We are trying to revive the degenerated Domaine surrounding our Château, which nowadays consists of an animal farm with 25ha of hilly pastures, a 45ha forest, a saw-mill and some holiday homes. When we (Bianca, who was trained to be a nurse, and Paul, who had been stuck in an office for far too long) were in our mid 40's, we decided to get away from it all. So it was in 2005 that we left our studying sons behind and emigrated from the overpopulated Netherlands to the tranquility of rural south-west of France. We have embraced some of the local Gascon lifestyle, in which we like to enjoy a full table, both food and company, after a hard day’s work. In spite of all the progress made, the domain never seems finished. So YES, we do welcome volunteers to help out on the farm, with the forestry and to generally fix-up this quiet Gascony glory!

Rural-woodlands

In one project, we will saw tree trunks in to planks and beams with which a shed and a barn need to be renovated. The large branches are to be (machine-)split for firewood, and all the medium and small branches will be shredded into chips for the wood burner of the central heating. A secondary destination for the planks and beams is to convert the roof of a large hangar in to an area for solar panels to generate electricity.
Another project is to renovate a building that in the 1950’s and 1960’s housed the farm workers. The idea is to change it in to a holiday gîte.
Meanwhile the decoration and renovation of the main house is not yet finished, the surrounding garden and adjacent vegetable garden scream for attention and of course the farm and animals require their continuous care...

English, french, german, dutch

The 3 guest-rooms in the mansion share their own bathroom. At lunch a warm meal and in the evening a cold meal will be provided. Laundry can be done. The daily chores will be shared by all who enjoy the household.

We already have previous experience of this sort ever since 2005. We started with a group of 15, family and friends, including our 2 sons and some of their friends (city boys and girls) who helped us out during the summer holidays. They all enjoyed it and some so much that they returned regularly in the following years. Last year we had a dozen WorkAwayes visiting us, and some of them left a review on this Internet site.

As a consequence of most of our activities we virtually live outdoors starting April. On a daily routine, the closer we get to the warm season, the earlier we rise to benefit from the early light and avoid the heath. We do warm lunches, which often cause the inevitable siesta.

We know that our place sounds idyllic to some people, so we prefer to be straightforward about what people may expect here. You should realize that it is a lot of physical work around a farm/forest? Don’t be afraid to break a fingernail occasionally or to get yr hands and knees dirty. Sometimes we even do some muscle fledging, backbone-building work, and that goes for the both of us (in our early fifties).

From experience we would prefer to have WorkAwayers as from the age of 20 years upwards, and for at least 2 weeks.