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  • Thanks, a good term for me to google!

    I part grew up on a farm so I find it interesting to see the agriculture. It was clearly a very big deal there, pretty intensively farmed and, as you say, loads of grain. Also a bit of salad / vegetables: lettuce, sprouts / cabbage and carrots.

    A lot of the grain got watered at night by massive water jets, which is fine, but they also water the roads which was a bit annoying when I got sprayed. I saw some big bits of farm kit, but I bet the combines are the size of houses.

    In that area I managed to beg some water from a gypsy. I was running low and passed what I thought was a campsite and went in to ask if I could fill my bottles from a tap. But there wasn't a tap. A guy came up with a bottle of water and chatted a bit, and he said he was Gitan. I only knew that as cigarettes, but then I worked out it meant Gypsy, and it was a travellers' site. Have to say it looked a lot better than the equivalent in the UK - but obviously not on mains water. Felt a bit bad as paying wasn't appropriate and I didn't have anything to give him in return at the time.

    Further south, in the Loire, they were harvesting strawberries and asparagus - lots of guest workers being bussed in.

  • nice. yes houses and farms are huge, so are the width of roads to let engines pass.
    The roads can be dripping with spray water, but when it's full on summer and dry you have massive clouds of dust raised by machinery, it can fell very roasty.

    When it comes to travellers in france, It all depends on the town. The allowance of land for gipsies is written in Law, but it is fairly new so not implemented everywhere yet, and obviously there are fights within local communities when it comes to picking a spot and paying for the upkeep, so sometimes not done very well.

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