huge family suite with several rooms. I thought I was going have a Cinderella type of lodging, but I was given one of the nicest rooms in the whole place! I was also happy that it was on the third floor. I could have been being a bit paranoid, but the space was nice, as was the locking door. In the end, there was absolutely nothing to be concerned about. I was left in complete peace when I was upstairs in my room. After the first day that he showed me the room, Ray never came back upstairs. It was nice to feel like I had my own part of the house. That first night we ate dinner and went over some jobs that he was looking to have done and discussed what I thought would be some good projects. I was exhausted from traveling so I turned in early. The funny thing is that given the latitude, it doesn’t get dark until between 10:45 and 11:00pm. I eventually got used to it, but man is it weird when its 10pm and it looks like 7pm outside.
I’m obviously not going to go through each day with such detail. Honestly there are only one or two important things that happened each day and the rest of the time I was having a wonderful time relaxing. Some of the jobs I tackled included weeding the front area of the house. The weeds and brambles had over taken the sign and just looked unkept. After about 2 hours and numerous scratches all over my arms and legs I was proud to show Ray how nice the front of the house looked. He was really impressed! The grass had been cut the day I arrived, but none of the edges had been weed whipped. I asked Ray if he had a weed whipper and to my surprise he did, but in England they call them “strimmers” so it took a little bit of description to come to an agreement about whether he had one of not. How does one have a weed whipper/strimmer/whatever you want to call it and not know it or never have used it? That is a great question. During my time there I realized Ray is a self-proclaimed disaster when it comes to completing any sort of practical task around the house. This is pretty surprising when you consider that he makes his living my running a Bed & Breakfast. Case in point, the first night I was there he was watering the flowers and comes running into the house all frazzled to turn off the water main because when he turned on the hose he loosened the top of the faucet and there was a spray of water shooting 10 feet into the air. Oh, it was funny. Thankfully for him though, I am very good when it comes to practical tasks and in another hour I had all the weeds trimmed and the place was looking very spiffy. Funny episodes were a common occurrence and usually included me kindly asking Ray about something he was doing incorrectly and him replying, “I probably shouldn’t have done that, right?” “Right…”
Other things I did were to weed the stone patio area, clean a couple of bathrooms, and make up beds for guests (in anticipation of their arrival). We were supposed to get a couple staying with us on Tuesday night, but they didn’t show up. I was pretty surprised and a bit frustrated. I knew it was a Bed & Breakfast, but where were all the people?! Turns out the really busy time started the week I left. Figures. The nice thing was I was able to help with some jobs we wouldn’t have had time to complete if there were a lot of guests. Side Note: Unlike American style bedding where you have a mattress sheet, top sheet and a comforter, in Europe they have the mattress sheet and a duvet with a duvet cover. After each guest you take off sheet and the duvet cover and wash it. It makes a lot of sense actually. When I was in London several years ago, that it how the bedding was. It took a while to get used to it, but in the end I kind of like it now. It makes things simpler. It’s also how the bedding is here in Brussels. By the way, I could have stayed at the University where my classes are being held. But that would have been a dorm room with a shared kitchen and bathroom and no where near the city center. For the same amount I would have paid for those accommodations, I have a whole apartment to myself! I will have to commute to the classes, but I figured better that way than having to commute into the city for fun. If that was the case I doubt I have spent much time in the center.
In addition to random outside jobs also including buying poisonous gas to put down mole hills (the lawn was experiencing a pretty severe mole problem), buying and planting more flowers, I also was in charge of preparing dinners. I will repeat again, I am not cut out for cooking. It’s not that I don’t try, I do. And thankfully Ray would eat just about anything, but I can tell the difference between food that is really good and food that is only mediocre. My food is mediocre. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up, just that I recognize this is continually an area I can improve upon. The nice thing was I did get to experiment a little bit. Ray really liked eating meat. I didn’t really have much experience cooking different meats, so I went online and learned about it. We would go out to the store and I would pick out whatever we needed for the next couple of days food wise and Ray would pay for it. That’s part of the deal; a few hours of work in exchange for room and board. It was nice that I was able to determine what the board would look like. I was able to pick out healthy foods and put together some well balanced meals. I have to hand it my mother and all the other fine women and men out there who prepare meals every night. It gets tiring trying to figure out what to eat. It’s easy to fall into a pattern of always having the same thing…
One perk was I was able to run a lot while I was there. The roads were pretty narrow, but also had very little traffic. During several runs I think I was passed by more farm equipment than actual cars. I have to admit, I have developed quite an infatuation with European cars. They are really stylish and small. In America, cars are huge, but here they are compact and zippy. Ray had a manual car which I never asked to try and drive, but kind of wanted to just to try out my new skills and because the car was from Britain and had the wheel on the right side instead of the left. I couldn’t believe you can drive British cars outside of Britain legally, but I guess you can. It was licensed and everything. So you’re driving on the right hand side of the road with the wheel on the right as well. I can imagine it’s a pretty bad angle and not the best plan ever invented. In any case, my running adventures were some of the best times I had. The first day I went out I came across a very old man standing at a rather deserted cross-roads. He looked like he wanted to talk so I clicked off my ipod and went over to say hello. He was nice old man and while I couldn’t understand everything he said I did learn that he was 92 years old! At first I thought my French was failing me, but no. 92. Wow. If I look like that when I’m 92, I’ll be very happy. He seemed to be moving about just fine! That sort of encounter was exactly they type of thing I was hoping for!
Another time I was out running and passed the same farmer driving his equipment around several times. Each time he turned around waving wildly and giving me a thumbs up. I doubt the see many regular runners around their parts. Last Monday, I went out even though it looked like it might rain. 10 minutes into the run, the rain was holding out but, there is a dog that is running right towards me. I started thinking to myself that this would be the end and was happy I had gotten my rabies shots before I went to Africa. At least if he took a bite out of me I would be in okay shape as far as not becoming rabid goes. In any case, I yell at the dog as he is about 20 feet away, no change, still full speed at me. Then wouldn’t you know, the dog keeps running. Took no notice of me whatsoever! It was like he was out for his own little run and couldn’t be bothered. It was strangest thing I had ever seen when it comes to dogs and running. Later in that same run, the threatening skies opened up and poured for a 20 minutes. I figured a little water can’t hurt ya and kept on with my planned route. The rain was really very refreshing. I just wish I hadn’t had such a big t-shirt on. It became very heavy with water. As the rain slowed the clouds parted and sun started shining. I knew there had to be a rainbow somewhere. My ipod starts playing the song “How Great is Our God” and wham, to my left is a full out beautiful rainbow. It was exhilarating to say the least. It felt like life was the way it was supposed to be all of the sudden. What a feeling to have. A real sense of peace and blessing washed over me and I was full of praise for this crazy life. That moment was definitely a highlight of Normandy for me.
With very few guests I was able to do some sightseeing which was wonderful. On Wednesday Ray drove me over to see the coast for the first time. It was pretty spectacular. I never got to see the actual D-Day beaches because those are about and hour and half away, but what I did see was amazing. The big town closest to Le Luot is Avranches. Avranches is right on a bay that experiences some of the greatest tides in the world, differences of 45 feet. This means at low tide the sea practically disappears. It goes out for miles and miles. The first time I saw it it was low tide. After seeing the coast we went to a place called St. Hillaire de Harcourt to meet a couple that is good friends with Ray. They stayed at La Merveille when they were house hunting in Normandy. They were Scottish and wonderful people to be around. Completely the opposite of Ray, the man was very good at Do-It-Yourself type work. He was renovating the house they are currently living in. It is also a Bed & Breakfast, but hasn’t been around as long and is a bit more out of the way to get to. In any case, we all went out to dinner and had a very nice time. The Scottish couple actually were the first people to have a HelpX person come and stay with them. They had another American girl come and she was fantastic. Because of their great success Ray decided to try HelpX as well. I’m really glad that chain of events happened as it did or I wouldn’t have had this awesome experience.
Another place I got to visit in the down time was Mont St. Michel. St. Michel is a basically a little mountain island that sticks right up in the middle of the bay. An abbey was constructed at the top a very very long time ago and today it is a favorite spot to visit. I was able to go last Monday. We got there early to beat the crowds which where sure to arrive. I took one of the first tours of the abbey. I was going to take the French tour, but there were like 40 people. So I waited for the English tour which had only 6 other people. It was a great tour. The guide was really funny and told interesting stories and not just boring facts about the building. I learned that the word Bar-B-Que comes from French in that they used to roast whole animals on a spit and the spear went from the “barbe” (beard/mouth) to the tail “queue”. Said fast “de barbe au queue” kind of sound like BBQ. This is probably just a tale he tells to entertain tourists, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining. Let’s see. On Saturday I was dropped off in Avraches for awhile to sight see and take pictures. The same was repeated on Sunday, but I was instead dropped off at Villedieu. Pictures from both places are posted next :) The things I liked the most about Avranches were the Botanical gardens, and very old castle ramparts. In Villedieu, there wasn’t much to see, just a lot of copper shops. Funny enough, I asked the lady if all the copper items were made in the town and she said no! Oye!
My final tourist adventure was to Granville. Granville is also along the coast and it a picturesque coast town. I had done some research and found a center for sailing and nautical sports. They also rented windsurfs. Since there wasn’t too much to see in the town I went to the office and made arrangements to rent a board and sail at 2pm. I don’t know why she told me 2pm because that was seriously when there was a group of about 150 little French children all having a sailing class! First off, I’m not super good at windsurfing yet. Second, I was all by myself. And third, I wasn’t super confident about the wind and having about 30 little sail boats all around isn’t the easiest thing to navigate. However, I sucked it all up and had a really fun time. By the end of the hour I was feeling more comfortable again. I determined to ignore all the children’s calls to me and went about navigating to and fro in the little bay. Turns out though, that the time I was going to be finished also coincided with when the class was over and there was a huge traffic jam at the dock. Instead, I just sailed my board onto the shore and the guy who helped me get all set up came to take my sail and I carried the board. It was a much farther walk, but if I would have waited for all the boats to go in I would have missed my train back! I was super excited to be able to break out the windsurfing skills I learned at Stanford this past Spring. I just need to keep practicing to get really good, but I may have found my new water sport ;)
With all this activity did I ever get to help with any guests? Yes! In total we had 14 guests while I was there. The first group was a family of Americans. Can I tell you I was cracking up when they rolled up in matching European rental cars, all got out decked in North Face attire carrying all North Face luggage. Oh materialism. North Face is a really expensive outdoor brand and I was amazed and a little disgusted by this showing of wealth. In my head I nicknamed them the Little North Face family… turns out, they were from California. For some reason, I am NOT surprised. They were really nice people and they could have all been decked out in Prada, I was just happy to finally have guests and be put to work. I liked feeling like I was earning my keep :) I helped cook and serve for the Bar-B-Que in the evening. In the mornings we provide a lovely French style breakfast. I helped lay the tables, cut up the bread, and arrange the pastries. Upon reflection, I’m not sure I want to go through with the whole waitress thing when I get back to Stanford. Maybe I just need a little more training, but I don’t know if it’ll be all the fun. I would like to work at a florist shop. How about that? Eh, maybe not. I think the draw of the waitress thing was that it would be in the evenings. The daytime floral gig might not fit into my schedule… But I digress. We also had a Swedish/Italian couple stay as well as a group of three Englanders two of whom were currently living in Hong Kong?!@ And finally a Swedish family that we cooked for on Thursday night. My other contribution to Le Merveille was taking some stunning photos of the room and the house to use to update their website. I think they turned out really well.
All in all I would say my B&B experience was a great success. I was a little frustrated that I wasn’t able to speak more French, Ray didn’t speak French like at all… I did take a phone call in French for him and talked with a French guy who helped out around the house occasionally. I went to church on Sunday which was all in French :) It was something about a blessed bread service and they passed out whole chunks of bread to eat. It was great. It was like a snack in church, and no, it wasn’t communion because they did that too. It was something else entirely. The church community is very small, very few people in that region are religious and the service rotates between churches on a weekly basis. How wonderful that the week I was there the service was at the church across the road! I think my favorite part was singing the songs in French :)
I will end this post with three short stories on my travels from Le Luot to Brussels. 1. I lost my very special water bottle when I moved seats on the first train. I was devastated. Seriously. I love my blue camelback water bottle. It was like a security blanket and a life source. I had lost it several times before but it always came back to me. However, as I sat on the train with no water bottle in sight I was certain it was gone forever. For the two hour remainder of the time, my sadness did not diminish and as I got off the train in Paris I couldn’t help but look just one last time. I looked all around my first seat, but nothing. Then, as luck and fate, and divine intervention would have it, I looked up into the luggage rack and Voila! There it was!!! Oh I was so so so happy. You don’t know how much something means to you until you lose it and its not often that you get it back to appreciate it again.
2. At the station in Paris I had to buy a metro ticket. The lines at the machines were really long and after waiting in one and then having my card fail I was at a loss. I had already lost 15 minutes and needed to get to the other train station to catch my train to Brussels. There were all these guys walking around trying to sell you metro tickets and they seemed pretty shady. At first I was like, no way. But after my failed attempt to purchase them with the machine I saw them as my next best option. I asked the guy if it worked and he assured me it did. Not wanting to be ripped off and more just needing to get through the turnstile, I made the guy walk over with me and make sure I could get through. All’s well that ends well. It wasn’t my first choice, but it was what I had to do.
3. Once at the Gare de Nord I had to retrieve the ticket I purchased online. Normally you can do this at the little yellow machines, but again my card failed. I hate that not all machines recognize American credit cards. Our cards don’t have a special chip in them so the machine rejects them… Anyway, I had to wait in a really long line that was not moving. I still had 45 minutes before my train left, but with 10 minutes to go I realized I wasn’t going to get to a window in time. The lady in line behind me offered to hold my bags and I frantically tried to get someone, anyone’s attention. The whole ordeal was super stressful. I couldn’t miss my train because someone was waiting to meet me and I had no way to get in touch with her to say I wouldn’t be there. The timing worked that one ticket window opened and I ignored everyone else to make the man give me my ticket! I have less than 10 minutes! I had already paid for it! I just needed it printed on a boarding pass for the train. Oh I was SO MAD! People take 10 minutes at these windows deciding which train to take and how much to pay, etc. and my transaction took all of 90 seconds. The man passed my ticket under the little window and I grabbed my bags and rushed to the platform. I showed my pass to the security people and had to walk to the end of the platform to get to my car. Once on the train with bags safely stowed I sat down took a deep breathe and the train started to roll out of the station. If I had waited any longer to make a fuss I would have missed my train. If I had not bought my Metro pass from the shady guy I wouldn’t have made my train. So many close calls, but by God’s grace I was on the train and headed for Brussels.
Hope this was as entertaining to read as it was to write. I promise to write more frequently so you don’t have these monster posts all the time. As a treat for making it this far let me entertain you with the anecdote that my HelpX host had an incredible toupee. Exact same side part just in a slightly different place each day. And, the dog, which was scratching itself all the time… turns out it had fleas. Awesome. Not.
Roughly translates. "We're not serving breakfasts on credit anymore because people can't remember what they ate." Ever heard of a tab?
I looked at this sign for several minutes before figuring out that the "R" and "H" are switched. I mean maybe they're not and the guy was really named CRHISTIAN. I doubt it. I would also say writing something incorrectly in iron is about as bad as writing it in stone. There is no going back.
Roughly translates. "I have my first cell phone!" This kid looks like 5. Why does he need a cell phone?! Where will he be that he won't be with a trusted adult. I mean, he is adorable and all, but I think someone in their marketing department didn't think this one through.
