All right, I
got very lazy with updating you guys lately… everyone is already asking when is
the next update coming….. here it comes. This time with more pictures and less text (oohm, oohmm)!
Terre Rouge
(red soil/ground)
This place is located somewhere in the Rhone Alps close to the city Die you drive of the Road to a small village called Chatillon-en-Diois. From there you take a right so an even smaller road to get further into the mountains towards Boulc. At the end of the little town you go further on the road to the even smaller town Bonneval en diois. Again at the even smaller road you continue to the last 4 houses in the region. No you are not there yet :) At the end of this road you will find a little gravel pit where you can either park or continue the dirt road with 6 very sharp turns even further up the mountain to reach Terre Rouge at the end of the “street” (dirt path). You can try… maybe on a good day when there is no rain no snow no ice and the dirt is very dry in this place full of water, Jack may be able to do it. But not the day we arrived. The day when the snow melted and all the water was running down the hill. Jack made it to the first turn and got stuck. Of course. So we managed to get him off the road a little bit the so that people can pass us and called the guy if he can come and pick us up with the entire luggage we had.
One car passed us very quickly, so we were confused because we knew It was at the end of the road no one else living but the guy didn’t stop. Anyway we waited another car passed us this time coming from top. Also without stopping….OK. After a while the car came back (he had to turn around…as soon as you are on this one way street you have to do the whole trip up or down to be able to turn or do some risky back and forward in the turn at the edge of the hill).
All right now the car stopped (it was something like 0°C that’s why we waited in the camper). Nothing happened. Ok maybe we check. Getting out, there was a guy just sitting in his car not doing anything so we thought if it’s the right guy he would come out and say hello, but no. Ok but it was the right guy after we knocked at the window and he opened.
First impression --- Weired!!!
After showing our room we made a fire in the fire place… next to it there was a standing lantern which touched the chimney. And guess what was kind of the first or second thing what happened. It caught fire. The floor, wood, the walls wood, the cupboard, wood, the stand of the lantern, wood, the chairs, wood the table wood….and in the middle the fireplace and a burning lantern….I guess that’s a big “BEEE CAREFULL” sign :D ….I ripped out the cable of the lantern and run out the house with it… that was close! They say if there is a fire you have 30 seconds to get rid of it till something else catches…if something else catches you have 1-3 minutes till you can’t get it under control any more. Happy instincts…10 seconds did the job. The guy, very unimpressed. We…”what the hell”.
Next day we had a conversation about the place he lives and the life. We are supposed to work 4 hours per day and do lunch (which counts as working) and do dinner (which counts not as working). There are chickens and cats we have to take care of and a garden which needs some hay as protection for the snow.
Also there is a house getting renovated also the place there we slept (upstairs) needs to get improved.
here is the exit and the stairs up to our room (unfortunately I don't have a picture of our room)
We can work when we like and kind of what we like. Find the work by our self and do it with little taking about it by our self. Apart from what has to be done with the chicken and firewood, he didn’t give further instructions and said it’s very important for him that we feel free.
Sounds great!
But in fact it wasn’t! We never get instructions what he wanted to do in detail just like “put some hay in the garden” but what hay and which part of the garden? And when we asked further questions he said we have to start thinking for ourselves. As we want to improve the place. Ok. After a few days getting use to no instructions we started to do things how we wanted them to be done. And then we got very different response. Some times some rare times it was OK but most of the time the free world he wants to live and provide us was not free at all. At nearly every job we did he had an idea of how he wanted or how he not wanted to get it done.
So you don’t get instructions, when you ask for further details he says you have to think and act by your self (“kind of obvious what has to be done”) and if you do something it was most of the time wrong. He was unhappy told us to not do it like that again. Gave as “free” suggestions but in fact every suggestion (even the ones he said we can do it differently) where commands.
We had some very weired days happening. One time we cooked a nice dish with lentils (as proteins) rice (as filler), vegetables and salad (for vitamins). We cooked for us 3, him, his daughter and some friends of his. Everyone was very happy about the taste and the amount. In the end we had only little leftovers. BUT, it was not ok because he “felt like Christmas” he said. It should be much cheaper and vegetables and salad we only should use very rarely or on special occasions.
So no comment before what we should do, but always telling us off afterwards.
We tried to adjust as good as possible and I gave my best to please him. But all changed after he was getting really loud, very very manipulative and uncomfortable with Gemma at the dinner table. She wanted to leave the conversation a few times because she didn’t feel good but he made her stay. He always has to have the last word and turns people down so he feels maybe better or “the winner”!?
After the 3 time Gemma wanted to leave she actually left the dinner table. Then the guy turned to Philip and me and asked for understanding. He always plays the role “he is the good and the others are giving him troubles”. He said, leaving a conversation is rude and he feels very bad now because she left and didn’t give him the change to “understand”. But never wanted.
After he asked again and again for “enlightenment” about the conversations he had with Gemma, while doing the dishes I told him many things which went wrong in my eyes in the situation and the way he was talking to her and how important it is to provide a safe communication platform as also to respect the other person fully at least as you respect yourself. I mentioned many path where he winded himself up to much and what shouting and supressing does negatively to a person. Each argument he tried to bring was easy to answer or negate for me. I don’t know what happened there or who talked though me but I stayed very calm very logical (that was the way he always trys to take) objective and direct.
He asked for an explanation and I gave it to him detailed but maybe painful for him to see what he is capable of doing to other persons. Soon he didn’t asked for “why” and “how” this happened any more and then he had to leave the conversation, he said, because it was too much for him…. WOW yes, the guy who was so mad that a person leaves him after being rude cannot listen to his own behaviour.
After that and after the fact that he tried to blame Gemma for his “bad” feelings tried to guilt us very strongly I closed my soul and my “try to please” him part. He felt that very clearly he said something changed after that discussion with Gemma but that was fine for me, that is just not how one treats people. Sentences like “I’m so happy that I have a girlfriend I love because after that conversation I felt so bad and the loves me” or, “I wanted to do you a favour to take you all tree in even though I don’t have a lot of money”….came maybe from a hurt soul but unconsciously tried to guilt us in a very settle way .
For Christmas we invited the neighbour to eat with us because he was really nice to us...Christmas has to be celebrated 2 times. Once at the 24. for the German and Swedish and once at the 25. for the British :)
After nice Christmas celebration without the guy of the place (he went off to his love). This was the next time there was a big sign. And again….guess ….. a fire!
Philip painting, Gemma making some nice food...
There is this weired feeling sometimes it’s inside you which says something is not right. We were making nice oven food and the place got a little steamy. I mentioned that there might be a problem but the others said probably fine probably fine. The feeling stayed and I got more and more nervous. I said…guys something is wrong there is steam you can see it at the lights it’s a little misty here. But again “probably fine, don’t stress Jan”. Ok I couldn’t stand the feeling any longer so I left the kitchen I just thought something is just about to happen. So I Went to the living area just around the corner and tried to calm myself down at the couch…I tired till I say the shadow of Gemma and Philip suddenly very clearly at the wall and some very orange colour around the corner. I run around the corner and the oven was completely filled with fire. Of course next to the oven, wood shelf, wood cupboards, wood tools, a wall mad out of dry clay and strow, ceiling wood …… a nightmare. Philip was about to get a carpet I run to get some water…then this few seconds and this weired decisions you make feels like an hour but it’s just seconds, me having the bowl of water Gemma saying, it’s probably burning oil, water is the worse for burning oil, on part of my brain agrees because this is what we learned the other part splashes the water on the burning oil…
To be continued …
(just kidding)
…YES water on burning oil IS the worst. But only if the oil can then jump into every direction and burns everything around the stove. In this particular situation, I guess two things happened.
1. the oil got splashed into every direction and hit the metal sides of the oven. The heat got separated in many little parts and hit the (little) colder walls of the oven
2.and probably the more powerful effect: the water evaporated instantly there was a biiiig cloud of steam coming out the oven since there is only one side open, suddenly pushing the other gases (also Oxygen away from the fire). The steam (evaporating water) also cooled down the oil temperature again below the self-inflammable temperature.
So the fire was out in an instant.
Wooow what a nightmare, this was clearly not enjoyable at all. Sometimes something just make you do the right things even all your knowledge says it’s wrong.
But you know what was good…. No more feeling of “something bad will happen soon” :D :D :D
After signs like that, bad nights with lung pain in the morning because of a not sealed chimney pipe in our room the "not so nice guy" with all his manipulation, we left Terre rouge in a very very hurry (something like 5 days after we made the descition) .
Yes it took us 5 days to actually leave after we said we are not happy…we just couldn’t tell him. For some reason we all were very scared telling the guy. I remembered a very similar situation in Australia and then I connected it. Also a very manipulative guy who can lose control but always says “he wants us all to be happy and free”. Back then I told the guy as well as this guy "we will leave today"…. Sometimes I guess you just have to push through this feeling to feel REALLY FREE (again).
If you leave a place like that you will hit this x km mark where you suddenly realise that you actually left and will never come back.
You will feel a big relive. You will feel free.
And speaking of
strong signs….I have never seen a bald eagle* (“Weißkopfseeadler”) in my life before, never. But this day we all
have seen a horde of many many just crossing the long small mountain road on our
way away from Terre Rouge, back to civilisation!
*The bald eagle stands for: freedom, peace and strength
Going for a little slide with no toboggan :( ... :)
Hiking without propper path and signs is all about finding path without sings....Stunning days in the winter...
on top of the next mountain
after leaving the place, we went straigh to the sea. Because if you go to the sea, you will always feel nice :)
not so much stealth camping with Jack :D
and then
Welcome Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer :
who knows this place, knows there are a lot of flamingos. I was taking this pictures together with a friend on video call :D
....magnificent beach and of course skinny dipping (Nacktbaden) at 0.00 o'clock January the 1th 2021 ...
new year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!
.....I will end this blog with two funny pictures
nr.1 is Jack....because Jack is just funny
