Sonntag, 17. Juli 2011

Wwoofing in France


...after walking a part of le chemin de saint-jacques de compostelle, I felt like staying in one place for a while. So I decided to try Wwoofing in Provence – mainly to see the Lavender fields in this area, something I have wanted to see for a long time.


For my 1st wwoofing experience I chose a castle, which was located near to Avignon.

The owners are from the Netherlands and they are accepting 4-6 woofers or helpx volunteers at the time. This was a great opportunity for me to spend some time in a beautiful area of France and get to know people from around the world and work with them.

As a woofer you work usually 5 days a week, 5 hours a day and in exchange you receive free food and accommodation. In my case, we volunteers weren’t staying in the castle but in a safari tent – interesting experience :), specially at times when the mistral was playing with the tent and you weren’t sure if you would wake up the next morning and see the sky directly above you…but a great experience nevertheless. 

The safari tent from outside and...

... inside.

surrounding of the castle

My work changed every day: from garden work to helping in the kitchen, painting, restoring furniture and so on. I liked the variety of things which could be done; no day was like the other and we volunteers (from New Zealand, England, USA, China, Germany) had a lot of fun together.

My highlight although was, as mentioned before, to be able to see lavender fields. As I always imagined it, it was an amazing sight and smell.

Finally - me in a lavender field and also...



... sunflower fields everywhere.
After I had finished my woofing experience I travelled to Montpellier (very nice city) and then further to Barcelona. I will spend at least one month in Spain now, travelling from Barcelona to the South and back. As usual I will keep you all up-dated.

Hasta luego, Eylin