When we arrived to our vacant honeymoon farmhouse in the wine country of France, we were shocked to discover this massive beehive attached to the window of our bedroom. It was about 4 square feet in size and filled with thousands of bees. Unfortunately, it was trapped between the window and the storm shutters which could only be opened from inside our room!
Rather than call an exterminator (which we didn't want to do because of the scarcity of bees in Europe), we were able to find a local father-and-son beekeeping team who were able to transfer the beehive, the queen bee, and all the other bees to a new, safe location for no cost at all.
Although we had to spend one night sleeping in the room with the bees, the terrifying situation had some bright sides: We learned a lot about bees. At the same time, we were forced to learn more French from these guys, who spoke not a drop of English. Oh, we were also given two huge pots of fresh honey in exchange for our bees! We will never forget our buzzing honeymoon!
By attosa from Los Angeles, CA
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Congratulations and thanks so much for sharing your honeymoon adventure. That is the type of story that you will be telling to the grandkids one day (Let's hope they know what bees are by then!) I love that you were able to get them relocated.
Aw thank you so very much, Jess! I can't wait to tell our grandkids about this. For now, even when we tell our friends, they think we are over exaggerating until I whip out these photos.
AH
Ok, had to get that out of my system. Aside from the freak-out factor, that was a pretty neat experience, that set your honeymoon apart from everyone's! Glad it had a positive outcome.
I am so happy you found a home for them instead of killing them. Bees are in shortage everywhere, not just Europe and are so necessary for growing plants.
As the 'other half' of the newlywed team, I would like to add that not only did the wonderful bee-keepers not speak any English- (and we only what French we could remember from our distant school days) the son, a lovely fellow in his sixties & the more vocal of the duo, had a very severe stutter.... It was an amusing spectacle indeed as he explained every step of the operation to us in stuttering French, whilst his 80 plus father climbed a ladder- smoking oil can in hand, smoking Gauloise in mouth, just chuckled to himself at our obvious confusion
Like John Cleese in a lost episode of Fawlty Towers, I found myself nodding sagely and responding"Oui" frequently as his fractured yet way too fast to follow sentences flooded my ears....hilarious!
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