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Area: Aquitaine

Our home in France is a 17thC stone farmhouse on a hilltop surrounded by 15 ha. of meadows and chestnut woodland. We are hidden in 'la France profonde' between the Dordogne and Lot rivers, yet within a few miles of world-famous beauty spots such as the castles on the river Dordogne, the bastide town of Monpazier and the Renaissance town of Sarlat. Here, having done much of the necessary restoration work on the buildings, we can put our skills as conservationist/farmer and landscape architect to use. Around our courtyard we have the house, a stone cowshed turned gite (where we can accommodate two couples) and a large studio with office. Around this we have extensive gardens and vegetable plots, used as open air classrooms for our garden workshops. The nearest village, St Pompont, holds an excellent 'marche gourmand' every Saturday evening during the summer and there are many picturesque villages around us, tucked into the folds of the limestone hills.

Area: Languedoc Roussillon

Come and help us with our project in the middle of beautiful mountain nature in the south of France with stunning views of the border with Spain!

Area: Aquitaine

Hi We are a family of 5 Britsh people living in France my daughter is 16 my 2 sons are 13 and 12 I am 48 going on 25 and my husband is 53. We live in a beautiful rural part of France with one of the oldest castles in the region . We have horses cats a dog chickens geese turkeys and 7 pet sheep. We are trying to restore a barn from 1650 which we need help with we have plenty of land and we are often outside chopping trees down for firewood as well as replanting. We have plums and figs which you can pick and eat straight from the tree no chemicals involved. We have bikes if you want to go for a bike ride and people swim in the local lake We would be happy to offer accommodation and food to either a couple or single volunteers who would be happy to get their hands dirty working alongside me or my husband on any one of our projects. We get involved in what is going on around us in the village and they are always happy to meet other people. It does get cold here later in the year but the caravan is very warm, better than the house. There is full free internet access. No smoking in the house or caravan but you are free to smoke outside

Area: S W - Gers

We are Louisa and Stuart, Harmonie and Phoenix We are a certified organic farm in the Gers, France . We raise a rare breed pig called the Porc Noir, which is a slow growing black pig. We butcher all our meat ourself, as well as making pâté and black pudding, saucisson and charcuterie which we sell at markets. We are located in an area of outstanding natural beauty, only 3.5 km away from 2 little villages with all facilities including lively bar and restaurant, 12 km from market town and 30 km from large town with big commerce. The farmhouse faces the Pyrenees mountains( 1.5 hours away) and is situated in the middle of 120 acres split in 3rds of which is woods/prairie and arable. We currently have 2 donkeys, 11 pigs and 24 piglets and more due this month, 10 sheep, 50+ chickens ,3 dogs, 4 cats 1 goose, lots of ducks and ducklings, I've lost count of the rabbits . We are looking for people to join us with our various projects on the go throughout the year. You will need to have a good level of physical fitness to volunteer here. This is primarily an English speaking environment, although we can speak french it is not often used unless we have French speaking guests. We are open minded and easy going. There is never a dull moment here. .

Area: Midi Pyrenees

Over spring, we will be needing help with (lots of) mowing, cleaning, taking down wallpaper, getting the bicycles back into working order, sanding and varnishing garden furniture, sewing, cooking... We don't usually contact Workawayers ourselves, please contact us if you're interested in staying with us for a couple of weeks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- We're a family of five: Patricia, 45, French-German, translator, Pascal, French, 51, water treatment engineer, Kilian, 20, Adrien, 17, and Caroline, 16. We live in an old farmhouse in the countryside, 35 kms South of Toulouse, between Toulouse and the Pyrenees. We have a "gîte", a rental, which is rented out by the week and usually needs to be cleaned on Saturdays. We are also renovating the house we live in and can always use a hand. Our family language is French, but the five of us are also more or less fluent in English and German. We live 4 kms from the town (10.000 inhabitants) and the railway station, you can borrow a bicycle or get a ride when we drive into town. We have both travelled extensively (Europe, North America, Africa and a little Asia and Oz/NZ) and lived in different countries. As a family we spent two years living in Dakar, Senegal. We like the idea of a cultural exchange and will gladly provide a bedroom, breakfast, lunch as well as a family dinner against some help with painting, gardening, building, cleaning... We have two cats (Starsky & Hutch) and sometimes also chickens. Pascal smokes in the house, so we do of course accept smokers. But we don't want you to smoke in the bedrooms. We'd rather not accept families with babies or toddlers, because our house is not adapted to accommodate young children, but we have no problem with hosting couples, groups of friends, families with older kids, cats, dogs, horses... We also have lots of space for camper-vans or tents, if you travel with those. We ski, so if you like skiing, we'll be going to Ax-Bonascre (in the Pyrénées) all winter, about once a week if the weather permits. Things you should definitely know: (seriously, read this!) Auterive, our town, is boring. There is absolutely nothing going on here, really. No bars or nice cafés, just the market on Friday mornings. And there is no way of getting back here from Toulouse after 9pm. If you have your own car, you can have great day-trips or drive into Toulouse. If not, you might find yourself stuck here or need to find Couchsurfing hosts in Toulouse if you want to party there (apparently it's rather easy to find those Couchsurfing hosts, though). Here, all you can do is run or cycle... or swim and lie in the sun in summer. Our kids are good kids, but they're teens, they're mostly in their rooms with their headphones on (you know what I mean). You are very welcome to spend the week-ends here and we will of course provide the food and spend some time with you, but consider yourself warned: it might be boring! We are not a traditional French family. We don't have 3-course meals twice a day, we're anything but "chic" and we will very probably fall into English as soon as you get here... (Also we made our first workawayer eat horsemeat tartare :) - but he volunteered!) But we do have cheese and wine every night, we also know a large variety of people and we will take you along if we see them while you're here. I'll drive you to the station or into town and pick you up and I will do my best to try and speak French with you if that's what you want. We will talk about French and world politics and economics and culture, Pascal will share his very French way of finding everything better here, I will explain (and diss!) the French school system, we will make you listen to French music... Last but not least, because it is important: Pascal is very thorough when it comes to work. Some would say he's unnecessarily fussy. He will indeed make you sand that wall a third time for those two little specks and he will make you take out the built-in closet to paint behind it. :)