Montreuil — Day 16 & 17

The drive to Montreuil took just under one hour on Friday night and on the way Sarah and I stopped at a HUGE supermarket (more like a Costco) called LeClerc for supplies for the weekend. I had a strange feeling of culture shock as I walked through this huge, consumerist hub, with its sparkling halogen lights, shiny, new products and so many choices (seriously, who needs to select from 50 varieties of packaged ham?). It made me feel sick. I looked at everyone around me wondering how many of them knew, or even cared about what was happening in Calais. I found myself looking at the black jackets, gloves, hats and scarves in the clothing section thinking “they would be good for the refugees”, and looking at the faux suede boots thinking “nope, they would go in the cash for clothes pile.” If it were not so serious and sad, I would laugh.

We arrived at Sarah’s home in the dark, so I couldn’t get a real sense of where we were or my surroundings, but I stepped in to a traditional French house, that is older than Australia! With it’s exposed wooden beams and brickwork and lovely cozy furnishings, I instantly fell in love with it. I met Sarah’s husband and son, and their pets, two dogs (Lily and Holly) and three cats (Patch, Bella and Sam). Lily is a new addition, Sarah rescued her from the pound a week and a half ago when she donated some towels to them that were unsuitable for the refugee camp. She is a sweet little dog, but she went bezerk because I was wearing a black jacket (she doesn’t like them for some reason). I took off my jacket, and slowly but surely we made friends. Sarah then showed me to my attic room upstairs (I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED ONE OF THEM!), including the most comfortable double bed and I felt happy and guilty all at the same time. I quickly freshened up and we headed out to a little local Friterie for dinner.

After dinner (an “American” — a baguette kind of burger with chips), we headed home and shared a lovely bottle of Rose and relaxed. It felt good to do so, but I just kept thinking about the Jungle, wondering how the weather was and hoping everyone was ok. We went out to the backyard to see if we could find a hedgehog (a bucket list item for me), but we didn’t see one. I went to bed quite late, and slept like a log.

On Saturday morning I woke up fairly early to the sound of a rooster (not the alarm on my phone!), and looked out the window to see the most beautiful sun rise. All around here are wind turbines. They blink with silvery lights during the day and red at night. Seeing the red lights blinking on the horizon was so beautiful, and then the sky changing colour through the trees. Bliss. I had a lovely hot shower (again feeling guilty and grateful all at the same time) and headed downstairs for croissants with this delicious spread I have never seen before called Speculoos (it tastes like cookie dough with cinnamon and chocolate) and coffee. I had the luxury of washing all of my clothes in a washing machine (they smelled like Jungle — a mixture of cooking smells, chemical factory smell and me). Lily ran around my feet and seemed happy enough, I think I won her over.

Sarah had woken with a migraine feeling unwell so we had a later start than planned. She was a stellar hostess, she pushed through it just to take me out to see Montreuil town centre for which I was very grateful. It was nice to see the drive in the daylight. Sarah’s home is in quite a rural area and so we drove through little French villages complete with narrow winding roads and quaint houses with peaked roofs and attic rooms. We arrived in the town square to find a small market where we bought some flowers to put in Sarah’s Gites (small cottages) Sarah and David have small holiday cottages on their property, I’d highly recommend to stay here!

We then walked along the ramparts, down cobblestone roads, through tiny alley-ways and down narrow roads looking at artisan shops, the cathedral and the local landmarks of Montreuil. Lots of references to Victor Hugo and Les Miserables are here in Montreuil. I have read that Victor Hugo only spent a half day in Montreuil, but he was so impressed he set Les Mis in this village. I can see why, it is very beautiful. For the first time I finally felt like I was really back in Europe when I walked on the cobblestones and went in to the Cathedral. You are not in Europe until you go in a Cathedral. You know it is time to leave when you get sick of taking photos of Cathedrals :) .

We got back to the car and drove a short way to another part of town to see the citadel but unfortunately it was closed for renovations. I had to laugh at the basketball and tennis courts they had in the middle of this historic site. It was bitterly cold so we snapped a couple of photos and headed off. We stopped again at LeClerc and Aldi and then back to Sarah’s house. Sarah looked white as a sheet and was still feeling rough so she went to have a sleep. I wrote my blog with little Lily on my lap and then David took me out in the backyard to see the most spectacular sunset. There were all these little mud piles in the lawn and he explained they are made by moles! Now in addition to hedgehogs, I also want to see moles! We looked again not long after dark for hedgehogs but again no luck. They might already be in hibernation.

Sarah woke up feeling better and we had rucklets for dinner. I hadn’t had rucklets since I was in Germany for Christmas in 2005 — what a treat! We shared some more lovely wine and watched TV while I cuddled Lily and celebrated getting all of my uni results through. I have been checking every day for them and I am so pleased with the outcome. A lot of hard work and sacrifice went in to achieving them.

I again went to bed late, exhausted but happy and fell asleep almost immediately. Despite having a great time, I still keep one eye on facebook and what is happening in Calais, and one eye on WhatsApp checking for messages from my refugee friends. I am sitting in what could only be called privileged luxury and ironically I miss the camp.

This morning Sarah was feeling much better and she made me a lovely breakfast of poached eggs on toast. I video skyped with Andy, and introduced him to Lily who was sitting on my lap. She has adopted me now, I’ve been accepted in to the family :) We headed out to the local bakery and I took some lovely photos of the River Aa (yes, shortest named river in the world). We drove past a church that had some original world war 1 artillery guns at Renty.

Then Sarah and I went off-roading to drive out to the wind turbines. You can go very close to them, and it was an incredible experience. I find them very graceful and calming to watch and I had heard so many bad things about them from the right-wing naysayers back home about them being noisy, etc. I can now say, they are not noisy. There is a rhythmic whooshing sound to them as they turn, kind of like the ocean. We stood out there, in the middle of spectacular green fields, watching deer moving at lightning speed from thicket to thicket of naked trees. The clouds were moving so fast on account of the strong winds. We could barely stand up. But the sun was shining and it was exhilirating. I will never forget that moment, it was very special indeed.

We then went to Sarah and David’s other holiday rental property at Campagne Les Boulonneis called Coq Rouge (also beautiful, see the below link!)

We came back for a delicious lunch — Sarah made pork chops, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, carrots and yellow beans. Since then I have had the most relaxing afternoon literally doing nothing until now when I finally decided I should write the blog before I lose track. It has been wonderful to be honest, but I am very keen to get back to the Jungle tomorrow. I only have three full days left before I leave for London on Thursday and I want to make the most of my time with my friends.