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Volunteer with a vegan family in Vineuil St Firmin, Picardie, France

  • Favourited 422 times
  • Last activity: 6 Mar 2024

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: No minimum

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    We're a vegan family of 6 living 45 kms north of Paris. Our house is located in a village just behind the Château de Chantilly (23 minutes to reach the centre of Paris by train, if you fancy a bit of Parisian City life at the weekend).

    Emmanuèle teaches Qi Gong, Laughter Yoga and Nordic Walking, and she's also an IFS, EFT , TCM, Bush Flower Essences and clinical hypnosis practitioner, as well as a Life Coach. Bruno works in IT from his home office, and practises Yoga and Tai Chi Chuan and Nordic Walking in his spare time. The boys enjoy a good jog, a long walk, or a mountain bike ride in the forest; they sometimes play football in a very unorthodox way! They are big fans of boardgames, of which they have an impressive collection!

    We adopted a lovely French Shephard named Horace from the shelter last year, and he's a lovely addition to the family : we're all crazy about him, he's the kindest dog ever!

    Our stone house was renovated using eco materials, and we try to grow an organic vegetable garden (which looks like a little jungle at the moment!) -- trying to make it as permacultural as possible. We're currently working on raised beds, for which a hand would be most helpful! Our garden is bordered by the forest, with lots of birds, as well as neighbouring cats!

    Three of our boys are now students in Brussels, Paris, and Nogent, and we are left with our dog and our 16 year old teenager, who could do with a bit of practice with his German skills, so any help with the language would be welcome!

    Our diet is composed of high quality organic food : vegan, healthy, and tasty of course! We bake bread, Fougasse, pizza and vegan pancakes on a regular basis! Emmanuèle loves experimenting in the kitchen : vegan cheese and yogurt, sprouts, palm-oil free cakes and biscuits, curries, pickling, and she has won herself a bit of a reputation with her amazing garlic-tamari salad-dressing and vegan raspberrry ice-cream!

    Update : (as of June 2022) we need help mainly in the garden (which has turned terribly wild!), but also a bit in the house... Someone with experience with wood work would be great as well! Our 16 year old teenager needs to work on his maths as well as his physics and chemistry, so anyone with skills in those subject could also give him a hand.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Art Projects
    Language practice
    Help with Eco Projects
    Teaching
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
  • Help

    Help

    September :

    The garden needs work at the moment : harvesting, planting, weeding, trimming hedges, checking and repairing fences, etc...

    Help tidying/organising/"spring-cleaning" the house would also be welcome, ideally with extra English language input for the children (they are French native speakers but attend English classes for anglophone children, which is obviously challenging!).



    We generally need help with :

    - plastering and painting walls and ceilings (using eco-friendly paint -- plastering and wall painting skills welcome)

    - building a compost toilet shed outside (carpentry skills welcome) and a garden shed

    -work in the garden -- vegetable garden and general garden maintenance

    -keeping the boys busy and happy during the school holidays, helping them organise their living quaters and possibly practising English and/or German.

    -offering an extra pair of hands for general maintenance and why not pre-school start organisation/cleaning/tidying etc...

  • Languages

    Languages spoken
    English: Fluent
    French: Fluent
    German: Intermediate

    This host offers a language exchange
    Emmanuèle has experience teaching French as a Foreign language, so we'll be happy to help you with your French skills!

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    Depending on the season and on the number of people coming :
    -a guest room with a convertible sofa (double bed)
    or
    -a large tent in the garden (with a proper mattress to sleep on and a very warm sleeping bag or quilt), with access to the house and to the shower room of course!

    Workawayers would share a shower room.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    We need to state that we're non-smokers, and would be unhappy with smokers around us...

    You should also know that Emmanuèle is allergic to a number of synthetic fragrances/perfumes, so we hope you can live without them while you're staying with us (and essential oils smell much better anyway!).

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    This host can provide space for campervans.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    More than two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

Host ref number: 797377721786

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