Sometimes the best part of traveling happens where you do not expect. For us, our most fond memories have happened house sitting. This is our chance to live like locals, meet locals and feel like we belong. That is what we have been doing lately. We have a one month house sit at an old farmhouse, full of animals, in a small town called Chateaubriant in Brittany, France.
We spent the day doing yard work and I was in heaven. We are settling into our house sit in a French farmhouse. Nearest village is Soudan, the biggest town around is Chateaubriant. We are equidistant between Rennes and Nantes. It is so quiet here. Nothing but farms around, At least half the real estate is owned by a large racehorse facility; fields and fields of horses. The ones that trot with a sulky behind. They have a track in the woods but we have not caught them training yet. We also see cultivated fields with some sort of radish growing right now. And high quality cattle – Charolais, Limousines and crosses. Seriously, markedly better calves than we see in the US. We are in an old stone home, wood stove heated. Mark is getting great at getting that lit and keeping the fire going. Internet is poor. We have had a few beautiful days in a row, but a lot of rain and mud too.
We have 2 very big dogs, 1 small apricot poodle (looks like Max), 2 cats, 2 goats, 2 ducks, 2 hens, 1 cockerel (French or English for rooster). There have already been so many postcard-worthy tales to tell about our antics with those goats and chickens. At least we are getting eggs, that is all I have to say. The dogs are a Rafeiro do Alentejo (Portuguese Mastiff) and Mastín Español (Spanish Mastiff). On our second night here, the two big dogs got into a fight. And I mean fight. They are so big, we did not dare get too in the middle of it. Basically they fought until they were exhausted. They were bloody, still mostly whole, but one has less ear than he used to. It is the country so we did not rush to the vet and the wounds are healing nicely. Then it was the male duck and the rooster. We keep finding the duck with feathers in its mouth. He is really picking on the scrawny rooster (who is getting scrawnier by the day).
I never have my phone when I need it. We set up a big beam on two concrete stumps for the goats, Blueberry and Bramble (aka Roger). Boy do they love it, they think they are gymnasts. The little one jumps off, does some twists in the air and sticks the landing, over and over again. They both get on it at the same time and butt each other until the little one falls off. This is losing something without video, I will try to get some. (See if you can open the link below) Bottom line, I want a goat or two.
We met some British expats that live nearby (maybe 2 k away). They lent us a car to use while we are here. The nearest decent sized market is at least a twenty minute drive. These Brits have restored a ruin into a very large home. And by ruin, I mean pile of stones that roughly formed a corner. It took 8 years, who knows how many pounds/euros and/or dollars. Brave, to say the least. Mounted in the different areas of the home, the owners have posted pictures of what each part looked like before restoration. Part was 13th century, part 16th. Wow. Now it is probably 4000 sf, 4 different really big master suites (they have 3 kids who each have families) and lots of other living areas, it was really nice. This is a real world example of International House Hunters.