Week 1 (Limoges): settling in

We are off! On Tuesday 28th March the adventure began :)
We stepped onto the train from Carlisle-Manchester train with rucksacks fully-laden.

From here we flew to Limoges Airport, France, where we were met by our hosts Marcus and Diane. They sounded great from their workaway profile, and within 20 minutes of contacting them they had agreed to have us - simples!
I was nervous about meeting them, but needn't have been as they're lovely people! We chatted the whole drive back to their house in Bussière-Poitevine. Diane had prepared a scrummy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs (very French I know), the first of many great meals at our workaway house!

Marcus is a big fan of classic Citroëns, and on our first full day we went for coffee in the local village in his 1948 Traction Avant. In the afternoon we walked down to the river, did some metal detecting, herded sheep, and cleared brambles.

The rest of the week was just as varied, with wood chopping, gate building, and donkey grooming!



Craig has been in his element driving the dumper truck around!

I have found a new love for gardening; I've planted potatoes, spring onions, radishes, courgettes, tomatoes, and some lemon balm. Green fingers crossed they all grow nicely! Fripon the dog watched over me dutifully, only slightly in the way.

On a typical day we have breakfast at about 9am, work for a couple of hours until lunch, and then do a little more work in the afternoon. On finishing for the day we reward ourselves with a nice cold beer and sit around the table chatting with Diane and Marcus, playing guitar, reading or watching TV.

At the weekend Marcus and Diane took us to the market at Chauvigny, a nearby town. The market was beautiful, lots of flowers, vegetables, cheeses, cured meats, and friendly people!


We traversed the narrow streets up to the five castles and Collegiate Church of St Pierre, followed by lunch in a great little café. I had the classic croque-monsieur (a French ham and cheese toastie). Very yummy!

On the way home we called in at some friends of Marcus and Diane's, who are renovating a delapidated barn. The local area has a lot more English people than we expected but everyone is very sociable and there is a strong sense of community and integration with the natives.
In the afternoon we had another walk down to the Rivière Gartempe. It's only 10 minutes from the house, down the lane and through the woods. The weather was beautiful, I got these snaps of the view over the river and a Limousin cow.


Our first week has well exceeded our expectations and we could not have asked for nicer hosts. I can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store. So far we would definitely recommend Workaway to anyone wanting to travel on the cheap and get a real feel for the way of life in a place.

Total money spent between two: €11