Farewell La Hasta

After a wonderful month at La Hasta (otherwise known as "Chez Smith") it was time to move on.  I couldn't have asked for a more lovely setting, a more welcoming family or more good eats and drinks!  I also felt pretty good about the projects I'd been able to see to completion - including the "Sheri Memorial Rose Garden" and putting similar edging fences around a good deal more of the garden beds, regular pool cleaning, using the riding lawn mower, doing a bit of painting and learning how to tile (Thanks, Sam!  You're a great teacher!)  I also learned a valuable lesson about linoleum, which I'll share with you...removing the linoleum is the easy part of the job - but removing the ADHESIVE is the hard and time-consuming part.

Here are some photos from La Hasta, which comprises a 4 bedroom rental property in the downstairs portion of the family home and a one-bedroom rental cottage, as well as a spacious lawn and swimming pool.  Check out the La Hasta website here or via the link in the list on the left.

Garden edging

View of the pool

Gite accommodation on the ground floor. We had many meals and drinks on the balcony, above.

More Edging

Rental Cottage and Veg Garden

Grouting and cleaning

Cols, Peaks and Valleys

On another day out, I had great fun and super scenery driving up and over the multiple cols (passes) in the Ariege - some of which have been made famous by the Tour de France, which passes through the Ariege every year.  In fact, I'll be able to watch it from where I am staying on July 16.  Here is the Col d'Agnes and the Port de Lers on Mother's Day.

   

On a less sunny day, I did a local hiking favorite called "Roche Ronde".  The short hike took me to a great lookout spot where I could get a good idea of the valley layout near Saurat, Bedeilhac and Surba.  On the downward part of my loop, the hike passed by some terrific caves which are apparently used for bouldering and climbing routes.  The low cloud on the day I was up on top of Roche Ronde made the skies very dramatic.  The pictures don't come even close to doing it justice.  Special thanks to Caly, my fabulous hiking companion.

The Round Rock from which the hike gets its name

Caly

   

Calames - a popular rock climbing spot

The Cathars' Last Stand - Montsegur

Over the course of my month Chez Smith, I had some wonderful drives in and around the department of the Ariege and finally visited the Cathar (a Christian sect which was essentially wiped out in France through  Inquisition by the Catholic Church in the 1200s) bastion in which the last remaining believers were wiped out in 1244.  Montsegur is a well-known tourist site on the currently popular "Cathar Tourist Trail" and it provided a nice stop with great views, a cute town and a little museum with Cathar relics and history books in French, Dutch and English.

Views of the Fortress/Bastion

   

   

Views from Montsegur

   

Views of Montsegur from the town and parking area below

   

Last Year's Project - The Refuge de Rive

One of the difficult things about HelpXing is that we often participate in a project but never see the final outcome.  Last summer, we helped put some of the late stage touches on a new climber/biker bunkhouse.  We saw the bunkhouse as it was nearing completion but moved on before it was ready for the public.  Luckily, I got a chance to go back and see it this year.  It looks great!

We assembled the beds!

We assembled all of the cabinets!

We assembled the railing!

The Refuge de Rive is for sale - along with the owner's house next door.  Way too much for our budget, but a wonderful spot and a business ready to go.  I feel a little sad that the fruits of our hard work will be enjoyed by a stranger - but, hopefully, our dear friend, the current owner, will get a good price for it and can parlay the money into another great project in the area.

Mirepoix

When the weather cooperates (which it hasn't done a lot of in the past week and a half) and I am not out with an agent looking at properties, I have been trying to get out and about to find new areas that might be nice and cheaper to live in.  I've been combining these trips with touristy activities.

Here are some photos of Mirepoix, a lively medieval town that is now home to lots of British expats (due to the proximity of the Carcassonne Airport and its budget flights to the UK).  It has a charming village center with lots of bars and restaurants, but the area was too far from the mountains and way too expensive!  (I have discovered that the prices of property in areas that are full of expats are way higher than elsewhere.) 
It made for a pleasant afternoon out, though.


   

   

   

The Rose Bed Project

One of the projects I have been working on (with help from Helen) is the rose bed project.  The project consisted of weeding, digging a trench around the bed and setting up fencing and then filling in the bed with beautiful black compost.  We get the compost from the town dump where we get rid of the weeds, branches and any other green waste.  The dump brings all of the green waste to another dump where they mash it up and let it compost.  The bigger dump returns gorgeous compost to the local dump.  There are no real posted rules on taking the compost, but we have been going with a 1 for 1 swap - for each barrel of green waste we deliver, we fill up a barrel of compost.  It's fabulous!

Here are the before and after photos:

Before:

   

Introducing the Sheri Memorial Rose Garden

   

   
...but I'm not dead yet.....

The Search Begins in Earnest

Just two days after my arrival in the Ariege, I stopped into a real estate office in the nearby town of Tarason-sur-Ariege. In rapid fire French, two ladies peppered me with questions (even after I made it abundantly clear that I only speak a little bit of French) about what I was looking for. I completely choked on the most basic words and out came some bizarre mix of Spanish, Dutch, French and English. (I need to give this mishmash language a name like Spanederfrish). I was pretty mortified, but they were happy enough to set an appointment for later in the afternoon to see a small place with great views and a bit of land....a combination that is difficult to find for the kind of money we are able to pay.

I walked home from the encounter thinking, "If anyone ever starts feeling a little too good about himself, he should go to a foreign country on his own and try to buy a house. If he's really feeling super-human, he should come to France." It's remarkably humbling and, at times, pretty disillusioning....however; I know it will get easier and I forced myself to jump in as fast as possible.

I survived the house visit and aside from the fact that the agent asked me at least 6 times whether I liked the place, it was almost a pleasant interchange. And also the fact that she had no interest in showing me exactly where a piece of buildable land for sale was located. As we sped past, she vaguely shook her arm to the right and said something like "that piece of land you were interested in? It's somewhere up there." Oh, great. Thanks.

I wasn't blown away by the tiny house and it was pretty expensive for as much work as will be needed, but now that first home visit on my own has occurred, I can move forward. Phew! Hard work....but well rewarded with a (non) Rapture Party complete with mojitos, wine, good nibbles and the fantastic company of more of the expats I met last year.

My New Ariege Family

In order to make our search for the "perfect place" more affordable, I am volunteering my time and labor in exchange for a place to stay, food and the use of a car. Luckily, last year, we made some wonderful friends here in the Ariege who were very happy to let me share their home along with their daughter, dog, cat and lots of guests in their rental apartment (downstairs) and in a separate cottage on their property.  Sam, Helen and Maia treat me like one of the family and it's great to have their insight on living as expats in the Ariege.  They moved here 4 years ago when they purchased this gorgeous place and have turned it into a real gem.

I've been doing a variety of tasks including weeding, pool cleaning, corralling the chickens (very difficult) and garden work and will likely assist with the "turnovers" of the rental properties (cleaning, changing linens, etc.).  Before and after work, there's jogging, eating, stretching, swimming in the pool (VERY necessary with the incredibly hot weather we're having), chatting with the guests (one family was from Eagle River, Alaska and was training in the Pyrenees for the Mt. Marathon run in Seward...small world!) and drinking :)     

Here are some photos of the beautiful place I'm staying, which don't do it justice since I only have the mobile phone camera.  For a better sense of the rental spaces and the pool and grounds, see: Rental listing website - Click here


   

The view from my bedroom

Caught up...for now

Whew...the blog is now up-to-date.  Just in time, as I am about to leave for France for two months of volunteering and house hunting.  The volunteering is a way to get a free place to stay and food while I'm looking at properties.  It doesn't give me all the time I'd like to do my searching, but we simply have to be as frugal as possible so our money can go towards a house.

At the moment, we are limiting the property search to the Ariège, which is the southern-most department of the Midi-Pyrénées and sits on the border with Spain.

Double click on the map for a larger version

 While I'm gone, Michiel will be staying back in the Netherlands to do some more computer studies as continuing education.  It will be difficult being apart for these next couple of months, but this arrangement makes the most sense for us.  Fortunately, the first people I am volunteering with are friends from last summer.

Back to the Story!

Ax-les-Thermes

Our "home"

  Before we left France, we stayed with two other hosts - one of whom was absolutely wonderful.  Our hostess, D, lives in a small town in the eastern part of the Ariege.  She was working on converting a former truck garage to a bunkhouse/budget hostel for hikers/climbers/bikers.  The crew she hired to work on the building were almost all British expats, several of whom we already "met" on the HelpX website.  That is to say, we had seen their profiles as hosts (and even contacted one of them) but decided to contact D instead.  This was a terrific experience for so many reasons...our accommodations were comfy and luxurious,the scenery was beautiful, our co-workers were fun and a wealth of knowledge about the Ariege, our work environment was very laid-back (coffee and baked goodies every day at 10 am and 4 pm!), and our hostess was exceptionally generous, fun, intelligent, energetic and loved a good party.


We worked hard and provided lots of hours of labor, but in return we got more food than we could eat (and tasty, too), the use of a car on weekends, guided drives out to potentially interesting spots and outstanding hospitality.  We did lots of socializing and ingesting of adult beverages together and really felt like we were staying with a good friend, rather than a host.

Here are some photos of the project.  We built all of the IKEA cabinetry for the kitchen, sanded the columns, painted the cast iron plates and bolts, cleaned the grout off the shower tiles, put together the beds and put in the deck railing.

Le Refuge de Rive is now open for business.  Check out the website here

When we weren't working, sleeping or partying, we got out to enjoy the great tourist activities in that part of the Ariege, including the mind-blowing prehistoric cave paintings from 13,000 years ago at Niaux, the castle at Foix, local fairs, and the ski resort town of Ax-les-Thermes, which has hot spring pools dating back to the time of the Crusades, where returning Crusaders would treat their pestilent feet (of course, I did the same.)

Traditional shepherd garb from the lowlands

Typical Pyreneeen goats for excellent goat cheese

The castle at Foix

Freak snow storm