Our workaway trip to France... Part Un.

We are in France for 4-6 weeks depending on circumstances, on a workaway project. The accommodation is a French dairy farm about 45 minutes from Limoges, with Petra and Jan, three children Perine, Isabella and Marc, plus 5 dogs, 1 cat, many ponies, 40 cows, a goat (which Caden now calls the Goat simulator) and some chickens that we haven't met yet.

I was personally a bit worried about the journey but we managed it OK. Caden was beyond excited, leaping about when we got out of the car on the Ferry to Calais. 

Saying goodbye to England as we set off. 

...and Bonjour to France! 

We drove for about 10 hours after our very exciting stay in an F1 hotel near Calais ( also a very relieved Mummy at arriving there safely too).  We had to take it slowly through a few sudden snowstorms on the way. 

...I was also very relieved when we finally arrived. The kids were exhausted. 

They were very nervous of the dogs barking and didn't want to get out of the car, within 24 hours they are both almost totally dog friendly. Caden loves throwing the stick for George, his favourite dog. 

Miles says Bonjour! to some of the calves outside the farmhouse. 

Both the boys are petting Blondie here..

Ummm me, walking the boys round the nearby lake. 

Caden found a tap, we also found trig points all over the place around this lake/reservoir. 

The boys made friends with a dog with two white front paws who they named 'Two socks'. The name was actually 'Tinkerbell two socks poo poo water dog' which developed throughout the walk as the dog did more things, but we shortened it to the more palatable, 'two socks'. 

Caden is smelling pine needles that we crushed from a spruce tree. 

We cracked the layer of ice off a puddle and looked at how much it seemed like glass. Miles wanted to take some home for Daddy. 

We thought this might be a foxes den. 

The next day we took the little boy Marc, who we are living with, with us. The three boys found a piece of washed up timber and decided it was a fossilised dinosaur bone. They were trying to carry it back to the car park so someone from the natural history museum could find it (Caden's suggestion) and then everyone could enjoy the discovery. 

Caden is looking at a tree seed, he has found. I couldn't identify it, it had a red exterior. 

They were also looking at lichen and moss. 

The kids are having a fantastic time. They love being around the other children a lot and we have spent time making trash bin monsters and doing other creative stuff. Now I have my laptop working, Caden will be doing some maths with me again. We have also been to the local swimming baths and Caden and Mile's confidence in swimming continues to grow. They are obviously learning lots more French words every day and I will be trying Duolingo with them soon, hopefully later today.