Help bring a Napoleonic chateau back to life in Villeneuve de Marsan, France

Detalhes

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  Descrição

  😊Our most recent Workawayers have come to us from Canada, Australia, Poland, the UK, Norway, Lithuania, Ireland and the USA . Thank you everyone.🌞
  
  We are a British couple with 2 children, who love enjoying life, good food, good company, having fun and the outdoors! We live in a glorious Chateau in the stunning Landes region in Aquitaine about an hour and a half from Bordeaux, an hour from the Beaches of the Côte d'Argent (Hossegor, Biarritz etc), an hour from Pau and the Pyrennees with the closest ski slope an hour and a half away. The Chateau is 5 mins from the local town where there’s a Wednesday market, supermarket, chemist, bank, patisserie, open air theatre, doctors, restaurant, bike shop, hairdressers etc even a bull jumping ring. We have lots of animals dogs, chickens, peacock, cats and horses.
  After careful consideration and having now hosted over 50 different Workaways we regret to say we will not accept anyone under the age of 20. No exceptions. Thanks
  
  The Chateau is on 40 acres or so including woods and was not lived in full time for a number of years. Workawayers help on a variety of projects indoors and outdoors including; gardening;decoration; sorting; cleaning; cooking; helping bring the walled vegetable garden back to life organically (we don't use chemicals), shutter sanding and painting, depending on individuals skills. Workawayers are not involved in any business, the Chateau is a private house. It’s really lovely as the village is very supportive of all our efforts and likes to see and meet the volonteers. We’d like to open the gardens up for charity once a year but there is a LOT to do before then!
  
  We are bringing the Chateau back to life with laughter and work - it’s a voyage of discovery from Salamanders to 100 Sq meters of ‘forgotten really old terracotta tiles under 12 feet of brambles! We try to recycle and re use where we can and are now dab hands with a pressure washer 😎. There is something quite neat about finding the courtyard granite stones flowerbed edging stones under a foot of topsoil and then re instating the beds according to the old plan or indeed finding 3 extra bedrooms we didn’t know about when we came and the random furniture in them! Some of which we are still in the process of up cycling.

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  Tipos de ajuda e oportunidades de aprendizado

  Projetos artísticos

  Jardinagem

  Construção/faça você mesmo

  Cuidar de animais

  Ajuda em fazenda

  Criar/cozinhar refeições caseiras

  Ajuda a cuidar da casa

  Manutenção geral
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  Oportunidades de intercâmbio cultural e aprendizado

  Life here in the South of France is all about enjoying life and making the most of everything the region has to offer sunshine, good food, joy and pleasure in simple things. Of course if you want to go to Hossegor Surfing or Bordeaux to the big markets and waterfront fantastic! We love food and sharing meals. Emma is a yoga instructor, indian head masseur, reiki master and professionally qualified seichim energy worker so definitely some opportunities to learn about those things if you're keen. Ross is a horse breeding and racing expert and a former advanced event rider, so if you want to come horse racing wth us at Mont de Marsan or watch the 5* eventing at Pau that might be fun. There is not a lot of opportunity to learn French at the Chateau but the locals are super friendly and will definitely help you practice - all put local friends are French! We do have a private french tutor who comes once a week so you can pay to have a lesson with her or lessons once a week if you wish. She is French and Bi Lingual French/English so there are no excuses not to learn if you wish to -)!!! There is no riding available our horses are broodmares some with foals at foot or not in work, if you would like to get involved with stable work for the private horses you can - mucking out etc. We also have a few brocantes, some lovely bastide villages, the Chapel of Cycling, the Chapel of Rugby is 20 minutes away. The local town of Labastide-d'armagnac is glorious, we have a local golf course St Avit, and even an excellent local rugby team Stade de Montois. Our village has tennis courts and a swimming pool (open in the summer)- but we have one here so you can always save the trip! We are on the route vert for cycling and are on the doorstep of the Gers where D’Artagnan of the three musketeers came from, there’s a big sculpture of all 3 in Condom which is an hour away and his home town of Lupiac which is picturesque and has a 13 hectare leisure lake. Other workawayers have loved going to the Pyrenees, Biarritz, Biscarrose, Bordeaux, Lourdes and Pau. We are in the heart of Bas Armagnac so Chateau visits are very close by! We love learning new things so are keen to share your interests.

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  Projetos que envolvem crianças

  Este projeto pode envolver crianças. Para mais informações, veja aqui nossas diretrizes e dicas.

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  Ajuda

  The Chatau and its grounds are ever evolving so at the moment we would be thrilled to have people from two to three weeks with a keen interest in:-
  
  - gardening - all aspects of clearing, tidying, mowing, planting etc
  - DIY- anything is useful - if you're a dab hand with plaster, concrete, paving experience, drill, flooring just perfect
  - housekeeping - just a massive yes place - the place is huge with lots of cleaning and sorting projects to do
  - painting - yes please - lots of window frames to paint, stables etc
  - dog walking - if you love it let us know
  
  All the time we learn more about the castle, we’ve also found out it was abandoned for 50 years with a giant oak growing through the winter salon and roof!! We are in the process of doing up the guardians house so there is decoration to be done there as well as in the Chateau itself on the second floor, and DIY. In essence lots of fun things to do.

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  Idiomas

  Idiomas
  Inglês: Fluente
  Francês: Intermediário

  Este anfitrião oferece intercâmbio de idiomas
  Having moved to France with a basic level of French we are keen to learn more and really fit in with the community. One of the best ways to do this is to be able to speak the language well! We love to help people with their English speaking should they wish to improve.
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  Acomodação

  Accomodation will either be in the Chateau itself in an ensuite bedroom on the ground floor) overlooking the rose garden. We also have a garden house that is sometimes used for bedroom accomodation.
  Breakfast is at 8am - yoghurt, toast, fruit
  Lunch is at 1pm - a sandwich or soup
  We usually eat evening meals together at 6.15pm but if not you will be provided food to cook on that evening.
  We do not provide alcohol apart from a bidon of wine per week (3.5 litres) specifically for Workawayers red/rose 1 bidon to share between 2.
  We are not vegetarians but can certainly accomodate 3 vegetarian meals a week for the others you may want to cook for yourselves and we will still eat together! We are unable to accommodate vegans or other dietary needs at the current time. Usually workawayers enjoy spending time here and then going off for adventures over a couple of days to the pyrennees, the coast, Lourdes, Bordeaux, Dax, Carcassonne, Toulouse, Biarritz, Spain, île de Rey, surfing or the ski stations etc, covid and weather permitting!
  Workaways tend to use blahblah cars or buses to get about which is super reasonable and will often pick up from the end of the drive or have their own transport. There is a bus station in the village which gets you to Mont de Marsan where there is a good train station.

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  Algo mais...

  Workawayers have recently visited Donostia (San Sebastian), Saint Jean de Luz, Pau (50mins), Lourdes (90mins), the Pyrenees (90mins), Hossegor (50mins), Biarritz (50mins), Condom (1hour); Aire Sur L’ardour (25mins), Bordeaux (60mins), Carcassone. We are basically an hour max from the beach and an hour and a half from the mountains, our most recent Workawayers just got back from Carcassone which is 2.5 hours away via Lourdes and Pau! Apparently we are an hour and a half from the closest ski station but to be safe I'd say 2 and you will definitely be there. For more information about the beautiful area of Landes please visit this tourist website for the Landes .

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    Acesso à internet

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    Acesso à internet limitado

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    Temos mascotes

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    Somos fumantes

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    Pode hospedar famílias

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  Espaço para estacionar campervans

  Any size. Campervans are most welcome there are some nice places to park here :-)

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  Quantos Workawayers pode acomodar?

  Mais de 2

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