France
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We are a recently-retired couple looking to live quietly and sustainably in a peaceful part of France. We have a wide experience of travel and life. Predominantly vegetarian, our interests/skills include teaching, skiing, walking, canoeing/kayaking , crafts, and gardening.
We are British, and speak English as our first language, but we speak some other languages more or less fluently.
Language practice
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
There may be opportunities to acquire skills in gardening, building and decorating, opportunity to use equipment such as sand blasters, welders and work in fully equipped woodworking workshop.
We are renovating a 500 year old French house in the foothills of the Pyrenees that has suffered more than 50 years of neglect.
The sort of jobs that we would like help with include renovating and decorating the house, some gardening, and animal care. We are looking for fit and healthy individuals already have some experience in house maintenance, like painting walls and woodwork.
For those of you with experience in carpentry and roofing, if you think you can help us in this regard, have good skills to offer, and together we achieve significant progress on our carpentry and roofing projects, we might be able to help with some of your travel expenses (this would be at our discretion) in addition to providing you with accommodation and meals.
There may be a possibility of a longer stay on workaway basis and on minding the house and animals basis for a suitable candidate. Please write with any questions.
We are not medically trained to deal with any health issues or help anyone who is taking any form of medication, suffering from depression or similar, take drugs or other stimulants, drink alcohol, or smoke cigarettes or otherwise.
We would like help 5 hrs per day, with breaks in between, Monday to Friday and have weekends free. Saturdays and Sundays are also our days off. We have bicycles you can borrow from us, or/and take trips with us.
We cannot accommodate people with children or pets as we have animals here.
For those with nut allergies, also note, we eat tree nuts a lot.
It is important that everyone has a suitable visa and health/accident insurance in place. We do not issue letters of invitation. Those that need to quarantine please do it before you arrive here.
For health and safety reasons you must speak fluent English or French.
We would welcome a native French speaker who could help us improve our command of this beautiful language. We would also like to learn Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.
The nearest airport is Toulouse, or there is a wide choice of local, national and international buses and trains. We can meet you at any convenient pick up point by arrangement.
If this sounds like your kind of opportunity we would love to hear from you.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: Intermediate
This host offers a language exchange
We are qualified English language teachers, and would be interested in helping workawayers to learn this language.
Accommodation (with WiFi) is in a private room with shared bathroom. The room will be equipped with a single bed (or a double if a couple is coming), bedding, bed linen and towels will be provided. We will all take part/turns in preparing our food, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning the kitchen after meals, and other domestic chores such as sweeping and mopping floors of the areas we all use, and topping up spring water etc., unless agreed otherwise.
During times off there are plenty of opportunities for walking and cycling, and sometimes rafting and canoeing. The house is in the Pyrenees where there are many interesting hiking trails. We would be happy for you to join us on our trips out.
Please note, we do not have Television.
If you think this might suit you, please write to us explaining how you think your skills, personality and experience would be helpful to us, and what you hope to get from your stay with us. Please feel free to ask any specific questions if the information you need is not covered in the profile.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
We have a good wifi connection here
We have parking space for a campervan or motorhome
Two
5 hours a day, 5 days a week
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(4.8)
