Where to next?

To learn from these people -- butchers, bakers, and Armagnac makers -- at Kate Hill's Kitchen at Camont, a culinary retreat in Gascony.

Tomorrow we head west from Narbonne to Agen and begin our two week help exchange (http://www.helpx.net/) at Kate's.

"...a culinary retreat and creative hub where students, chefs, and artisan food producers can meet and work together as a team. White jacket and toques are banned from the kitchen. Instead, the Kitchen at Camont is a dynamic learning center where "hands-on" means gardening gloves are as much a part ofthe kitchen batterie as whisk and cleaver; where planting orchards, cleaning the chicken coop and weeding the organic gardens contribute to the spirit of the Kitchen community. Students learn not by watching, but by working alongside educated farmers, local cooks, and master butchers on their Gascon farms as well as on site at Camont."

For more info: http://www.kitchen-at-camont.com/

Friday in Ventenac

The pictures are nice and it all sounds lovely, but I thought you were working, and exchanging, and stuff? Well, here's a typical day of work exchange at La Fontenille:

When in.. Roman France

Yes, we do indeed enjoy the arts.

But we're also fond of seeking out awesome rocks!

That's Larissa in Narbonne getting in touch with history. There's a 30x30 ft square hole in the village center displaying 2,000 year old Roman roads.

I mean, that's kind of crazy.

What are we leaving for those in year 4,000 to marvel at?

No doubt this blog will catch their attention. Stunning headlines will read, "Ancient Americans Travel Planet Earth, Discover Secret to ..ughh.. to Stuff, and Life."

Off the beaten track

Poetry reading at the Chateaux. Jazz soiree in the tiny town of Parazar. Kids recital and Mediterranean guitar quartet in Narbonne. We've made it "off the beaten track." In addition to rose with lunch and red with dinner, David and Sundara have invited us to enjoy life in Southern France as they do. Many thanks!

Our first work exchange: La Fontenille

Bon jour!

After a wonderful seven days in Provence with Mr. and Mrs. Whyte they drove us three hours into the French countryside to our new home: La Fontenille in Ventenac-en-Minervois. For ten days we'll be helping in the kitchen, painting, cleaning, and random tasks (pictured: installing rooftop solar panels), for 4 hours a day (except weekends) in exchange for a lovely room at the chateaux, three wholesome meals a day, and, so far, all the wine we can drink. Plus great company. Sundara and David are generous, interesting hosts who prize good music, and work hard keep their home and garden beautiful.

Provence..

So here we are, ready to rough around the world and release our 23-years-young invincible, positive energy! And where's the first stop?

Provence with my parents!

A big shout out to that lovely pair. They had their trip set and booked while we were still planning and re-planning our itinerary. Once we started thinking about France as the first country, I started thinking about timing our departure with part of their stay. And before my mom could offer a "well I guess that's..", I was all over that invite.

No, but they were very happy to have us and we all had a great time. It was incredibly easy to get lost in Provence's straightforward beauty... The morning cafe blends in with the afternoon espresso, with the melon, prosciutto, and baguette and pastis, with the wine and bouillabaise, with the dirt roads flanked by vineyards and olive trees and lavender and mountains and mountain villages, with more wine that I expertly labeled as "yyeahh, awesome wine", with the bocce and pastis, with the cheese, and the sleep and repeat.

And then you see a few van Gogh's in St. Remy de Provence and that guy, along with his love of the area, starts to make a bit more sense.


So, thank you Mom and Dad!

Re-routed

Rumor was that the flight from JFK to Brussels was late landing due to the ash cloud but who knows. Very groggy from the red-eye, we soon realized we'd missed our flight from Brussels to Marseille. Try as we might to get a free hotel and dinner on the airline, we got rescheduled to leave from Brussels to Munich, then onto Marseille. About 36 hours after leaving New York, we arrived in Marseille, happy to be there but without our bags. Like hermit crabs on the run.

With the 13.50E vouchure we each got, important Beligum products were purchased.

Launch!

Ok, right, well here's our blog then. Be Right Back.

Larissa and I have been planning, and re-planning, a big trip for a some time now. The idea started back in 2008 when we first met (aww) and it's festered ever since. Our initial plan was to either bike from Vancouver to San Diego, or from New York to San Francisco. We got pretty far into planning the latter -- I think we had New York through New Jersey mapped out -- and then we realized, shit, why don't we just go around the world?!

So we worked and saved, and planned through helpx and wwoof. More details on that later.

We're into the whole meeting people and food thing, so traveling the world in this fashion excited us. Soooo yeah, come follow us!