Bee Farm Wedding

Well. First of all, I was a bit of an idiot when planning this trip. In order to economize and pay less for train tickets I cut everything a little fine.

Getting up at 6:00am in Montpellier, I biked to the train station, ready for my train at 7:30. I took the train from Montpellier to Toulouse, waited an hour for my train from Toulouse to Pamiers, and finally arrived in Pamiers at 11:50am. I then had 3 hours to bike 24 kilometers, set up my tent, shower, put on my makeup, bike 9 more kilometers, and arrive at the wedding (which started at 3pm). I arrived at the farm at 2:58pm... shaking (and sweating) from the effort. Took off my yellow reflector vest, and I was already to go.

The day of the wedding was beautiful, and as a group, the wedding party processed up the street in Tréziers to the Mairie, surrounding Dany and Stéphanie, and their family.

There were about 100 of us in attendance, and we all tried to cram into the smallest mayor's office ever . . . which meant that I ended up watching and taking pictures of the people around me rather than the actual marriage, because I couldn't see a thing. However, there was a lot of love in the audience for the family. . . and it was lovely to see.

What a beautiful family!

From there, we mingled around in the street for awhile, then headed back to the farm. It was lovely to catch up with Alan and meet Mélanie, his girlfriend. . . . and of course chat with Louna, Manon, and Dany and Stéphanie when I could steal time with them. The wedding goers were from all walks of life, and the colours to see were beautiful.

On arrival at the farm, was a spectacle to behold. There was a beautiful fabric feature in the air . . .

Activity stands were set up around the property. You could go to the kid's corner were they had a storyteller. . .

There were others napping in their own adult's corner . . .

You could play petanque . . .

Or the game Mölkky . . . I love this game! I was too busy playing when it was going on to take pictures, but these are the pieces for the game . . .

Another area was set up for the French game, Palet. . .

And other things I didn't take pictures of. . . there was an icecream stand set up with organic pear and peach ice cream, inside there was an instructor teaching all of the traditional French dances from this region, and there was even a circus area set up with juggling balls, frisbees, and other fun things to play with. This was my kind of wedding for sure--definitely a family that appreciates games!


As the evening got later, we had amazing organic snacks and a meal.

There were performances for the happy couple, a singing group that performed songs, some original (with words especially for the bride and groom).

There was a talent show including piano pieces, other singers, a guitar piece, and one particularly memorable hula hoop show.

The day became night, and we migrated inside. Manon and a friend did a clarinet/beat poetry session, and one extremely talented friend did a mime performance, bringing participants from the audience in to be his miming orchestra as he conducted. Then we spent the evening dancing traditional french dances (I'm terrible--I never take pictures of the dancing, because I'm too busy participating).

There were also a few nice touches throughout the day/night . . . a well-wishers tree, that you could write poetry or messages to the family on. And a candy jar, where you could take a piece of candy, and a piece of paper, and write a poem, a piece of life advice, a joke, or a game on, wrap it up, for the family to enjoy later on.

Definitely a lot of thought went into this day--by the family, but also by their wonderful friends.

At 1:30am it was time for me to leave the party and the dancing, and cycle in the dark back to where I set up my tent. To bed at 2am, my alarm woke me four and a half hours later to get up and cycle the 24 miles back to Pamiers . . . avoid having a heart attack or falling off of my bicycle when a scary yelling woman came out of the corn fields with a gun (she was following hounds, and hunting foxes, I think?). . . and arrive with a half hour to spare, then begin the train trips back to Montpellier. What a weekend. Thank you to Dany, Stéphanie, Manon, and Louna for a wonderful wonderful day! And congratulations!!!

Wwoofer Excursions to Toulouse

My first excursion into Toulouse as a wwoofer came as a surprise. For three days, Nigel and Renée's son, Adrienne, and his band (Kassla Datcha) were on the farm, practicing. On their last day on the farm, the violinist, Myriam, offered to have me up for the night in Toulouse so that I could come watch Adrienne and Simon play (Clarinet and Accordion) at a bar in the city. I took her up on the offer, and in we went. It was a beautiful night, and the bar seems to be the French version of Cheers for the 8 members of Kassla Datcha and their friends. No matter which way you looked, more people were greeting each other and talking as if they'd known each other for years. 


I met a ton of people that night, and even got offered a random job working at an ice skating rink. Fascinating people, it was really nice to get to know some locals. Not the least from that night, I learned a lot about hospitality. Myriam was such a gracious host, letting me stay in her quite small apartment, and even getting up at 7am (after we went to bed at 2:30) to cycle with me all the way to the train station. I hope the next time I have a home to offer, that I'm as great a host as she was.

When a new set of wwoofers joined me in the cabane (meet Beth and Paul), we ended up spending two Sundays in a row in Toulouse. The Toulouse Plage (aforementioned in this blog) had tons of free things to do for young people and families, and we had heard that there was salsa in the park. We got the time wrong, however, and so were there far too early . . . which was a happy mistake, because it meant that we went and checked out the ludotheque (game library) and played Settlers of Catan in French. Fantastic.

We also celebrated one day by going out for dinner . . . 

And the salsa in the park really was as great as we'd thought it would be. Can't wait to dance with you two again sometime. Thanks for a fantastic couple of weeks!

Colour and Life of Istanbul

Istanbul was amazing, not least because I got to spend so much time with Mandy and Figo and Katie and Michelle and all of the rest of Mandy's wonderful Minnesotan friends. I do love the Minnesotans.

One of the things I liked the most about the Istanbul, is what drew me to India in March, the colour. In the streets things are just brighter and more beautiful than you'd imagine. Even decaying buildings have beauty and charm. And of course the mosaic work in the monuments and religious buildings, the golds, turquoise, and reds, are dazzling.

Apart from the colour, the food of Turkey is amazing. With Figo there to lead us, we experienced some lovely meals in Istanbul. My favourites, were the desserts. Figo needs to work on his Turkish Coffee fortune telling, however, as my fortune consisted of "you have a brother who is very talented at music, and I see travel in your future" . . . um . . . do you now. Perhaps it's because you've met my brother (who is of course wonderfully talented), and that I've travelled to Turkey to see you marry the lovely Mandy. Humph.

Walking around Istanbul you'll stumble across bazaars, mosques and monuments amongst the houses and restaurants. This obelisk (remniscent of DC's) was built by the Egyptians in the 6th century

The girls went together to a hamam (Turkish baths) and got scrubbed for a pre-Mandy and Figo wedding treat. It was amazing. Of course cameras are not allowed, so I only got this shot of the towels leaning out to dry outside. Inside it was very old stonework and beautiful. And I don't know exactly how they make that soap, but it was fabulous. And we got the full scrub by the impish Turkish women who seemed to know just how to target those most nervous about going to a hamam in the first place. Lots of laughs.

As a big group, we also had some lovely nights out . . .

One night we went to the Amadou & Mariam concert--not very Turkish, but definitely suited our international outlook.

After the concert we went out to a rooftop bar, looking out over the city and played "emotion" . . . a game introduced by Michelle where someone calls out an emotion or thing, and we have to emote the first thing we think of while someone takes incriminating photographs.We got some strange looks from the other patrons.

It was very nice to hang out with a group of people again, and I always loved when I got to hang out with Mandy, Figo, and Katie in Washington DC, so this was a treat. Thanks to everyone for a lovely time (Rick Steves says that one should always travel in a group when going to Istanbul)!