Larrau

Once again sorry for the delay and banality of the title. For the past three days Ive been in a homestay in Larrau France (Thats a picture of the city). This city of about 200 people is in the Pyrannes and is one of the closest French cities to Spain (This picture was taking on the separating mountain). The family I stayed with are sheep milk and cow meat farmers and I took a three day first hand look into their lives. We were asked to keep a journal with our academic observations and learning. The following are lessons learned that didn't quite make the academic cut.....


The 10 Things I Learned Living with a French Farming Family
1. Dont Diss the Short Shorts
This was the first thing I learned while in Larrau, and it became apparent before I even officially met my host father. I was waiting for my family to show up when from up the hill, a lumbering 6'4" 220lbs (guesses) comes strolling up the hill in his comedicly short rugby shorts. Im talking this guy look like he could run down an antelope. Im talking this guy looks like he came right out of Harvard's 1980's rude and smooth crew (without the picture in front of me, he probably bears striking resemblance to either 5 or 6 seat). After checking it was not thigh high Thursday, I realized this guy was for serious and decided never to diss the short shorts. This lesson was perpetuated as this forty-year old man and his practically identical brother out-walked, out-lifted, out-milked, out-ate, out-played, and out-everything-ed me.

2.Always Eat Your Stick
For people left vaguely confused by the title, let me explain. The french word "prendre" litterally translates to "to take" but is also used as eat regarding food (every meal was a chorus of "prennez!". So you will understand my confusion when while sitting at the breakfast table, my host grandmother tells me "Il est necessaire de prendre votre batton" I was very confused until Michel handed me my walking stick. I also note that I was advised to take my "batton" (stick) not my walking stick; this is not an accident. Over the next two days, I used this stick not only to walk but to stop myself from cascading down a mountain, drive dogs (see #4), louisville slugger some cows (see #6), and most importantly tell a stampeding herd of 100 cows to stop. You might be saying, how would a 5' long stick help you do that? It didnt, but it was comforting to have something between me and the cows when Michel told me to get in front and stop the cows from running down the mountain.

3.Herding dogs are awesome... as long as your not a cow or sheep
During my stay with sheep and cow farmers, we had to herd a lot of sheep and cows; go figure. Helping us were three herding dogs. I have never met happier, friendlier, cuter dogs than these three; that is except when they're herding. For example one of them had two nose rings, and they're not just for fashion. It turns out he had killed too many sheep so they had to put barbed wire in he nose so when he bit them it would hurt him too... he still bit them. But these dogs were increadably fit (they dont ride in cars, they run beside them for miles), happy (all three never stopped wagging their tails my entire stay) and obedient....(huray for transitions)

4.How to drive
...dogs. This is probably the coolest thing I've learned how to do; let me explain. When herding the goal is to have the dogs do as much work as possible, and for this reason you have to learn to drive them. Drive? It works like this: you have your stick, and your voice; your stick is like the steering wheel, your voice tone is the clutch and shifter, and your words are the gas and break. In other words, you point the stick in the direction to go, either sound nice or angry, and tell them what you want, I was skeptical until I found myself on a mountain, standing still, and herding sheep through this dog. There was only one problem: they only speak Basque...

5.I dont speak as much Basque as I thought I did
Please wiki Basque because it's actually what this program is studying and thus rather important but in brief summary: The Basque Country is in the South West of France/North East of Spain, is seeped in history, and has its own culture and language. (they speak French fluently too but Basque is everyone's first language). It sounds like this odd mixture of the harshness of German or Russian and the morphemes of Elvish. It's all they speak to eachother, and the dogs. For those of you wondering why I thought I could speak Basque: I didnt. Even with the grandmother spoon feeding me every sound I struggled to pick up the language. Luckily they let me write down the dog commands phonetically on a 3X5, and so I managed.

6.There's no such thing as a "non-business end" of a cow
...

7. The French eat ridiculously well
For those of you who haven't been to France, both lunch and dinner are at least a three course affair. My meals with the family followed this general trend: Soup, Sausage/Pate/Cold Cuts, Hot meat dish, cheese, dessert. Everything except the bread and wine are made/produced in the house. Everything: pate(meat paste [its better than it sounds], sausage, eggs, meats, milk. The only negative comment I have is the portions...

8.There is no such thing as an empty plate or glass
They actually use the word "replenishable" instead of empty. I experienced this semantic difference first hand as they kept feeding me. One time I finished my plate, looked up to answer a question, and when I looked down there was more food on my plate. By the end I learned to guard my plate and glass at all times

9.What a Brebis is
It's a sheep literally, but my understanding of this word now spans beyond most peoples conceptualization. Through herding, milking twice a day, sponging (no not sponge baths, but putting a cylindrical sponge in female sheep), and artificial insemination, I now have a knowledge of that animal I could only dream of before this trip.

10.I should have brought my camera
Throughout this entire experience I wish I had my camera but its just not feasable to do what I have to and have a camera on me. Having hiked through a lot of American mountains, I feel confident in saying that this place is more beautiful than anything we have in the states. Every task is made interesting by the beauty of the mountains and novelty of the language. For anyone looking for a backpacking trip, foodie pilgrimage, or relaxing vacation, Larrau is the place to be.