My Last Weekend in France!

Although I'm trying to get the most out of my last days here, I am definitely excited to be going back home! Trying to learn and understand French all the time has become pretty stressful. I believe I'm improving, and it's fun acting as an interpreter sometimes, but there are times when I just want to be alone so I don't have to struggle to understand everyone. I can keep to my own English thoughts, or listen to my English songs on my iPod while taking a walk along the scenic roads.

I've started preparing for my departure a bit. I think I've got all my gifts together and accounted for, as well as things I bought just for myself. I've started running a bit more. I haven't been running much because it's so hot here. Since it is so difficult to run during mid-day with the sun so high, the bets time to run is in the evening. We usually work from 5-7:30 or 8pm, so I don't have much energy left to go on a run. I'm squeezing them in just before I go back to work in the evenings and on the weekends, though. I feel like I'm at home again, but with the smell of the Cevennes in the air!

The house is very full at the moment, so finding peace and quiet means leaving to go off the farm usually. There are two more younger girls here from Paris. They come from underpriveleged families who can't afford vacations during the summer months. Chérif, who grew up in the Paris suburbs, belongs to an association who arranges for these children to have vacations on farms during summer. Chérif has taken in two girls this year for 10 days. They are the same age as Inès, Chérif's youngest daughter, so she is very happy. The girls even help out with farm chores, like collecting red currents from the bushes for the market. They are very sweet and enjoy being on the farm. One of the girls is called Amandine, which means "little almond" in French!

Other farm work that they have helped out with is getting fruit from fruit trees on the property. There is a plum tree near a stream where we collected lots of plums. We tried to gather the most yellow and the largest. Chérif also drove us to another tree on the property where there is a very old pear tree. The pears are so small and very green with some red spots meaning that they are ripe. They are super sweet! We all couldn't stop eating them, haha, but since they were for the market, we had to save most of them. When it rains pears on a summer evening, everyone is smiling and happy!

The fruit amazingly didn't sell so well at the market on Saturday. I was shocked! The prices weren't high at all and the fruit is wild. I think that since fruit trees are so abundant in the region, many people already have access to these fruits near their houses. One vendor at the market had fresh figs for the first time this year. Ja-Ja knows that I adore figs, so she bought a little basket of them just for me! I shared of course, but finished them all by the end of the day. What a treat!

The day at the market was pretty normal. There were less tourists, though, it seemed. The green beans, eggs, and tomatoes disappeared. An Italian man bought nearly 10 basil bunches off the table, which is all that we brought. The little eggplants and zucchinis were popular, so I think it must be ratatouille season! Our four potoato varieties sold well. Getting organic potatoes is very important if you want to it the skins. Otherwise, the skin can absorb a lot of pesticides and fertilizers. The same goes for carrots, which are gigantic now! The rhubarb, Swiss chard, and lettuce also sold well.

One night, I got to see plenty of pictures of Algeria and the village of Chérif. It seems so beautiful! There are fig trees all around and monkeys can be spotted swinging around the trees. There are also banana trees and lots of other greenery. The clothes are very colorful and many people still wear traditional robes and pants. I'm glad I got to see another part of the world that I'm really not familiar with. I love the Mediterranean culture and climate! I hope to travel around the sea a lot more!

I don't know if this will be my last blog post while in France. I hope to write another on Wednesday, but I'm not certain if I will be able to do so. I hope that everyone has been able to learn about another part of the world and organic agriculture just as I have. Thanks for reading, learning, and sending back input for me to read. I've had a wonderful time, and look forward to having a similar experience (but shorter!) somewhere else in the United States. Anyone interested?