France
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Hi there,
We are a young couple, who has just moved to Cannes from London with our baby Jasper. We have moved into Penelope's ancestral home (belonging to her great grandfather) in the hills of La Californie overlooking Cannes Bay. The house is a modernist building from the 1960s that has not been lived in since 1975. We are slowly doing it up and hoping to turn this into our forever home, having done a runner from the rat race that is London! The house is small but has two incredibly large double bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, an extra WC, kitchen and laundry room. The view is spectacular and our garden is massive!
Douglas is psychotherapist and Penelope is a researcher, travel writer and guide, Jasper is a bundle of joy! We also have a dog called Bella, who we absolutely adore.
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Babysitting and creative play
General Maintenance
Help with Eco Projects
Help around the house
Language practice
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
There is so much to learn from renovating a home and designing a garden! For one, if you are keen to explore either of these as a future career this experience would help boost your portfolio as you'd be starting from scratch with us. We live in a cosmopolitan part of South of France, which is easily connected to more rural and off the beaten track destinations. The Cannes train station is a 15 minute walk and from there you can get to so many great places if you'd like to explore the province. Our house is a great launching pad.
We are not fluent French speakers but we are getting there, and we'd hope for someone to practice with daily - that may be you. We shop at local farmers and markets- Cannes has many of these- and we'd be happy to introduce you to these and the vendors.
Penelope is a qualified English teacher and would be happy to help you with improving your English - especially if you are setting off to the UK after here. We'd be happy to recommend places for you to visit, people for you to meet and if you are hoping to improve your English, well Penelope is a qualified English teach and would be happy to assist.
During Easter 2019, we'll be wishing for dry and sunny weather in Cannes, as we will be tackling windows and doors. Our windows need sanding down, painting and the putty needs to replaced. I don't think this has ever been done, as the windows are a preservation feature we need to get them into order and healthy looking again.
Our doors inside need sanding down and then to be painted. We'd love for a couple with experience in woodwork/ carpentry to join us for a week in order to help us complete this.
We'll also be sanding down and painting the skirting boards.
As we are looking into renovating the house, our tasks/ projects are not restricted to this although for April we are placing emphasis on woodwork. If you are a couple and one of you has experience in carpentry we'd be happy for your other half to muck in with any of the below tasks:
painting
sanding
gardening - clearing, landscaping and planting
cooking
cleaning
Greek: Fluent
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
Our home is a two bedroom bungalow built in the modernist style. We'd provide you with a large double room with a great view. Bathroom is shared but separate W/C. There is a large living room where you can enjoy watching a film, the sunset or a glass of wine round the fire. We have a comfortable kitchen, and Penelope is a dedicated cook who enjoys making dinners. We'd be happy for you to join us in these. We'd hope that you'd be able to dedicate 3-5 hrs to us, and for the remainder of the day we'd be happy for you to explore the area.
On your time off we'd recommend you explore Provence and the Cote D'Azur. The trains are incredibly cheap and run on time, and the station is only 15 minute walk from the house. There are a number of museums in Cannes but also many in the surrounding villages. Many of these are dedicated to contemporary art or local craftsmanship. Cannes has many restaurants, many are reasonably priced and offer a good flavour of French cuisine. There is a fabulous yoga centre behind the house, so if you are a keen yogi or would like to take it up, Penelope would love to introduce you to the teacher there. Patti is lovely! Near the house there are many hiking routes you can take connecting you to other villages such as Mougins. If you are keen to exercise there is fabulous park we head to that has an exercise route with many stops to lift weights and stretch. If all this sounds too active, enjoy a drink and read your book on our terrace!
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Two
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
