C’est quoi, le WWOOFing?

Pampa. Trou perdu. Coin perdu. C’est moi, je suis là maintenant, en France, à la campagne, dans une ferme vegan, et je passe un temps fantastique ici.

Je me perds

On Tuesday, I went by plane, train, bus, on foot, and by car to arrive at ce beau lieu. I woke up in a narrowboat at 5am somewhere near Birmingham, and landed at Paris Beauvais at 10.40am local time, losing an hour in the new time zone (CEST).

Little did I know until after I had already booked the budget flights that l’Aéroport “Paris” Beauvais is actually 70km north of Paris itself, and the bus into the outskirts of the city takes upwards of about an hour and a half. The bus itself was pretty uneventful, and it got me where I needed to be, where I could then connect into the metro with my Navigo and leg it to my SCNF train bound for Clermont-Ferrand. It was a tight turnaround, made even tighter by longer than usual queues at immigration, but I made it with 20 minutes to spare, and time to hurriedly buy the first vegan things I could find… more difficult than I expected! (I got tabbouleh and an apple puree to bolster the snacks I had brought from the UK.)

Then on the train, the végétal offerings available included orange juice and chippies, which I enjoyed thoroughly, comme l’enfant que je suis. By the time I made it to my destination at almost 8pm I was absolutely famished. Luckily there was a Vietnamese restaurant still open where they made me something specially that was vegan – again, nothing on the menu for us, it must be pretty rare in the countryside?

I was almost sad to rush through Clermont-Ferrand – it is so beautiful and I will be sure to explore it properly in the future, but upon arrival I had to hurry again: a local informed me that the bus drivers were on strike and it was 30 minutes on foot to where I needed to be to take my final bus of the day. I think my host may have also attempted to warn me of this earlier but I only skim read her message at the time… oops!

Since then, I have met my lovely host, who is a foster carer and has a gorgeous farmhouse, and moved into a cute lil caravan in the bush. I’ll be here for the next week and a bit, before returning to the UK to go to a family wedding and then start my new job, all things going to plan!

My host has since lamented to me that in France, people can be almost hostile towards vegans, particularly in less populated areas like where she is. When she was living in a bigger city she was comfortable telling people she was vegan but here, she keeps it a secret because it’s something most French people just don’t understand or agree with at all.

C’est quoi, le WWOOFing?

WWOOFing is something I have always wanted to do. At its core, it’s a volunteer exchange – the wwoofer works half days at their host’s organic farm and is “paid” in full board: all meals and accommodation provided. No money is exchanged, but plenty of skills, knowledge and conversation are! As far as I know, most people generally go wwoofing in their young adulthood and travel to different countries than their own, but there’s no reason you can’t do it in your own country or region. It’s a budget friendly way to explore a new place and have authentic, meaningful experiences with people who may even have many shared values and passions.

I’m having a great time, and trying to fully immerse myself in the language and culture here. My host is so patient with me, even though her English is far better than my French, and we are living bilingually, fluidly switching between the two – with plenty of Franglais thrown in for good measure too. She is enjoying the opportunity to brush up on her English conversation skills as well, I think. The icing on the cake for me is that I’ve already played two new board games: Evergreen (twice) and It’s a Wonderful World – the former is wholesome af and almost a relaxing experience where you grow trees across your biomes on your own world board, and the latter is a capitalist hellscape engine-building game where you construct buildings and produce resources while selling your soul and polluting the planet. Such fun!

My host used to be a wwoofer herself, and was excited to become a host a few years ago. It has me thinking about maybe doing the same one day – having my own property where I can host wwoofers in New Zealand. Un jour, peut-être!

But for now, there are gardens to cultivate, plants to water and delicious meals to make! À bientot!