Learn about bio-veggie gardening and improve your English language skills in Pouzy-Mésangy, France

Details

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  Description

  Adrian (English) and Shamsiah (Malaysian) have renovated a set of farm buildings in the Allier 03, right in the middle of France. We have 5 acres (2 hectares) of land and we spend our summers here growing our own vegetables and fruit organically and continuing to maintain and improve the 2 houses, the enormous barn and other outbuildings. We also play tennis, canoe and entertain local friends as well as friends and relatives from all over the world. In the winter we travel extensively, mainly to warmer countries. We let one of our houses during the summer as a self catering holiday home, when it is not being used by relatives or friends. We would emphasise that we are not farmers and the only animals we have are 2 cats, mother called Kuching (Malay for cat) and son, called Smudge. Kuching was a feral cat who adopted us and then produced 8 kittens. We gave them all away to good homes except for Smudge, and Kuching, of couse.
  
  This is a little known but lovely part of France with no pollution, very little traffic on the roads, very little tourism, and a really French local community. Little has changed here for a hundred years. We are in the foothills of the Massif Central and the countryside is gently rolling with meadows, hedgerows, rivers, lakes and forest. The farming in this area is mostly calf rearing, the cattle being predominantly Charollais. We are only one and a half hours from the formerly volcanic chain of mountains around Clermont-Ferrand the best known of which is Puy de Dome. We often take our workaways to climb the Puy de Dome for paragliding, walking, the fantastic views, and to visit the Roman temple to Mercury with its museum.
  
  Adrian is a Social Anthropologist, and Shamsiah has a degree in Business Studies and a post graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management. We are both retired and are really into living an environmentally friendly, sustainable lifestyle and encouraging other people to do the same. We keep in touch with most of our workaways, and many have become really good friends. We love learning about other cultures and actively look for workaways from countries we know little about. This, for us, is probably more important than the help we get.
  
  We like to give our workaways comfortable accommodation and have converted 2 goat stables in the barn into an office/library/guest accommodation of 37m2, with a large en suite bathroom, and wood burning stove. We like to live, work, eat and play as a family with our workaways and normally have some kind of project on the go. We always need help in preparing, planting and harvesting vegetables and fruit; maintaining our buildings (e.g. lasuring our old doors, windows and lintels); laying and maintainng terraces; cutting grass using our 3 ride on mowing machines and strimmers; cutting hedges; building pergolas; cutting and stacking wood, etc.
  
  Finally, we have a wide range of interests and often spend hours during and after meals discussng how to make the world a better place, particularly for people less priviledged than ourselves.
  
  If you are like minded, and keen to learn skills related to some of the tasks we have mentioned above, or indeed teach us some new skills, we would love to hear from you. Our nearest train or long distance bus service (Flix Bus is in Moulins sur Allier (03) and we are happy to collect you, and deliver you back there.
  
  Adrian & Shamsiah
  PS: You can use our wifi for free.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We are widely travelled and love to meet people from around the world. We are also experienced biological gardeners so there is the opportunity to learn and/or share experience and skills in this area. We are also experienced and have some knowledge of machinery maintenance and eco building materials so we can also learn, as well as teach.
  If you are learning English you will benefit from being immersed in the language, and if you are learning French we have many French friends with whom we only speak French.

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  Help

  With a large garden and 5 acres of land, mostly grass which we cut at least once a week, we need help of various kinds. This includes: planting vegetables and flowers, weeding, harvesting, cutting grass (we have 3 tractor mowers, hedge cutters, brushcutters/strimmers), hedge cutting, pruning, making jam and other preserves, maintenance of machinery, and general building maintenance. All our buildings are of local materials and we use only lime mortar.
  
  We welcome equally, people of all ages with experience, or those wanting to learn. We also welcome people who want to improve their English through working with us. We can provide a large a very comfortable private bedroom with en-suite bathroom and toilet, for a couple or 1 or more singles.
  
  We welcome you to eat with us and occasionally cook for us but it is important that you are able to eat what we eat as we don't have time to cook separate meals. We eat meat except pork, but tend to eat more white than red meat. We also eat fish and frequently cook vegetarian menus. Our cuisine reflects our travels in different parts of the world.
  
  We are none smokers, and would prefer none smokers as workaways. We provide most kinds of safety equipment like ear defenders, gloves, eye protection, etc., but please bring suitable working clothes and, most important, suitable footwear

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  French: Fluent
  Malay: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  Large, private, ensuite bedroom in the barn suitable for a couple or 1 or more singles. You could also camp in our meadow if you like.

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  What else ...

  If you are looking for a vibrant nightlife, this is not the place for you. But if you like the countryside, walking, cycling, bird watching, good food, tennis, swimming (there are several lakes that you can swim in as well as open air pools), canoeing, the occasional theatre or concert, this is ideal. We have bikes, and canoes and can lend you a old car from time to time. There is no public transport.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  We have a separate studio with en suite bathrook for workaways and the Wifi modem is in the sitting area so there always a good connection.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have masses of space so any size of campervan is fine.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4 hours a day, 5 days a week

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