Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
At last the garden could be transformed into a manicured haven of tranquillity. I needed
one.
Vachement
.
Sean was still recovering from his 'shark bite' and unable to do physical work apart from
driving the tractor so we swapped roles for a while. My first job in the vineyard was
épamprage
.
Épamprage
istheremovalofunwantedshootsonthetrunkandheadofthevine.Wedidn't
have a machine so our vineyard required doing the equivalent of 25,000 slow, deep squats
in the space of a few weeks. That's about 2,000 a day accompanied by a long, steep hike.
This needs to be done at least twice a season. We had done one pass working together early
in the spring.
Sean had not finished the mechanical weeding so I had to hack through a thorny wall to
get to the shoots. Long-sleeved shirts and long pants, while not ideal in 35 degrees, were a
necessity.
My day started at five in the morning to beat the heat. One golden, misty morning as I
worked in lower Garrigue a snort announced a dainty deer a metre from me. She curved her
graceful neck to get a good look at me then cantered away. Later I bent down to push aside
some weeds and a brown hare leapt out. He bounded off, all legs and ears. Soon after I saw
a snake as I walked back up to the house. I asked Myreille, a neighbour, about snakes. She
and Olivier, her husband, owned the vineyard that ran along our border. They were similar
in age to us and had a large family. Myreille had a job off the farm like many of our neigh-
bours' wives.
'Oui, c'est vrai,'
she said. 'There are many. One type is so poisonous, if you get bitten you
must get to the hospital within twenty minutes, or
c'est fini. Et
,' she said conspiratorially, '
il
faut absolument ne pas avoir peur
. If you are afraid, that will raise your heartbeat and then,
c'est fini
, even faster.'
I wondered how one did not have fear when faced with a potentially fatal snakebite and
a journey to the nearest hospital of slightly more than twenty minutes but nodded sagely
and decided to be more careful with my
épamprage
in future. There would be no more
diving in hands first. Now I stomped with my well-shod foot around the base of the vine
before bending down to do the necessary. One day I caught Sean watching me from the
window, laughing uncontrollably. I gave him the one-finger salute, which made him laugh
even harder.
Some days I wondered when it would end. The vines multiplied into never-ending rows
on our steep slice of paradise. As my morale sank to an all-time low, and the heatwave rose
