Live with us as family and help out in the garden in St Germain du Crioult, France

Infos

• 

  Description

  2024 will be our fourteenth year of having Workawayers to help us, (except for Covid years), and we are hoping for another great time of meeting interesting people and having their help. We are Lin and Geoff, an early retired English couple who moved to France to renovate a derelict Longère 15 years ago.
  
  As Covid restrictions have lifted now and we are pleased to open our home again to Workawayers
  
  We have developed a 3 bedroomed house from part of the building which we live in and a greater part of the rest of the house had been made into two self contained apartments which we rent as B&B accommodation. We have a Workawayer bedroom and bathroom, so you have your own space.
  The B&B's are busy all season from April until end September which keeps me fully occupied. Which means I don't have a lot of time to help Geoff in the very large garden we have.
  The garden (6000m2 in total) is laid to grass with flower beds and lots of pots around the B&B areas and two rockeries, all of which needs constant tending, cutting and strimming. Even in Autumn and early winter there are things to be done, so if you are a late traveller, that would also suit us for October, November.
  
  None of the gardening help is difficult, it's just too time consuming for two people of a certain age! So anyone out there ready to do a bit of gardening please contact us. We never ask anyone to do what we cannot do ourselves, we just don't have the time to do it all in the summer months!)
  
  We have a going on 13yr old Border Collie called Freddie! He's adorable and very well socialised with both humans and other dogs. Loves his Frisbee and you can walk him whenever you like. We also have our adorable playmate for Freddie, called Loupie, she's a German Spitz, nearly 5yrs old.
  
  We both have a great sense of humour, essential to life. We love any music, especially blues. We are good entertainers and enjoy a large circle of friends.
  Having had huge success with all our Workawayers for the past years we hope to continue that success this coming year. It is essential to have a good sense of humour as laughter plays an important role in our lives. We enjoy what we do and like to involve our Workawayers in our general day to day life, not just as work horses. You would live in with us as family. Never having had kids it's an insight into the younger generation and their language, which is quite different now!
  Although the guidelines set by Workaway is a five hour day for 5 days we generally find our Workawayers are quite willing to work longer than that to get things finished or just to be helpful, so we can normally expect a job to be finished even if it runs over your 5 hours. Nothing is written in stone with us and we are very flexible.
  There is Satellite TV in the house both English and French. There is TV in your room. We have fibre internet , so plenty of gigga whatevers you need!
  
  We have public liability insurance, but expect you to have suitable holiday health insurance. We have, on occasion, been left to pay health treatment bills of WWs when they have not been insured.
  
  We would love you to come and join us this year if you can. It is great to be able to open up our home again this year.

• 

  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Bénévolat

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général

  Aide informatique/internet
• 

  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  Our previous WWs have all told us that the WW experience is a fantastic way of travelling with all the learning processes that that brings. If you are other than British then you will benefit from the learning more of the English language, if you are British you can brush up on your French and interact with our French neighbours and friends.
  
  If you have never done the tasks we ask you to do, it can be a good experience learning something new, especially if you have a house and garden of your own one day! Nothing is that difficult and if I can do it at 74yrs old, so can you!

• 

  Aide

  The pictures shown were all taken last summer.
  
  The large garden is mainly laid to grass and half of it is terraced, which can only be dealt with by a strimmer and sit on mower. Three apple trees, two walnut, chestnut, two cherry. The lower flat area of garden is separated from the terrassing by a small stream.
  
  The small area to the side of the house is banked by a large rockery and small lawn and the stone drive constantly needs treating for weeds. Our raised pond is home to goldfish, all different colours and sizes, about 16 in total.
  
  The general garden help would be to keep it cut and tidy and weeded. There is always weeding, cutting and strimming to be done, and the constant dead heading and watering of the garden patio pots, of which there are many.
  
  I've given up on ever having a chicken coop!
  
  We will also need help harvesting apples and blackberries for freezing and jam making. The rhubarb is also used for jams and delicious rhubarb crumbles.
  
  We need this help from about March/April through till end October on a yearly basis.

• 

  Langues parlées

  Anglais: Courant
  Français: Courant
  Allemand: Débutant

• 

  Hébergement

  For one or two (double bed, but can supply a fold up bed) in a bedroom with own bathroom down a flight of stairs. There is English TV and WiFi. You would eat with us and share the cooking too if you wish! All expenses are paid by us except on your days off. We do invite the Workawayer/s to cook at least once during their stay not only to give us a night off but to enjoy their own recipes from their own cultures.

• 

  Autres infos...

  We are situated 1 hour drive from Caen, 1 and half hours from Le Havre, 2 hours from Cherbourg, in the Swiss Normande, Calvados country. The public transport system is limited here, but we are only a 15 minute drive from the nearest railway station (Flers), serving Paris in 2 hours. Caen is also good for picking people up arriving from where ever.
  
  Our immediate village is St Germain du Crioult, 2km from Condé sur Noireau, the larger town, which you will see on the map.
  
  Of course we would be willing to get the volunteers to places they may wish to visit on their days off.

• 

  Informations complémentaires

  • 

    Accès Internet

  • 

    Accès Internet limité

  • 

    Nous avons des animaux

  • 

    Nous sommes fumeurs

  • 

    Familles bienvenues

• 

  Espace pour garer des vans

  Normal size camper van space available.

• 

  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  Well behaved and obedient dogs

• 

  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

• 

  Nombre d'heures attendues

  Max 25 hours per week with 2 days free per person

Feedback (34)