Profile information
Host rating
80 %
Last replied
7 Jun 2025
Feedback
47
Email verified
Badges (3)
Details
Description
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Hello
I am looking for someone or 2 friends to come and stay from early July this year from 2 to 4 weeks or even longer. I am going to have a minor operation on my hand on July 8th and so will not be doing any lifting or heavy work for a month. I would love to host someone who is looking for a quiet time here with me but who would be willing to help with vegan cooking, some permaculture gardening, some driving and shopping. It would be better for me if you have a driving licence then you can drive my car and help me with shopping from time to time. All volunteer help is for daily living purposes at my home and not part of a business.
I can teach/give you information on vegan health coaching (I am a qualified nutrition and health coach), vegan cooking (qualified), permaculture gardening (I am a qualified gardener) and animal rights issues. You would have your own room in the house. We would cook vegan meals together. There are bicycles you can borrow - cycling here is great as there is an old railway track nearby so you can cycle to the waterfalls at Mortain or through villages and countryside to Mont Saint Michel. The garden is quite wild - more forest garden style and there a lots of interesting books to read on permaculture, animal rights, wellbeing, environmental philosophy. The coast is half an hour away in the care and there are spectacular coast walks.
I am usually very active and enjoy dancing (jazz, ballet, zumba) and I also do yoga, chi gong, strength training, cycling and coast walking. But during this time, I may need to slow down!!
There are four lovely cats that live at the house. So this is not a place for people with cat allergies!! The cats are very independent - they come and go as they please - there are three catflaps for them to use.
The house is in the heart of the Normandy countryside - 6 km from the nearest town with no public transport to the town - so you would have to walk/cycle/drive to town. It is a short drive to Mont Saint Michel. There are extensive gardens all around the house and lots of books to read on all sorts of subjects relating to sustainability, veganism, animal rights and well being.
I am a vegan bilingual (English/French) English woman with qualifications and experience in plant based cooking, ecoconstruction, furniture making, organic/permaculture gardening, teaching and art and craft. I am also discovering Buddhism and ecofeminism and am interested in the links between all these elements. Vegan permaculture appears to me to be a useful holistic framework that can bring a lot of elements together into a coherent and humane worldview.
Help so far was centred around renovating an old earth house with natural materials (now finished) and creating an edible landscape on almost one hectare of land using many ideas and techniques of permaculture. I grow wild plants, edible flowers, herbs, annuals and perennials. The garden is a bit wild now which I am appreciating. There is 1700 square metres of garden with fruit trees, fruit bushes, herbs and other wild plants with little pockets of annual beds.
It is tranquil here. There is high speed fibre optic wifi but no television. There are two guitars here if you are interested in playing.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
Interests
Politics / Social justice
Vegetarian or vegan
Sustainability
Culture
Self development
Movies & TV
Animals
Carpentry
Drawing & painting
Cooking & food
Gardening
Languages
Photography
Plant care
DIY & crafts
Books
Art & design
Yoga / Wellness
Nature
Fitness
Dancing
Beach
Hiking
Cycling
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
In coming here you can learn about aspects of vegan cooking, eco-construction and/or permaculture gardening (I am qualified in all of these). I have a good number of books on many aspects of permaculture that you can borrow. I love to play the guitar and sing so always interested to exchange songs.
Help
Are you vegan or interested in becoming vegan? Do you have some knowledge and experience in gardening/horticulture? I need help in July as I will be having a minor operation on my hand. I need help with driving to town for shopping, vegan cooking and gardening.
I am also looking for someone vegan who would like to stay longer term to help me maintain the land (food growing) - I can offer a lovely room in the house or you could put your caravan or tiny house on the land. I am open to suggestions/offers. It could suit someone who has an online income and could help part-time on the land.
There is high speed internet at the house. It would be great to have some longer term help with the garden food growing project. In an ideal world I would love to welcome someone who has at least some knowledge of food growing/horticulture/agriculture to help with developing this aspect (the vegan edible landscape). I would like to develop the use of herbs, green manures, beans for protein and more edible perennials. We built a solar dryer last year and drying and storing more herbs would be great.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: FluentThis host offers a language exchange
I can speak English or French.
Accommodation
A beautiful room in the house or space for camping on the land or you can park your van at the entrance or on the land
What else ...
There are 4 cats that live here so this is not a good place for someone with a cat allergy!! You must love cats. It is not possible to come here with dogs or other cats.
Mont Saint Michel is half an hours drive away and there are many interesting old towns and cities to visit like Fougeres (with its old castle) Granville, St Malo and Dinan. There are beautiful waterfalls not far from here and a busy weekly market at the nearest town - Saint Hilaire du Harcouet (6km away). You can borrow bicycles to get to town or to explore the local area. It is possible to cycle to the waterfalls and Mont Saint Michel from here. There are buses to different places that you can catch at Saint Hilaire du Harcouet. I am in the middle of the countryside so it would suit people who enjoy peace and quiet.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
I have high speed internet here. I would be very interested to offer a room in the house to a digital nomad who has some interest and knowledge of gardening, who is vegan and who loves cats, permaculture and the countryside. We could discuss conditions - eg some work on the land in exchange for accommodation/wifi or other - I would consider all offers.
Space for parking camper vans
You could park your van at one of the two entrance areas or help me clear a space on the land for you. There is the possibility to stay longer term here on your own.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Feedback (25)
This place has a lot to offer, and the garden kept me busy. Weeding, clearing brambles, mulching, ... I never got bored and I learned a lot on this wild permaculture land, I loved it! I was able to learn more about edible wild plants… read more
We got up to a fair amount of interesting and varied work, Liza always being aware of if we wanted to switch between things if one task was getting too much.
We cooked… read more
Photos
Feedback
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(4.9)
This place has a lot to offer, and the garden kept me busy. Weeding, clearing brambles, mulching, ... I never got bored and I learned a lot on this wild permaculture land, I loved it! I was able to learn more about edible wild plants… read more
We got up to a fair amount of interesting and varied work, Liza always being aware of if we wanted to switch between things if one task was getting too much.
We cooked… read more
We found a project for me that I could really hang into and work on independently:… read more
We were put onto the task of building a tyre wall for the entrance to the… read more
There was usually a variety of jobs to do each day, depending on the weather and how… read more
This is definitely a place to learn a lot about permaculture and vegan cooking. We also had serious conversations on self-sufficiency, environmental topics as well as a lot of laughter and singing while Liza was playing the guitar on my birthday. :) There… read more
If you like to explore, experiment, learn and garden Lizas project is a great choice! My time with Liza, Kevin and part of the time with other volunteers was full of interesting and intensive discussions about all kind of Eco topics, especially gardening, self sufficency and vegan lifestyle. I was so happy, that Liza knows a lot… read more
There was always a list of things to do, so I never got bored. The projects were fun and diverse. I transplanted various plants, rendered some walls with lime, built a teepee for the beans, made a path next to a garden bed, leveled the… read more
Steve is a true Renaissance man - talented in many domains. He was able to successfully build a cabinet for the bathroom here using pallet wood with minimal supervision. He also… read more
she is super fun and her place offers so many possibilities to get into various fields, whatever your eco-friendly heart might be interested in. she accepted to host me on short notice and i was very grateful to her openness and general flexibility towards her volunteers.
the food was always delicious and… read more
