Nature Walkin'

Hello all!

Sorry I have been silent these past couple of days. Believe me when I say it is not because I have been busy that I haven't been writing. I keep going to work thinking I will have a full day, and then am told that no one really needs me so I can work an hour or two if I want. Agh. But, more on that later. The truth is,  I have just been lazy beyond all reason.

Because I have been such a slacker I have a couple things to catch up on, like how I made yogurt for the first time,  and how I went on a lovely walk in the rain, and my last couple of days teaching. I think I will split them up into a post or two, but I swear I will get them out soon!

Anyways. I want to start with the walk I went on. Olivier and I have been trying to explore our area lately because it is truly beautiful, and we don't have much of a reason to get out of the apartment these days. Flers is a lovely little town, but the downtown is so small that it was only exciting for a couple days and now we have to look a little farther from home for some cheap thrills.

This Monday I didn't have work so we decided to take advantage by a nice long walk in the miles and miles of woods that surround our town. (Side note: One of the best things about living in France is that I don't know how to drive a stick shift, so I basically can't drive any car in France. This is a good thing because I really don't like driving, I know I am weird, it's just that I'm a nervous freak when I drive. Olivier, luckily for me, is a great driver, and is way more relaxed navigating than I am, so he gets to handle all of the driving. Yay!)

Anyways, we took the car out Monday, and before we left I asked him if he had an idea of where we should go, or if I should look something up. He assured me that he had something in mind. After we had been driving all of five minutes he told me that he had no idea where he was going and that he was just "following the forest". We were just trying to turn in the right direction whenever we saw some trees, basically. Luckily for us, in France they have pretty well marked trails and signs telling you where there is a "voie vert," meaning a marked trail. We parked the car in a random town whose name I do not remember and saw a little trail in the woods.

Olivier looking for mushrooms

The weird rocks we saw. Irrigation? Aliens? Wood Sprites?

It was a rainy day, typical of Normandy, and it felt more like we were getting spat on than actual raindrops were falling on us. Luckily when we had some tree cover it wasn't bad at all. Olivier brought along a mushroom guide and we kept our eyes open for any yummy mushrooms. We only found the poison kind, but it was still fun to look them up in the book, and to be on the lookout for something. Another thing we saw were some weird looking rocks, that were cut out, maybe for irrigation purposes? Who knows. We followed the path that became more and more narrow as we went on, and made it back to the road farther down near an old mining town, which was pretty cool. On our way back we found another entrance at the other side of the trail from where we started with a gorgeous little bridge. I taught Olivier how to play Pooh sticks. Does anyone else play that game? Where you each drop a stick at the same time on one side of the bridge, and see whose comes out the other side first? Just me? That's cool.

I will give you a hint, these are not mushrooms you want to be eating. . .

The bridge on the other side of the trail. It was beautiful.

Tomorrow I will show you some awesome pictures of yogurt, so get excited! Sorry if I just bored all of you talking about a nature walk. . .

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Shoshana