KEEPING UP WITH KATIE

Hi there reader chums,

First up I'm sorry the last couple of posts have been a little up in the air, and not quite up to date with what i am currently doing but I feel like I needed o get up to date and add a couple of things that I wanted to share with you all.

So the next leg of the Journey was to the South of France to an are called the Dordogne region which I'm sure a lot of you have all heard of. We had not planned on this part of our trip at all and it all fell into place about three days before we got there. We had planned to go to Freiburg in the south of Germany where quite a few of our friends from back home were staying and meet up with them, but at the last minute that sort of fell through so we were wondering (let's be honest here, I was stressing and all anxious) about where we should go next. My lovely and always helpful mother was sending me all these links from a website called Workaway. Which I cannot recommend more. Its like WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) where you get free food and accommodation in exchange for about 5 hours of work per day. And you could be doing work babysitting, cooking, cleaning, helping build or renovate a house or even a boat, and is a great way to meet wonderful new people and also experience the culture and customs of the country you are in as a local instead of a tourist is nice as a change of scene.

So we got in contact with a Meditation and Yoga retreat to see if we could come and stay for two weeks and before we knew it we were leaving fair Paris behind and heading for the rural french country side. We arrived late at night in a beautiful old town by the name of Periqueux. The night we arrived was actually the last evening of a mime festival in Periqueux so we were able to stop and see some little shows, one involved a group of guys miming about happiness, the none worth of money when it comes to fulfilling one's sense of contentment and happines and the importance of hugging, another one was a lady singing while playing her cello (it also envolved a random cat that just appeared out of the darkness and joined in the frivolies), and a group of young women dancing in celebration to the beauty of the moon, it was really really lovely and a wonderful entrance into our next two weeks of relaxation and contentment that we found staying at the retreat.

The retreat, which is called Le Moulin de Chaves which is an old french water mill that has been restored and turned into a retreat centre that was previously run by some french monks and sits right on a lovely little river. It was amazing.

We slept on the third floor right at the top of these amazing thick wood spiral staircase (got good strong legs from climbing that everyday, let me tell you) so every morning looked out over the river and valley on our way down to breakfast.

We were there for two weeks, the first week there was a big family retreat on where I got to help with the kids, playing games, drawing pictures, painting with our fingers, making puppets and dances and doing kids yoga (much more my style, cos everyone looks like a fool doing it, not just me), and I genuinely had one of the funnest, most self fulfilling weeks of my life and definitely one of my favourite weeks travelling.

At the end of the week with the kids we put on a puppet show and a little dance for all the parents who had also been at the retreat and I was helping the 5-7 year olds with their dance, and I found out after doing it with them in front of everyone that apparently ( and I've had this from two valid sources) I was the funniest dancer, not all the little cute kids but me bobbing around acting like a right fool for everyone to see. Maria told me afterwards that she didn't even really see the kids dancing she and our Polish friend Agnieszka were just laughing at me making fool of myself, so really
nothings changed since I've left

Australia I'm still constantly making a fool of myself in public.

The second week at Le Moulin was a lot quieter and relaxing because
there was no retreat on, so we had

the place to ourselves which was very nice.

I also had my 19th birthday there in the middle of our stay which
was really nice. The eve of, we went to

one and only pub in the tiny town of Cubjac where Le Moulin is
located and danced in the street with the

locals, i then got Happy Birthday sung to me in Dutch, German,
English, French, Polish and Danish when

I woke up the next morning. It was a lovely birthday and I spent
the morning canoeing down the river that

runs past Le Moulin, eating birthday cake that Agnieszka made for
me, it was her own special Polish apple

cake recipe and was truly delicious. And I got a wonderful birthday
message from all my family and friends

when I woke up wishing me a lovely day, which I'll have you know,
made me all teary and weepy and

me miss you all so much. So thank you that was truly lovely.

I realised at the end of the day that I had received no gifts that
were objects or things, apart from the lovely

buch of wild flowers and painted card that I got from Maria, and
that I hadn't noticed at all. The thoughts

and gifts of love and affection were so strong and I had so many
of them that they truly made my birthday

that much more special, so thank you everyone, even if your
contribution was realising that it was my

birthday, it means a lot to me. xx

I've realised that it really is the thought that counts.

Our time at Le Moulin went so quickly but the time came for us
to leave, so we said our goodbyes sadly

and in the hope that we would be back one day.

I read the Poisenwood Bible by Barbera Kingsolver while I was there and it is incredible. I highly recommend giving it a read.

The Meditation Hall

Maria doing a spot of Meditation

This is the organic veggie garden where a lot of the food eaten at Le Moulin is grown

Inside the green house with the tomatoes

Maria "Parsley Moustache" Man.

Maria's little organic snack from the garden

My little friend that I made, he/she would come up to me in the street when I walked past to go into Cubjac

Maria being a dag

The little town of Cubjac

The gorgeous people at Le Moulin

Cheeky fellow Workaway Jenny

These old groovers decided to participate in the photo when they realised I was taking a picture of the bar

Dancing in the street

Birthday Wishes

We were a little pooped from all the barefoot dancing

Birthday morning face

Fireworks!

Massive French slug!

Our view from the window on the stair as we walked down to breakfast every morning.

Mathew one of the many friends that we made at Le Moulin also wrote a (probably more well written and professional piece of writing on his website and used some of my own photos, so that was cool.

Here's the link if you want to go and check it out.

Mathew's Piece

Love and Blessings to you all

Next stop is Barcelona, so hold onto your knickers

Cheerio Chums

Love Katie G

Over the past two months of travel, We've collected some songs that will always remind us of the cities and places that we were in.

#1 Berlin Robin Thicke-Blurred Lines

I actually hate this video clip, but sadly the song is good, even if it is sexist and horrible and makes me want to punch Robin Thicke because excuse my language, but he's such a d*ck!

It's one of those horrible situations where the song is so good and catchy, but the singer and the lyrics and THE VIDEO CLIP. is the. worst.

In other words. mixed emotions.