Les frelons sont putains!

^ This literally translates to "the hornets are whores" (a phrase of my own invention- don't be alarmed; in France, whore is a common, half-hearted swear). At Saint-Michel, I've grown accustomed to being in the presence of hornets. As a matter of fact, they are often accompanied by spiders the size of small mammals and bats. It is typically a duty of either Josh or myself to take care the frelons (hornets) as they enter the dining room after sunset.

One of my more interesting duties constituted getting rid of the "bad grass" (weeds) in the garden at St. Michel. I pushed a 3-wheeled lawnmower in between the herbs and veggies growing there. By the end of this day, I had managed to hurt my neck. Until this afternoon, I have been unable to turn my head to the left.

At the beginning of this week, to break up the now rainy (no longer sunny...) weather, we were visited by two of Brigitte's children- Leah and Jean. Mary, Lew, and I took advantage of this opportunity and joined them on their way back to Bordeaux! We arrived late in the evening and they dropped us off at a hotel for the night. In the morning, we met with Jean and he gave us a tour of the town! Besides excellent public transportation and €1.50 bottles of wine, the highlight of this warm, charming mini-Paris was (for me) the cathedral of St. Andre. This is the undoubtably the home of Dracula.

The bone-chilling melodies filling the ancient halls of this cathedral created an ambience most-unlike that of Notre Dame. The statues of dedicated to the dead buried at St. Andre took on a haunting and morose mood; portraits of Jesus' crucifixion became graphic and morbid.

For more on our trip to Bordeaux, check out our photos! Notice the man using a flamethrower to rid his cobblestone of weeds.

Thursday was a particularly big day for us workawayers: Lew left for London, she was replaced by Mina (of Germany), and Mary and I were kicked out of our tent in preparation for the Games. For anyone reading, the Games are going to be a pretty big deal, and they begin on Sunday. Feel free to speculate :) . Also of note yesterday, I had one of my longer conversations with Phillipe, the man of the house. There is a small stone gate as you enter the section of Saint Michel where the guests eat and sleep. Phillipe informed me that on that side of the gate lies the "World of the Dead"- presumably where the 11th century monks who used to live here are buried. Phillipe informed Mary and I that they will often roam these grounds as ghosts.

Stay tuned for more on the Games! and again, photos!!

Au revoir- Jake