European Travels – Kisses and a Farm Tale
“Ooooooo kisses!” She squeals with delight before running to the window to press her nose and hands against the pane. This is followed quickly by “ahhh, pwetty” sighed with the dreamy delight of a two-year-old. And there they are: piebald, tan and black; sturdy horses plodding steadily past the farm’s kitchen window. You see, she can’t really say horses, it sounds more like kisses, but a mother always knows what their child means, don’t they?
I sit on the smooth rounded wooden chair watching and marveling at how my daughter appears to slot so effortlessly into this, our travelling life. Each day she wakes with excitement and wonder for what she might find outside the window of our moving house. She embraces each morning with its changing vistas, changeable weather and new faces of all nationalities, colours and sounds with true enthusiasm. And then she smiles widely and shouts “sooos!” before heading out into the dewy grass to welcome the day.
This past week we have traversed, expertly I might add, the many lanes of the beautiful and serene SW of France. Vineyards run as far as the eyes can see, rolling hills unfold into a patchwork quilt of greens; moss, emerald, deep velvet, light cotton. Terracotta tiles cling hap-hazzardly to the roofs of crumbling stone buildings and all the signs of our own country gradually diminish until there are less and less comparisons. There is a feeling hanging in the air, like a muggy stillness, that tells us we are in the South.
And then we arrive at a farm nestled deep in the countryside, a haven as far from traffic and noise as you can imagine. A place where the smell of horses abounds: worn tack, stacked hay, dry mud. We park, pull our home into a space that looks out directly toward the Pyrenees and stop, just for a moment, to soak it all in before being disturbed by the distant hum of a country kitchen calling our names.
Isabella helps to make fresh pasta, we share wine with old friends and new friends, we walk out into the fields in the twilight to talk to the horses, stroking their manes and then in the early morning I ride out and think “one day I hope to have Isabella here next to me.”
As we head toward our third week of being back on the road, we are settling into things nicely. Although it is true that our house on wheels has at times clung to the back of our car by the skin of its teeth and that Scott has had to quickly learn how to reverse down steep inclines after realising too late that it’s really a bit toooo adventurous for our Elvis, (these mistakes were of course often witnessed by the unforgiving weathered face of a French Farmer who casually leaned on his stick shaking his head) there is a calm pace in our journey towards Spain & Portugal and a feeling that more beauty is yet to come.
Hope you are all well! Do let me know if you are particularly interested in any areas or information. I will happily write about anything you desire to know more about! In the meantime please feel free to post tips on how Scott might improve his skills at maneuvering Elvis (our caravan!)
Alice Griffin is a freelance writer who, along with her husband, two-year-old daughter and dog, is currently enjoying her second year of long-term, open-ended travel across Europe with the eventual goal of one day finding a place to call home. You can read more about Alice here.
I sit on the smooth rounded wooden chair watching and marveling at how my daughter appears to slot so effortlessly into this, our travelling life. Each day she wakes with excitement and wonder for what she might find outside the window of our moving house. She embraces each morning with its changing vistas, changeable weather and new faces of all nationalities, colours and sounds with true enthusiasm. And then she smiles widely and shouts “sooos!” before heading out into the dewy grass to welcome the day.
This past week we have traversed, expertly I might add, the many lanes of the beautiful and serene SW of France. Vineyards run as far as the eyes can see, rolling hills unfold into a patchwork quilt of greens; moss, emerald, deep velvet, light cotton. Terracotta tiles cling hap-hazzardly to the roofs of crumbling stone buildings and all the signs of our own country gradually diminish until there are less and less comparisons. There is a feeling hanging in the air, like a muggy stillness, that tells us we are in the South.
And then we arrive at a farm nestled deep in the countryside, a haven as far from traffic and noise as you can imagine. A place where the smell of horses abounds: worn tack, stacked hay, dry mud. We park, pull our home into a space that looks out directly toward the Pyrenees and stop, just for a moment, to soak it all in before being disturbed by the distant hum of a country kitchen calling our names.
Isabella helps to make fresh pasta, we share wine with old friends and new friends, we walk out into the fields in the twilight to talk to the horses, stroking their manes and then in the early morning I ride out and think “one day I hope to have Isabella here next to me.”
As we head toward our third week of being back on the road, we are settling into things nicely. Although it is true that our house on wheels has at times clung to the back of our car by the skin of its teeth and that Scott has had to quickly learn how to reverse down steep inclines after realising too late that it’s really a bit toooo adventurous for our Elvis, (these mistakes were of course often witnessed by the unforgiving weathered face of a French Farmer who casually leaned on his stick shaking his head) there is a calm pace in our journey towards Spain & Portugal and a feeling that more beauty is yet to come.
Hope you are all well! Do let me know if you are particularly interested in any areas or information. I will happily write about anything you desire to know more about! In the meantime please feel free to post tips on how Scott might improve his skills at maneuvering Elvis (our caravan!)
Alice Griffin is a freelance writer who, along with her husband, two-year-old daughter and dog, is currently enjoying her second year of long-term, open-ended travel across Europe with the eventual goal of one day finding a place to call home. You can read more about Alice here.
Add a Comment
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Comment by Alice Griffin on June 23, 2009 at 2:51am -
Suzette, Thank you for stopping by my blog! I’m sure you will be hugely refreshed and cultured! I look forward to Isabella being old enough to enjoy cities. At the moment we don’t do too much city stuff as she’s tiny and we have the dog, too. But all in good time. I’ve just read A Year in Provence and it made me long for that part of France (we spent a while there on our travels last year) … Bon Voyage to you and your family!
ECHOage … No worries, I don’t mind personal! We had numerous pub and dinner dates when we were back in the UK :-) We do have to kind of save them up for when we’re back with family at the moment. Although in saying that, last year we spent ages in a particular part of Spain and we made friends who had children so we were able to swap baby-sitting. It’s not easy when we’re ‘on the road’ as obviously you wouldn’t trust complete strangers! But we do try to stick to routine so by the time 8pm rolls round Isabella is sleeping and we’re sharing a bottle of wine together outside. I guess everything comes at a price and this is ours and we’re cool with that, for the moment anyway :-)
Ann – Thank you for stopping by! It’s always nice to see some friendly faces passing through my little corner of the internet! Oh gosh, the un-fun stuff so does happen. I think this calls for a ‘downside of travels’ post??? … maybe I’ll do one on not being able to have a date for a while?!!!! Or maybe on being stuck in a camper in the rain … for weeks at a time and not being able to wash our clothes, go out etc etc etc. Leave it with me – I’ll make all you lovely readers with homes and commitments (ie: a home, wow, how nice would that be!) glad that you’re not on the road!!!!
Thank you all for stopping by and hope to see you again some time :-)
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Comment by Ann Duncan on June 20, 2009 at 8:24pm -
Thank you, Alice, for sharing lovely details of some of your adventuring. It sounds glorious! Well, a lot of it does. I know the un-fun stuff has to happen along the way as well, yes?
Travel Blessings to you!
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Comment by ECHOage on June 17, 2009 at 10:59am -
Nice post Alice.
This might be a bit of a personal question about your life, but do you guys ever hire a babysitter and go out on a date? Or do you save those for when you are visiting family?
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Comment by Suzette Valle on June 15, 2009 at 8:17am
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Dawn, Wonderful adventures and memories! After living in Europe for five years, I'm finally going back after 25 years with my husband and two teens next month. We are very excited! My dream was to go back and stay in the south of France in a small chateau and wonder around those amazing small villages sampling wines. But with a 14 and 17 year old, guess this is not adequate.
We'll hit the big cities, and come back refreshed and cultured!! Bon Voyage!
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Comment by Alice Griffin on June 13, 2009 at 8:24am
- Hi Dawn! We will be there soon and we are going to be considering the possibility of living there for a while so I'm sure I will be writing plenty about it! We are heading to the central region and the Estrela mountains. Where will you be going? Thank you for stopping by :-)
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Comment by Dawn on June 13, 2009 at 8:05am - Can't wait to hear about Portugal - I am planning a trip there in the future. My husband has relatives there.
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