Luck is one of those things you can't get enough. You can always handle a little bit more.
On the last grape harvesting day we had the privilege to be carried with our "baby girls" by furgo directly to our next job: at an horticulture preparing the orders for Hallowmas - thousands of chrysanthemums! We also had the privilege of being accommodated in the former family home of our boss Manu (Anaïs's father), where today only lives a sister of the fourteen brothers and sisters that once lived there. We looked like two happy children. Flowers, plants, soil, pure air! Everything we could want.
Beyond the pleasure we had working we even were added the pleasure of some tiny bicycle rides through the neighboring villages, wonderful dinners at Manu and Françoise's house and a day trip with them to Château de Roquetaillade, Château de Villandraut and Dune du Pilat. We've never heard of this last one but it's the highest dune in Europe. Walking along its 2.7km and more than 100m tall it seems we're not in Europe but rather in any exotic desert. On its left side a loose sight extensive forest and on its right side the Atlantic blue. We still went touring Arcachon's waterfront and strolled along the streets bordered with stately homes extremely well preserved. It was a magnificently well spent day with those who we call "nos parents Français" (our French parents).But within a few days the open greenhouses covered with colorful chrysanthemums, lead to a void. The work had finished. We didn't want to go home so we decided to do some research on the internet. Kiwis, potatoes, nuts, beets, mushrooms, cauliflower, green beans... we tried everything. Nothing. Not having a car, experience and above all home (even if we could rent one afterwards) began to be a problem for those who answered on the other side of the phone. We decided then to grab our bikes and go from village to village, Château to Château, door to door, until Saint-Émilion to continue working in the vineyards. The time for la tombée/tirage des bois and taille was about to begin in some vineyards. For taille (specific branches cut) all houses required experience, sometimes even five years. But we thought it was possible to be accepted for the first job.
The first mishap happened right on the first day. The two season sleeping bags we had were made exactly for that, Spring and Summer. The temperature that night dropped a degree or two below zero and no matter how many clothes we put on it was still insufficient. Impossible even to get some sleep. Therefore we had to make a detour to the nearest Decathlon (Bordeaux, 40km away) to buy new ones, which we exchanged twice more... The ones we have now are undoubtedly very hot - in fact the hottest that Decathlon has - but we only managed to make the second exchange because, after a long time arguing, the shop manager made a brief pause, looked-us up and down and said, with some astonishment: "You're dressed from top to bottom with clothes bought here!" We stared at each other and confirmed. "You can make the exchange then!" And sponsorships, no?
We ended up not getting a job in the vineyards because all the Châteaux where we could find someone were with the leaves delayed - which meant they were still expecting the leaves to fall and then the works would start. Either that or they had their own teams. Anyway our business card with our numbers and where it says "tous travaux agricoles" (every agricultural work) were delivered. Still we were invited to drink house wines, sheltered from the rain, and we talked a lot with several owners, exchanging contacts. The general sympathy of the French with whom we crossed paths surprised hugely our "pre-conceptions"!
This small tour ended at Saint-Émilion on a beautiful sunny Sunday. Under a small shelter for farm equipment we found in the middle of a vineyard, and stayed overnight, we received a text message that would make us laugh happily! We could return to the horticulture, there were roses to plant! And so we returned to the starting point, to dig our hands in the soil (gloves what for?!) and prick our arms at a spectacular and surprising pace. We planted hundreds of roses a day after Thierry cut them conveniently. Among the names of the roses were Edith Piaf, Leonard de Vinci, Betty Boop and many others. I can't wait to see them grown and flowered in the Spring!
Unfortunately time had come to move back to Portugal, where our families were waiting for us for Christmas.
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