avril 8-10: More Monfréville, Bayeux

My last few days at the Chateau continued to be enjoyable. I fed the chickens and took in eggs more times, planted runner bean plants (that were promptly killed by a hard frost -- in April!), planted potatoes, rebuilt a wall of hay bales around potted plants, hung laundry and dusted the impossibly tall ceilings in the hall with theaid of a ladder and long-handled duster. Tha variety kept things interesting.

I also went again with June to the beach in Grandcamp-Maisy, the closest seaside town, to harvest seaweed. I did this on my first day there and a second time with another WWOOFer. Wearing bright red dish-washing gloves and boots, we plopped clumps of multi-colored seaweed into black plastic garbage bags which then sat upright in the trunk. June said she's gotten a few questions from the locals over the years about what her intentions were with the seaweed, but they were all approving when she told them it was for asparagus. Apparently asparagus was originally a seaside plant and it enjoys the fertilizing of seaweed. Seaweed makes a good fertiliwer for anything really, and I seem to remember something about farmers in coastal Massachusttes using it too.

In addition to the work, I also had some fabulous runs around the area. Unlike in Paris or Nice where people look at you funny while you're running, it's the cows and sheep who do the looking. At least the cows look, often every single one of a herd of 40 in a field which is a bit disconcerting, but funny. The sheep on the other hand baa-ed at me frequently, and I enjoyed baa-ing back at them. There is also a chorus of dog barks that arises in the village when you pass one house with a dog and the others decide to join in.

Bayeux is the closest small city to Monfréville, and I visited there two Saturdays in a row to see the market. It's a pretty impressive one and the first where I saw live animals for sale. There was everything from baby ducks of five different kinds to full-grown chickens and rabbits to the odd hamster being sold as a pet. There was also one great section of older folks probably in retirement selling their dozen eggs, three bunches of sage and seed potatoes. I bought one thing there: tuerguole. It's the regional dessert of Normandy I saw at the wood-fired bakery. But this time I bought it from a little old lady who I assume has been making it all her life. Unfortunately, it's really not that good! A slow-cooked rice pudding sounds good enough, especially if the milk ends up like dulce de leche, but it's pretty bland. I improved it with a bit of salt, cinnamon and cubes of apple.

Bayeux is, of course, also home to the famous tapestry of William the Conqueror's invasion of England. It's not actually a tapestry in the sense of a piece of weaving, though, rather, it is embroidery. 70 meters of embroidery! The colors have remained striking over the near-millenium since its making, all blue, green, gold, rusty red and black. While the main middle panel of the tapestry tells the story of William, smaller bands at the top and bottom contain scenes of daily life and lots of animals. The animals were a particularly interesting mix of both real animals from France like pheasants, real animals from elsewhere like camels, and a share of imaginary ones like griffons.

Happily, I visited the tapestry when there were very few other people there. The audio commentary is clearly geared towards summer high season and would shuffle you past at a gallop if you really followed it. Thank goodness for the pause button. It was pretty magical to stand and look at this work of art made so long ago. Somehow it's more affecting than a Roman sculpture that's centuries older, perhaps because it's easier to imagine someone sitting and putting each single sticth into the fabric. (Sadly, but understandably, no photos allowed there...)