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Help with finishing touches on an old run-down farm built-in the 80's in Dordogne, France

France
Last activity : 5 May 2026

Profile information

Host rating
60 %
Last replied
6 Jul 2019
Feedback
1
Email verified

Country info

If you are not an EU Citizen and planning to visit France to work, volunteer or study, YOU WILL NEED THE CORRECT VISA. To find out more information please contact the embassy in your home country BEFORE travelling.

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Availability

2026

Min stay requested: at least a week

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What's this?

Details

Description
My husband (presently ill and rarely available) and I are both 62 and retired although very active and locally involved. Our two grown children live separately- one close by and the other in Bordeaux. We bought an old run-down farm in 1984 and have renovated 90% of it. Some finishing work and upkeep necessary as well as help with wood chopping and storing for the winter.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
General Maintenance
Farmstay help
Animal Care
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Local life : language, food, customs and attractions are well known to me and I am ready to share my vast experience with those who wish to experience the French way of life without the inconvenience of ‘cultural shock’.
Help
Living in Dordogne presently, I am a French native who has spent part of her life in the US and Canada. Due to a health problem my husband isn’t able do do general maintenance around the house. I would appreciate help with gardening, some finishing work on the house: general handyman for electricity, plumbing and/or painting. I can help of course and am ready and willing to tutor French and act as tour guide in this beautiful region of France. The house is a 260 year old farm located 10km outside Périgueux in a small village accessible by train and bus.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
This host offers a language exchange
I am bilingual. French/English.
Accommodation
Choice of 3 large rooms with either king or queen size beds and one private bathroom for this separate wing on the first floor. Living room, dining room, kitchen and outside patios accessible. Meals prepared and fridge storage available for personal snacks. No smoking in the house, especially the upstairs rooms.
What else ...
DORDOGNE, also known as the Perigord is the’birthplace’ of Cromagnon man, the site of the Hundred Years War and the home of over 1000 castels. It is the main French tourist destination outside of Paris. Plenty to see and do here!
A little more information
- Internet access
- Limited internet access
- We have pets
- We are smokers
- Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
My animals / pets

Host ref number: 194293699994

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Feedback (1)

10 Aug 2018

Left by Workawayer (Philip) for host

Joelle was my 58th host. I stayed for a little over a week in August 2018. I found her on the Last Minute host list, because she wanted help preparing for the wedding of her son, Cedric. At first she was very private and nervous about having a stranger in the house and was suspicious of everything I said and did, but she grew more trusting as the… read more days passed.

Joelle lives alone in a large farm house, remote and overgrown, with two horses and a dog. There is an inflatable spa pool to sit in. The small village is 4 kilometres away and includes a convenience store near the train station. Joelle offered to take me to other villages, and we visited Cedric, who works in construction, and her elderly mother who lives nearby.

I slept in Cedric's childhood room, still decorated with posters of motorcycles, with a double bed and desk. There was a shower and toilet at the end of the hall. The wifi, which didn't reach my room, was a reasonable 6Mb but suffered severe interference, cutting out constantly.

We ate meals together at the table. Breakfast was toasted bread with butter, lunch was normally rice mixed with egg or tuna or olives, and dinner was fried vegetables with meat, often barbecued. Joelle insisted on doing all the cooking and tidying up by herself. She introduced me to cucumber water, and she went to special effort to make a regional dish, duck confit with seasoned potatoes and mushrooms from her own land.

Conversation included Joelle's former career in Canada (hence her perfect English), her current career in local politics, and her award-winning baker daughter.

Work I did included pruning trees and roses, pressure-washing the driveway, clearing buried junk, and strimming around the electric fences. These jobs were difficult due to a lack of tools: The wheelbarrows all had punctures. There were no shears or loppers for pruning, I had to rely on a pair of secateurs and eventually an old handsaw from Joelle's mother. Joelle's strimmer had a snapped-off safety guard so I refused to use it, and the replacement strimmer we borrowed from a neighbour was falling apart and not suitable for the overgrown weeds, plus we had to borrow a larger wrench to open the head. We also borrowed a chainsaw, but it was blunt and we had no file to sharpen it.

Once the lack of specific garden tools has been rectified, then another volunteer can benefit from Joelle's hospitality and be productive here.

(Very good )

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