Jolie’s Travels

Bonjour 👋

Busy busy

Our short stay in Paris didn’t get off to the best start, with our hotel not accepting any of our cards, so Joe ended up having to run 15mins one way to an ATM to get cash out to pay 🙄

This was not a sign of things to come thankfully, as the rest of our time was absolutely amazing.

We met up with Allison and Tony for a late bbq lunch at The Ritz. I had a burrata on fresh tomatoes for a starter, lamb chops for main and a meringue/passion fruit mango sorbet thing for dessert, all of which was amazing 🤤🤤

Although we were tired from all the eating, we decided to go on a little walk (no point wasting too much time when you don’t have much hehe). We walked around to the Louvre, where we stopped for a drink at a restaurant (it was quite warm, 33 degrees I think), before having a quick look at the outside of the Louvre

We then started making our way back to The Ritz, but progress was slow as Allison and I were roped into one of those testers at a skincare shop (got nice free stuff out of though, so it’s ok 😁). We had a little bit of chill out time at the Ritz before going down to the bar for some drinks and light snacks. I can’t remember exactly what we had but I’m quite sure we had starters of mini cheese and ham toasted sandwiches (best I’ve ever had), and the other was prawns on smashed avocado on biscuits with lime (don’t normally like prawns but these were AMAZING). After we’d finished Joe and I headed back to our box room for some sleep before another big day.

The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed and caught the train to meet back up with Allison and Tony. We had breakfast at the Ritz before hopping in the car and driving to get ham baguettes from a place that apparently makes them for the French president. Unfortunately it was closed so we just got some from a shop up the road, which makes the bread for said baguettes anyway, so it was all good.

Anyway, onto Versailles we drove. We could only walk around the gardens as the palace is closed on Monday 🙄. We wandered through the hedges and down by the lake before stopping to have our baguettes and some wine under the shade next to the water.

Afterwards we decided to hire a golf buggy to cruise the grounds in, unfortunately I was too young so Joe got to drive 😬.

We headed back to Parisand had some chill out time before dinner, which Joe and I used to duck out and buy some flowers for his parents for their anniversary. Their room had also been upgraded while we were away because their shower hadn’t been working the entire stay, so they we now in the room with “the best view of Paris”.

It was ok I guess 🤤😏😄

Anyway, we exploited our questionable admittance into the hotel by using their pool facilities, complete with big fluffy robes, slippers and a cushioned deck chair next to a beautifully mosaic pool 😮 so good.

Had to leave prematurely to get ready for dinner, but it was nice while it lasted 😁

I shared a lobster entree with Allison, I’ve never had lobster but of course it was amazing

I had veal cutlet with tiny potatoes cooked in butter for main. So much butter involved, it was delightful. For dessert we were brought a complimentary fruit custard tart for Allison and Tony’s anniversary

We enjoyed some limoncello with our dessert before heading back up to their room to enjoy the view from the terrace over tea. I wrote a letter to mum and dad at Allison’s suggestion, before Joe and I made the trek back to our bed.

Our last morning in Paris we enjoyed breakfast on the terrace

Before saying goodbye and catching a 5 hour bus to Josselin, Bretagne for our next workaway

So that was Paris, it was amazing as you can see, but after that it was back to peasant life in rural France 😃

Sorry for the wait, I’m very lazy, maybe I will actually get this blog up to date one day but probably not today

Until next time,

👋👋

Woops, it’s been a while, been very busy with work and what not.

So for the rest of that week we worked on the caravan, getting it ready for us to move in on Saturday. We got in Saturday morning, and went for a big walk in the afternoon to a nearby town called Udalla. The walk took us along a river which was quite nice, with blackberries along the way to snack on.

We just had a chill out day on Sunday before heading back to Bilbao in the afternoon. Here are some pictures of the view after a storm and of the caravan:

We headed back to Ibarrangelu on Monday where Liere and Ruben happily welcomed us back onto their farm. The past week I spent 3 of the 4 days of work weeding in between the beans (all I saw when I closed my eyes were those beans), with one day spent dead heading the onion crop, teaching Liere how to make pasta and ricotta.

We finally gathered the will to go for a walk on Friday afternoon, and ended up climbing to the top of the big cliffs seen behind the beach (very bright, should have brought my sunnies with me haha)

Back to Bilbao on Saturday where we chilled out once more, with some lovely snacks of bread, dip, tomato, basil, cured meat

At the airport now, off to Paris today to see Joes parents, both of us are looking forward to having a great time 🙂

Hopefully it won’t be so long before I post again,

until next time ✌️

Hola, been very busy but here’s an update:

Went for that walk once Joe woke up and the views were excellent. Here are some pics as evidence

The rest of the week we were cleaning out 2 years worth of sheep poo from the barn (I think it was almost a meter deep in some spots, maybe not quite that much though) which was bloody exhausting so we didn’t get put in the afternoon, just had a siesta and then ate and then more sleep.

On Saturday we slept in and did washing before heading to the beach for the last time and then caught the bus to Gernika to get pizza for dinner (and a couple of sneaky ciders, think we earned them 🤷‍♀️) . We went home and had our treats before hopping in the car with Liere and Ruben and going to meet some of their friends at a taberna next to the mouth of the river (see above pictures). I somehow got conned into joining Liere and her friend singing with the band even though I didn’t know any of the words to the Spanish song they were singing. We had a good time 🙂

We sadly left on Sunday and headed to Bilbao where we devoured some tv because we hadn’t had any wifi for 2 weeks. On Monday we caught the train to Gibaja, Cantabria, were our current host Mario and his 2 little girls and wife live on a beautiful hillside. The views are absolutely amazing but there is currently a heat wave so we are trying to stay inside for the middle of the day. We have been doing some weeding and organising an old caravan that we will move into at the end of this week as there are more workawayers coming to stay here.

Look at these views!!!!

Also, they have 3 dogs, 2 Spanish mastiffs, the boy is 90kg 😧 and a jack russell. They’re all extremely friendly, here’s a picture of Joe getting a cuddle this morning while trying to put his shoes on

And here’s the big boy next to my legs (foot for scale)

Finally started to get over my cold on Thursday, which was nice. We painted the wall we had previously plastered with a stabiliser and did some other stuff I can’t remember haha. We caught the bus to the beach in the afternoon and went for a swim and bake in the sun ☀️ which was great. The big cliffs next to the beach are so cool, I love looking at them.

Liere was home from her teaching job on Friday so we finally got to spend some time in the garden, although we were just weeding and mulching. In the afternoon we were going to go for a swim but were absolutely knackered from the week so we ended up just lazing around in our room. Joe made tomato pasta and it tasted spookily identical to tinned spaghetti 🍝 but it was hot and put us to sleep so 🤷‍♀️

Small sleep in on Saturday before we hopped in the car with Liere and Ruben and drove to Gernika for a small community cook off. Apparently they have quite a few nationalities in the Basque Country and the idea was for people to come and cook the rice dish of their home country. Liere and Ruben made a vegetarian paella with all the vegetables from their garden. Joe and I went for a walk around the town while everyone got set up and had a chat. It was a very lovely place with lots of squares and gardens which we enjoyed looking through. Liere told us that the all the buildings in the town are relatively new because during WW2, apparently the Germans did a lot of bombing in the area, and then when Spain was governed by a dictatorship later in the 20th century, the dictator ordered for the town to be destroyed for some reason (I think that’s right, don’t hold me to these facts though). Anyway, we headed back to the festival and helped Ruben cut vegetables to put in the paella, and then helped with setting up tables and chairs. I tried some Basque wine which was very nice, and then I was somehow made a judge for all the rice dishes 😬🤤. There was 4 of us judging and around 10 dishes, all of which were 👌👌👌. I felt the pressure, especially since joe kept reminding me that if I didn’t score the Peruvians highly, they would probably have my head. Anyway that was fun, the winning dish was from somewhere in Africa I do believe, and it was a chicken and rice thing with olives and onion, with vinegary undertones (it was very nice, but my favourite was a different one). Once all the judging was finished we finally got to sit down and eat the paella, and I think Joe and I ate a bit too much haha whoops. We then caught the bus around to the beach and Joe went for a swim while I sat on the sand (it was grey and windy, I didn’t want to get cold) before we caught the bus home.

The other day at lunch (which we have at 3pm 😦) Liere told us about a beautiful village and swimming spot just over the hill from their house so yesterday Joe and I walked over there to check it out. It was so goddamn nice, I think we will definitely have to make the small trek again before we leave. We hung out on the wharves for a couple of hours, going for a couple of swims in the crystal clear water, and I ended up getting a bit sunburnt. After around 3 hours just hanging out, the sun became too much (and we’d run out of snacks) so we packed up our stuff and started the walk home, getting some ice creams before the big walk up the hill. Joe stole some lemons on the way back and once we made it home we just chilled for the afternoon

Today we just did a whole heap of painting and I am currently waiting for joe to finish his nap so we can walk up a big hill to look at a nice view 🙂

Got here on Sunday, plastered the outside of the house on Monday and milked a sheep for the first time 🤪 (I was a natural). Plastered again on Tuesday. Half day today and great weather too so we headed to the beach for a swim and bake 😎 lots of yummy fresh veggies from the garden and lots of olive oil on top 👌😍

3 days in Bilbao before we head to start the grind in Ibarrangelu.

Day 1 consisted of spending 1 hour in a Carrefour trying to figure out how to get a sticker to pay for fruit. We then walked to the guggenheim and actually paid for entry to the museum. The first floor was the coolest with interactive pieces that were lots of fun. We then had our baguette, cream cheese, tomato and basil for lunch before walking to the old town. Walked up a bloody massive hill to get to a park and had a nap under a mulberry tree before making our way back to the hostel (2 beers for 1€ nice)

Day 2: woke up with the beginnings of a cold but pushed through and went to Guztelugatxe to see the old church on an island (had been there since 9th century but burnt down in the 70’s and was rebuilt in the 80’s). Walked down and up a lot of stairs before heading to the beach for some chill out time.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton