Adventures at La Bergerie

I'm having a great time living and working on the farm, officially named La Bergerie. The family is great (wife, husband and three kids), the scenery is beautiful, and I enjoy the work we do during the week. However, that's not what this post is about. I promise I'll write about the daily routine soon, but this post is about what we've done this weekend.  

Last night we had a big bonfire which lasted for hours and was good fun. Today was quite an adventure - we went to a small lake for a picnic and swimming, but it's off the beaten path. In order to get there we had to bike and/or walk a few kilometers. I ended up in the walking group, and John (husband/father) decided we should take a shortcut through the woods. A quick, easy shortcut ended up being an hour of hiking through  waist-high fields, and boggy marshes and forests. I actually had a great time hiking through this wilderness (with two adults, two Great Danes, and a three-year-old toddler), but if I'd known what I was in for I wouldn't have worn flip flops. We arrived at the lake intact, albeit covered in mud and scratches on our legs. 

The afternoon was spent lounging around - eating, reading, playing games, swimming, etc. Around 6 pm, a man yelled at us to get off his property. I noticed him looking at us from time to time, but he never came near us until this outburst when he threatened to call the gendarmerie. We had no idea the lake was private property...the family had been there before and never been told off. We quickly packed up our things and took off!  Our route back to the farm was more mundane but also exciting- we took roads the entire way, but we shared the road with racing cyclists. I thought perhaps it was a stage of the Tour de France, but alas it was just a local race.

This evening I played wall-ball with Jacob for a while. We started out keeping score and following the (somewhat ambiguous) rules, but after a while we were just trying to see who could kick the ball the hardest, fastest and farthest. It's more fun like that anyway.  

Jacob by the fire

sitting around the bonfire

Eeyore came to say hello!

and then he tried to steal food

(another) beautiful sunset

Saturday - the beginning of our long walk to the lake

hiking through the forest (pictured: Dixie)

we finally arrived at the lake!

hanging out

I was taking a walk...Jacob decided to come so he ran to catch up

he made it

and then Emilie decided she wanted to come too

Hi Emilie!

peaceful

my view for the next six weeks

Burgundy countryside. More pics to come...

Strasbourg is beautiful

Strasbourg Cathedral

le Palais Rohan

beautiful

tree-lined avenue

watch towers

botanical gardens

Petit France

Frankfurt

city at night

Romer (town hall)

Romer

river view

 my hostel was in the red light district...this is the view from my room

Graffiti and Street Art in Berlin

Berlin is one of the best places in the world to see graffiti. Artists come from all over the world to add their touch to the city's buildings, walls, bridges, etc. I took a tour of the "alternative" side of Berlin which focused on graffiti, among other things. Basically, during the Cold War a whole sub-culture developed in West Berlin, and when the wall came down it spread into East Berlin.  The tour discussed a lot of different aspects of this sub-culture, but graffiti was the only aspect I could easily capture on camera. The one exception is Tacheles - it's an abandoned building that is illegally occupied by artists and at night it turns into a really cool bar scene (similar to the warehouse bars in Budapest).   I have some pictures of that area, shown below. 

back of Tacheles building

Tacheles hallway

Tacheles - outdoor area that is packed at night (also illegal)

 in Tacheles

random graffiti

this graffiti takes up the entire front of a building; the rest of the block is brand new, modern buildings 

interactive art project- people are given stickers to make designs all over the building

stick-on graffiti- technically this isn't illegal because it can be peeled off the wall at any time

Little Lucy (right) is all over Berlin - she is done by a respected artist so not many people write over her (use the cat woman on the left as comparison - someone drew a mustache on her and she is covered in more graffiti)

commissioned street art (legal) - lots of artists were hired by the city of Berlin to decorate the remaining part of the Berlin Wall

another panel of the Berlin Wall

commissioned street art

Berlin pics

Brandenburg Gate

Holocaust Memorial for Jews (I know, it's weird that I'm smiling...)

Berlin Dome and the River Spree

inside the Pergamon Museum...standing on the Pergamon Altar

Berlin flea market

Paris Square

pub crawl with Tom and Steve

Oranienburger Straße and the old synagogue

dinner @YamYam 

Oberbaum Bridge - used to be the dividing line between East and West Berlin. Now it's a symbol of unity for the city.