Helene and I were relaxing in the shade, looking out over the hills when Maria approached us with her apron full of apples. She implored us to take them all, but we complained that we were already carrying a few kilos from the other friendly farmers we had met.

Finally she agreed that we only had to take half a dozen on the condition that we would come and visit her home up on the hill. So we loaded up the apples and followed her up a steep slope.

Alors qu'on prenait une pause, une charmante jeune femme de 28 ans nous a approche avec l'intention de nous inviter a diner avec une douzaine de pommes afin de nous y tenter.

We forgot to take a picture of her house, which was undergoing some interior stucco work. But we did get some other pictures.

Maria was beaming with joy to have the honor of giving some tourists a tour of her spread. Here's one side of the Barn and the fearless watch dog.

Lorsque Maria a compris que j'etais de deux ans son ainee, sans enfant, elle avait l'air de ne pas trop comprendre. Sa mere m'a sauve en disant que c'etait mieux ainsi. Ouf je m'en suis bien sortie cette fois.

Here's the back of the barn and a few chickens.

Her hung over husband staggered up to give us a belch! In so many words I told Maria that I had a good feeling from her husband. In her own way she told me that he did have some good points, but not so many.

Toute une maison qu'elle a cette Maria. Puisqu'elle a laisse le sujet des enfants tranquille, j'ai decide de ne pas lui parler d'hygiene...

Here's the house of Maria's Mom. It was on the other side of the Barn from the main house. Maria called her "Mama".

We walked out to their huge garden patch which was close to the house. We found Mama working away. She was a robust woman and had a real gleam to her eyes. She was quite pleased to see us and was always trying to get us to take some more food.

La mere de Maria n'a que soixante meme si elle peut paraitre en faire quatre-vingt. Le travail difficile des champs contribue a faconner un corps vieilli. Quand on se met a lui parler, on se rend vite compte qu'elle est beaucoup plus jeune dans son regard. Elle aussi voulait qu'on apporte des vivres avec nous. Des poires et des pommes sechees, des marrons, des noix etc...

Here the ladies were comparing notes on how to raise kids, crops and husbands. I was just keeping low. The Romanian language is a derivative of latin, hence the Rome in Romanian. Helene is a native French speaker and had a real knack to understand what people were saying.

They had quite a conversation going. In the video Maria introduces her sons, Mihai and Vasile.

Christopher se tenait loin des femmes afin de pouvoir prendre quelques photos a leur insu. C'est donc ainsi que j'ai du faire la conversation avec Maria et sa mere. Les Roumains parlent meme si tu n'y comprends absolument rien. Je pense que mom probleme etait que je comprenais suffisament pour les encourager...

Je dois tout de meme dire que plusieurs mots ressemblent au francais, ce qui m'a permis de penser que je comprenais ce qui se passait. De plus, jai commence a me familiariser avec le langage des signes pour les moments ou j'etais totalement perdue.

Helene helps carry some of the vegtables back from the field.

J'ai l'air fine mais ne vous y tromper pas, je n'ai pas travailler dans les champs, chose que j'aurais bien aime faire par contre.

Mama proudly shows us the oven she was using to dry apples and pears for winter storage. Again we could not escape without a few handfuls of their bounty.

Les Roumains sont vraimant genereux et je pense que la monotonie du travail agraire les rends interesse dans tout ce qui n'est pas ordinaire.

Before we left Maria had one final introduction she wanted to make.

They were a beautiful people and lived in a beautiful land. Generosity and kindness towards strangers seemed part of their identity. I never had any uneasy feelings and everyone was as helpful as they could be.

If you ever visit, try to bring something to share. We brought some big chocolat bars. Even though they seemed to take little notice, it made us feel better. I wish them all the best.

Je ne sais pas d'ou vient toute cette propagande dans les livres de voyage concernant la Roumanie. On y lit que c'est dangereux par endroit et qu'il est facile de se faire voler??? Je me suis sentie beaucoup plus a l'aise dans la capitale de la Roumanie(Bucharest) qu'a New-York et les gens sont vraimant sympatiques et genereux partout dans les differentes provinces.