Le Mas Perdu, Part Two

I’ve been here four days now, and there have been serious ups and downs; but for the most part it’s been a great experience. Staying at Le Mas Perdu feels a little like playing a game of Mao with the cast of a Fellini movie. Not much is explained, but when you break a rule, someone (usually Monique) lets you know. But, as with most things in life, the people make the biggest difference, and there are some absolutely amazing people here with me.

Yannick and Jasmin are music teachers in Germany - Jasmin is Palestinian, and one evening she made us a special tabouleh dish for dinner. Jasmin is here for a vacation, and Yannick is WWOOFing with us.

Gwen is from a town near Aix-en-Provence - she is finishing up her masters in education and plans to become a middle school French teacher. To put herself through school, she works as an educational aide for disabled students in the public schools in Aix. Christophe describes himself as a 'long-term WWOOFer' -- he's been coming here for years, since starting out as a client when the farm served as rehab farm for youth with addiction issues. He's been here for the past several months, but plans to leave at the end of the summer.

Dario is from Barcelona - he works in a training center with disabled people, helping them to gain life skills. He speaks fluent French (he lived in Geneva for five years), but his Spanish accent is so thick I can barely understand him! (I offered to speak Spanish with him, but he was determined to only speak French here -- "Je suis ici pour parler Francais!" he told me), so Gwen often helps by 'translating' what he's said (basically just repeating it in unaccented French) so I can understand. Luckily Dario is good-natured about it and it has become a kind of joke between us.

Morgane and her 9-year-old son Côme have been coming here every summer for several years (I never did figure out how they originally found out about it), driving their EV all the way here from their home in northern France. Morgane is also an elementary school teacher. We had some interesting conversations about auto-immune disease and COVID vaccinations.

Friday evening, some of the guests staying in one of the rental apartments invited us all to join them for galettes (savory buckwheat crepes) on their porch. The galettes were delicious!

And then, Monique announced to everyone at the table that it had been my birthday this week -- they all sang me the French birthday song (again -- which, I have to say, is much nicer than the American Happy Birthday song, at least their version) and she gave me a pot of honey and a birthday card! I was floored.

After dinner, we all gathered in the main house for a 'talent show' -- Christophe played the piano, Yannick and Jasmin performed several numbers, Peter sang a Negro Spiritual, and Jasmin accompanied me on the piano while I sang "Summertime". Then, Côme and I ended the evening lying on the grass looking at the sky. It was clear enough to see the Milky Way and we spotted several shooting stars (which, I later learned, were probably part of the Perseid Meteor Shower) - truly a magical experience.