L'eau Salee

We entered back into France on the 10th Nov. The scenery and buildings changed and the signs were back in French. There were waves coming over the road and it was very grey.


We drove over Monaco and Monte Carlo. There were lot’s of tall condo’s and buildings hanging over the cliffs. All the houses had flash pools and there were lot’s of super yachts in the marina.

We got stuck down a street in the middle of Nice because of a triple-parked van. All the cars behind us honked and hooted and some came out to measure us to see if we’d fit through. In the end the Van driver came out and we drove on. We had a hard time parking in the biggest ‘Carrefour’ supermarket we’ve ever been in. You couldn’t see to the other end and had to walk through a huge mall to get to the entrance.

We had French bread for lunch in a rocky river canyon and saw a Chamois - an half goat, half deer like animal. We drove up the canyon and past a walled town with a zig-zag track leading up to a castle hanging on a cliff. It would have been a nice town to go into but we moved on.

We stayed by a dried-up lake and it was very cold that night.

We drove through beautiful scenery and rock formations. . The trees were all red and gold and there were lots of hunters walking on the sides of the road. We stayed near Modene at a France passion goat farm. We parked in the middle of short stumpy grapevines with a view of Mt Ventoux. The goats were kept in a pen like a petting zoo and we weren’t given a tour of the cheese rooms like other places. I think we expected it to be like other goat farms we’ve been to so we were disappointed.

We only drove 15km on the other side of Mt Ventoux to our destination-L‘eau Salee.’ HelpX is an online listing of host organic farms, farmstays, homestays or similar, who invite volunteer helpers to stay with them short-term in exchange for food and accommodation.

HelpX is provided primarily as a cultural exchange for working holiday makers who would like the opportunity during their travels abroad, to stay with local people and gain practical experience. In the typical arrangement, the helper works an average of 5 hours per day and receives free accommodation and meals for their efforts. We wanted to do HelpX to learn about the culture, meet people, work and stop driving for a while and to learn to make cheese. Peter invited us to stay and we decided that t would be a nice place to stop for a while. We stayed in our camper but ate and worked with our hosts-Peter and Ploy Garwood.

We parked next to the pool and introduced ourselves. There were two other HelpX volunteers from Tasmania there as well-Nick and Rhea. We didn’t start work until the next day. There was a hot shower in the pool house and we could watch TV in the beautiful old stone house. On most days when the weather was good we would we would work outside on the old terraces.. The property used to be a farm but the terraces that form a amphitheatre around the house had overgrown with trees, ivy and brambles while Peter was in Thailand and the Alps. We spent most days clearing the trees and blackberry so it was possible to see down the small valley. We burned all the weeds and brambles and cut the trees into firewood. Dad and William used the chainsaw and Peter used a brush cutter. The rest of us cleared the ground with various tools and kept the fires going. The firewood was stacked in sandstone caves. Johanna, Maddy, Anneke and Thomas kept Natthaya (2) company and looked after her when Ploy was busy. Ploy cooked us the most amazing Thai food. We had ‘Kow Soi’ our favourite curry we had in Thailand. There was rice, omelete and different stir-fry’s at every meal. After every meal we had Fromage Blanc with lot’s of sugar and Banana Shakes. Ploy taught Thomas how to make Spring rolls. We had deep fried chicken feet one night, Natthaya really liked them. We had garlic-basil snails. Nick and Rhea cooked Japanese sushi and soup with buckwheat noodles on the night before they left.

Peter has a 80kg Mastiff bitch called “’Chloe’ we had to be careful around her because she broke someone’s leg playing catch but she was a very nice dog.

Timothy (15) was at school most of the time and really tired because the French school day’s from 8 to 5o’clock. It was nice to talk to someone our own age.

The place was called L’eau Salee because of a slightly sulphurous spring with an overgrown pond that William and Dad started to drain and dig the muck out of but it’s a project for another ‘HelpXer’.

On the 18th we celebrated Natthya’s 2nd birthday. Thomas taught Ploy how to make Apple pie and Crumble and Ploy cooked even more food than usual.

The next day we drove up on one of the hardest parts of the Tour de France. We parked the camper and had lunch at the top below the snow line. We left Peter, Ploy and Natthaya and started a 4km hike to the top of Mt Ventuox. The Mountain is quite special because there are no mountains of similar height for miles around. There was an amazing view of the Alps and we could almost see the sea. The rugged shape of the land was very different to NZ or any other place we’ve been to. Nick and Rhea climbed up with us. At some parts the snow had covered the track. We reached the top a little later than we expected. There were two observation towers at the top. We had chocolate bars and took photos on the top then walked down the closed road. There was black ice that Johanna slipped on while Rhea and Anneke held her up.

It was a neat day out.

The weather wasn’t very good on the last three days and Peter wasn’t feeling good. Thomas fell down some stairs and scratched his eye. We pretty much finished the terrace we had been working on.

We are heading towards Portugal via southern France and Spain but we’re are finding it very hard to leave this special place. Thank you Peter and Ploy for the wonderful experience you have given us-it was a pleasure and privilege to have shared time with you..