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Building a self-sufficient little paradise in the Pyrénées, France

  • Activité récente : 4 mai 2025

Disponibilité

  2025 

 Séjour min. souhaité : Une semaine ou moins

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Infos

  • Description

    Description

    We are Carole & Julien and we started a new project: restore and preserve a piece of land in the Pyrénées.
    1 hectare with a meadow and woods near by the biggest national park of the Pyrénées.
    We are renovating our old barn (our future home) from scratch
    In addition, we have multiple besides project: mainly to create a beautiful environment, convenient facilities and sustainable water and electric systems.
    Our will is to use as much as we can, natural materials to respect environment and heritage.
    We have also a vegetable garden and chickens (when the fox and the marten are not around).

    About us: before this project, we travelled for almost 2 years through the Americas, in a van.
    Noisia, our dog, is always with us, in all our adventures. She is the definition of LOVE.
    We are old-timer lovers; VW and motorbikes are part of our life (and beers).

    As travel lovers and ex-volunteers, we thrived to be able to offer you the best place to stay / share / learn. We know the importance to feel safe and be able to relax during a trip. We are trying our best to offer our volunteers a place they want to stay forever, or even better, they want to copy someday.
    To have some foreigners at home kind of offers us the opportunity to travel again from our garden!

    You will have the best view on the Pic de Pibeste with the singing birds, a sweet atmosphere and maybe the smell of the French cheese (we are cheesy food addicts).

    If you don't mind to get your hands dirty, we hope to meet you soon... and don't forget "in between your goals, remember that there's a precious thing called life that has to be enjoyed".

  • Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

    Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

    Aide avec des éco-projets
    Jardinage
    Bricolage et construction
    S’occuper des animaux
    Aide à la maison
    Entretien général
  • Centres d’intérêt

    Centres d’intérêt

    Plage
    Art et design
    Sports d’hiver
    Sports d'aventure
    Randonnée
    Activités en plein air
    Nature
    Montagne
    Camping
    Bricolage / artisanat
    Musique
    Livres
    Architecture
    Animaux
    Menuiserie
    Cuisine et alimentation
    Jardinage
    Langues
    Soin des plantes
    Photographie
    Événements/vie sociale
    Ferme
    Films et télé
    Vie en van
    Dev. durable
    Culture
    Animaux de compagnie
  • Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre

    Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre

    Objectifs de l’ONU
    Pas de pauvreté
    Faim «zéro»
    Bonne santé et bien-être
    Éducation de qualité
    Égalité entre les sexes
    Eau propre et assainissement
    Énergie propre et d'un coût abordable
    Travail décent et croissance économique
    Industrie, innovation et infrastructure
    Inégalités réduites
    Villes et communautés durables
    Consommation et production responsables
    Mesures relatives à la lutte contre les changements climatiques
    Vie aquatique
    Vie terrestre
    Paix, justice et institutions efficaces
    Partenariats pour la réalisation des objectifs
  • Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

    Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

    + We would be happy to share our experience with the old technics we want to use around this big project and the self-sufficiency.

    + Also if you are curious to know about our experience on building a van (we did 3) and how it is to travel and live this way, we would be happy to talk about it around the campfire.

    + Carole is a French teacher for foreigners and she can provide you French lessons around the BBQ.

    + Julien is passionate by mechanics and he would be happy to share some grease and tips.

    + We are also food lovers and we would love to cook and eat together to experience each others food cultures.

    As travel lovers and ex-volunteers, we thrived to be able to offer you the best place to stay / share / learn. We know the importance to feel safe and be able to relax during a trip. We are trying our best to offer our volunteers a place they want to stay forever, or even better, they want to copy someday.
    To have some foreigners at home kind of offers us the opportunity to travel again from our garden!

  • Aide

    Aide

    Ideally, we are looking for 2 INDEPENDENT people.

    The tasks will be related to our project on self-sufficiency and creating a beautiful environment on the property. As you might have read in our lovely reviews, you will basically help us on things we do on our daily routine. It could be anything like:

    + Help with Eco Projects
    + Gardening
    + DIY and tasks
    + Animal Care
    + Help around the house
    + General Maintenance

    The project is progressing everyday so new requests can come out.

    We are looking for dedicated, conscientious, curious and attentive people who take pride in doing things well.

    Keeping clean facilities is common sense. It is a mandatory everyday task.

  • Langues

    Langues parlées
    Anglais: Courant
    Français: Courant
    Espagnol: Intermédiaire

    Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
    Carole is a French teacher for foreigners and she can provide you French lessons around the BBQ.

  • Hébergement

    Hébergement

    We make our first choice on people travelling with their van, of course our meadow is big enough.
    If you feel like sleeping under the stars, we provide 2 tents and 2 mattresses on a flat spot shaded by trees.

    + Because we don't have so much facilities, we need iINDEPENDENT people (we don't have an outdoor kitchen YET - no fridge).

    + There is a HOT shower and composting toilet made by volunteers for volunteers.
    N.B: We strive to be environmentally friendly in any way we can, including by avoiding the waste of water and energy (meaning taking SHORT showers and washing dishes without wasting water will be mandatory).

    + About electricity, we have solar panels (enough power to charge anything as phone, laptop, batteries, toothbrush, epilator...).
    NB: we don't have a proper hookup to plug your van.

    + We use filtered rainwater for the dishes, showers, etc; but also have potable water.

    + We will provide basic food as pasta, rice, vegetables from the garden & eggs (when it's the season), oil, flour, homemade jam, basic condiments, tea, coffee.

    + Breakfast OR lunch will be offer and shared together (depending on the organisation of the day - weather etc.)

    + The 2 days-off do not necessarily fall at weekend, it will depend on the weather, your schedule and our schedule.

    + About internet access : We both work from "home" on internet. We have a strong signal (full 4G) thanks to a personal hotspot on our phones. You will only have a connection when we will be around with our phones. Not 24/7 (unless you have your own access).

  • Autres infos...

    Autres infos...

    + We are in the heart of Pyrénées. Hiking departure are next to the property. No car needed if you want to discover the surroundings with plenty of tracks.

    + Cyclists and bikers will find our area particularly appealing, as it is frequented by the Tour de France, featuring ideal routes.

    + There are plenty of stuff to discover for both cultural nerds and mountain lovers.

    + Markets with amazing food are all around (car needed).

    + Toulouse is also only 1h30 away (direct train from Lourdes), we lived there for more than 10 years and have many recommendations.

    + Bayonne / Biarritz are also easy to access by train (less than 2h and direct trip) for ocean lovers.

  • Informations complémentaires

    Informations complémentaires

    • Accès Internet

    • Accès Internet limité

      Accès Internet limité

    • Nous avons des animaux

    • Nous sommes fumeurs

    • Familles bienvenues

  • Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

    Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

    We both work from home on internet. We have a strong signal (4G) thanks to a personal hotspot (with our phones). Please ask first to see if we can manage something (depending how many hours a day / what kind of connection you need with significant upload - download or not etc.)

  • Espace pour garer des vans

    Espace pour garer des vans

    We make our first choice on people travelling with their van, of course our meadow is big enough. Because we don't have so much facilities, we need INDEPENDENT people. We don't have a proper hookup yet. Let us know about your vehicle: We can't allow big camper van, RV or trailer. The road is very narrow and quiet steep - you would be STUCK!

  • Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

    Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

    If your pet is friendly with other dogs and it doesn't eat chickens ... it should work! Also, you need to take in consideration that the property has NO FENCE (if your pet likes to explore on his own... maybe this is not the place to be for your furry friend).

  • Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

    Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

    Deux

N° de référence hôte : 833896723622

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