French Farm
- cynthiazeng
- Mar 2, 2016
- 2 min read
Now open your Google map, type France, zoom in to Bretagne, then zoom in to Quimper, then zoom in to Plyben. Here I am, Domaine Bio de Kerjean, a small organic farm that is 15 minutes by cycling from Plyben, where there is an old beautiful church, a chocolatière, a bus stop at which there are two buses stopping three times a day, three boulangeries (bakeries), two crêperie that opens only 12-2pm and 5-7pm so I never got the chance to go.
Here is my first Workaway experience, where it all begins…
I arrived in the farm on the evening of Dec. 21, 2015, a typical rainy and gloomy day in Brittany. My host Jean-Yves picked me up from the bus stop, we greeted in French and chatted on the drive to his farm. He got really excited that I can speak French, but unfortunately, my French was not sufficient beyond the conversation on weather (yes you can guess I learned from in the UK), food and daily activities, so I was just nodding and smiling and not following what he was saying….
My two hosts were Jean-Yves and his wife Michèle. Jean-Yves feels like an artist - he is about 60 years old, with messy grey hair, broken front tooth, and always, a warm smile to show off the wrinkles on his face. He is slim yet strong, probably the busy farm works and a healthy vegan diet helped to keep him in a good shape. He’s a gentle man, with lots of patience and big philosophies towards life. I really wish I could speak more French so I could understand him more. He told me, écoute ton coeur (listen to your heart), when we were once discussing making big decisions in life. He says, he hesitates a lot before making a decision, but when he does, he sticks to it. For example, he decided to change his family’s farm into an organic farm, despite of disagreement among his brothers at first, he persisted on managing this organic farm for more than 20 years now.
Michèle, on the other hand, gave me a different feeling. She is Swiss French, grew up in a poor French family in Switzerland, but never felt belonging to Switzerland and always wanted to move to France. She seems to be an unhappy woman, worried about money, her health, her teeth, and her volunteers (including me!). During my stay, I usually stayed with her, working in the greenhouse on vegetables, cleaning the hen house (I didn’t enjoy the smell in the hen house), and feeding baby lambs. She is a small lady, looks very skinny, and her cheeks were caved downwards a bit, which makes her eyes look really big on her small face. She usually doesn’t smile, but when her daughter calls, she magically transforms into a caring and happy mother, for this I envy her daughter.
Comments