French Toast

I left Paris feeling cold, wet tired, a little disspaointed and pretty lonely. Fortunately, every cloud has a silver lining and in the case of France that lining is solid gold baby! And, that little cloud is hanging out over the village of Limoux in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains.

The landscape is lovely, the air is clean, and the people are friendly. Technically Im there to work, to help restore an old farmhouse, and I do. Its hard physical labour, I spend my first morning cleaing out a 400 year old pigeon coop (lovely), and an entire day chiping concrete off of a wall, but for the most part my chores are less labour intensive and include baking a pie for a day trip into the mountains, going for lesiurely strolls, washing my own laundry, spending an evening at the spa, and attending dinner parties. People have payed money to be treated a lot worse than this.

The people Im introduced to are all wonderful. There's Camille, the Australian wedding photographer who kept me company and cleaned along side with me. Alving Booth, a world class photographer who gave me a tour of his 12 bedroom, 6 bathroom, 3kitchen, labrynth of a house. Garth Bowden, my wonderful, welcoming and well traveled host who shared his house, his life and first hand world traveling experience with me... and in turn I shared with him my recipe for french toast. Equal trade? I think so!