Jess has given birth!

Jess has just given birth to 8 gorgeous puppies!! its very exciting but a little overwhelming. We didnt want her to get pregnant but it looks like we failed in our mission to prevent these insistent french doggys. We are still in montouliers but have moved to a gite for a while. we will be switching between accommodation but will be settled here for a while now we have the puppies to take care of. The couple who we are working for love dogs and one of theirs just had puppies too so its dogs galore!!! we have the perfect set up really..job, accommodation and perfect comfort for jess and the little ones.

Montouliers sunshine!

we finished our project in Uzeste and are now in montouliers, the most beautiful little village just outside Beziers. We have got work and an amazing house to live in..its luxury after living in the van for so long! it even has sky tv but no internet unfortunately so we still have to resort to hanging out at mcdonalds to steal the free wifi! montouliers is tiny and there is nothing for miles but lots of places nearby to drive to. There is little evidence of Christmas coming in France..it seems very likely that in some villages here they wouldnt even know it exists so it might be hard to get into the spirit this year!

Rain!

Its raining and cold and we have been working away trying to finish the fence and the digging! we had a little guitar session last night playing some oldies which was nice. looking forward to getting to our house in the med now!

uzeste

We are in Uzeste a small village south of Bordeaux. we are just sat by a nice warm open fire in an old farm house. Just been building a fence out of bamboo. The couple we are staying with are artists and very laid back. The house is lovely with no matching furniture or anything generic! is perfect.. They cooked us a nice meal last night and Jess has made friends with the horses and chickens. Its been raining so we've taken a break but looks like it might have stopped so we have to finish the fence now and then dig a new veg patch. lots of forest around here and very little else so we won't spend too long here but its great for now xx

this morning!

This morning in La Fournerie (nr cognac)

beautiful day!!

the sun is shining and the ground is frosty. such a lovely combination.. we are near cognac staying at a farm house doing some work on renovations and harvesting the last of the crops. We tried some cognac the other night because you have to really and found it to be the most vile thing we've ever put in our mouths. Cognac itself is quite a small place with not alot going on but the area we are staying is so picturesque with views of vineyards for miles and miles. The farm house we're staying at also has a fully stocked bar!
we still keep getting bought drinks by the bar staff at any pubs we go to and we have been told that it is customary in France that after about the 3rd round of drinks(not just alcohol) then the drinks are on them prtty much every other round! just goes to show how little the french buy drinks.. we've seen people order the tiniest espresso coffees and sit there for 2 hours with the same one.. tis madness.

We have been in salies de bearn about a month now and been having a great time. Weve been getting to know the locals and even got invited to a party at an Australian blokes chateau which was good. Everyone is still so friendly here and seem to love giving us free drinks in all the bars!
We’ve had a bit of a nightmare with Jess on heat and attracting every dog in town. We had one dog with us for more than 24 hours sleeping outside the van waiting for Jess ‘the babe magnet’ (as she is now known in this town) and we had to take it to the town mayors office to get rid of it! The mayor seems to deal with everything in french towns. Including the non existent police.
We went to spain for a couple of days as we are near the border but the weather turned out really bad so we didn't see alot. We drove through san sebastian,bilbao etc then stayed by the beach. On the way back into France we went to Bayonne which is now our favourite French city and has completely shown us a new side to France and french people. Its the capital of the basque region and even has its own language! it seems to be where all the younger cultured french people live which is reflected in the bars, shops, music scene and the fact that more people can speak some English here than anywhere else we've been in France. We had a night out with some french people we met in a pub who couldnt wait to practise their English all night. Then One of them did a fire poy show at the end of night which was amazing!