Experience the beauty of Auvergne and the Georges de Sioule

France

Favourited 85 times

Host rating
Feedback
8
Last activity
10/07/2019
Reply rate
100.0 %
Average reply time:
within 53 days
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Availability

2019

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What's this?

Details

Description
We (Iain and Gabrielle) moved to Auvergne from Scotland in 2010 after falling in love with our house and the surrounding area while on holiday here. We live in a small village in the heart of rural France with our two children who are 5 and 8 years old. We are in the middle of renovating our Bourbonnais manoir and ancient coach house to turn into luxury bed and breakfast and gîte accommodation. We have a lovely big garden with large vegetable patch, fruit orchard and chicken run.
Type of help
Gardening
General Maintenance
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Auvergne is truly French in a very hospitable and un-touristic way! Good food, extraordinary countryside, a sense of community and a laid-back way of life brought us here - visitors can enjoy this too :)
Help
We are looking for a person/couple or family who can bring their enthusiasm and good work ethic to our exciting project. We have now had a number of workers come and stay with great success. We want adaptable people who can help with whatever project is going on at the time in the garden or coach house - but decorating skills or experience would be a real bonus at the moment! We spend most of our time outdoors in summer and enjoy a warm continental climate in summer. So if you are happy to pick up a paint brush, or get your hands dirty in the garden, contact us!
Languages spoken
English and French
Accommodation
Volunteer families will live in the gite opposite our house, it is recently renovated and very comfortable for 4 people. Lunch and evening meals are flexible - the gite has a very well equiped kitchen for self-catering and we are happy to supply breakfast for families in the gite. Alternatively, single or couple volunteers are welcome to stay in our house in one of our 2 spare double rooms with their own shower room and all meals will be with us. Although we eat entirely free-range/organic meat vegetarians are most welcome!
What else ...
Auvergne is simply beautiful and unspoilt. We love it here and are constantly surprised how many exciting things there are to do and interesting places to visit nearby. The surrounding area is well known for all types of outdoor activities from hiking and biking to kayaking and swimming in the Sioule gorge. The famous Puy de Dôme and Massif Central skiing areas are only an hour away. There are charming villages and towns close by, most with weekly markets, including Charroux - listed as one of the most beautiful villages in France. Vichy and Clermont Ferrand are excellent for shopping and site-seeing. Access is easy by car - we are 15mins from the main North/South A71 autoroute. But you can also fly to Clermont Ferrand (45mins away), Limoges or Lyon (2hrs 20mins away), St Etienne (1hr 45mins), and Vichy and Clermont Ferrand have mainline railway stations.
A little more information
- Internet access
- Limited internet access
- We have pets
- We are smokers
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
5 hours

Photos

Feedback left by and about host (8)

12/05/2017

Left by host for Workawayer (Fred & Franziska)

Fred, Pacha and their kids were with us for 3 weeks in early spring. They are a very relaxed, personable and interesting family. They approached all their jobs with enthuisiasm and competence, and got lots done :) They were great guests, we cooked together, learnt new skills and had interesting discussions about everything from education to… read more

(Excellent )

28/04/2017

Left by Workawayer (Fred & Franziska) for host

This was our 11th (and last?) work away host, and definitely one of the best. Accommodations in their gite were truly first rate, private and spacious enough for our family of four. We were there in March so we got to help prepare the gardens for spring. We also helped with painting the guest rooms that they've converted out of an old barn. The… read more

(Excellent )

23/11/2016

Left by host for Workawayer (Ryoma & Machi)

Ryoma, Machi and Ten stayed with us for 3 weeks in late summer. What a lovely family - polite, helpful and hard working. While they were here they weeded and re-built my vegetable beds, did some terrace-laying and generally helped with whatever needed doing. We had fun cooking together and had some really good times :)
Machi's English is good,… read more

(Excellent )

07/10/2016

Left by Workawayer (Ryoma & Machi) for host

Beautiful family!
Ian is always funny guy,Gabi is so blight and kind,Lui and Flo are nice and cute kids. They played with my son every day.We could work on our schedule and that was interesting job(built a terrace,gardening..)which was very fit for us.Amazing accommodation! It was just luxury holiday apartment.We had some dinner together and… read more

(Excellent )

08/12/2015

Left by Workawayer (Teresa & Gianluca ) for host

We spent three beautiful weeks at Gabrielle's and Ian's great house. It was already few months ago (sorry for the delay in the review!), but we still keep the memories alive with us. It was our first workaway experience and couldn't have asked for anything better.
Their project is huge and we hope all the best in their future. Gianluca helped… read more

(Excellent )

14/05/2015

Left by Workawayer (Lyssa & Stephen) for host

We spent three lovely weeks at Gabrielle and Iain’s beautiful abode. We felt welcomed, appreciated and were extremely well looked after the whole time.
Our accommodation was their nearly-finished Gite. The kitchen and the upper floor bathroom with spa bath were yet to be completed but the Gite was just fantastic to stay in. Gabrielle and Iain… read more

(Excellent )

30/08/2014

Left by host for Workawayer (Florence & Felix)

Flo and Felix stayed with us for 10 days in summer 2014. They worked harder than expected (decorating our huge sitting room in our coach house!), learnt fast, played with the children, helped around the house and kitchen, enjoyed the local area and generally fitted in really well with our family. I would highly recommend them. Good luck with your… read more

(Excellent )

07/08/2014

Left by Workawayer (Florence & Felix) for host

We stayed with Gaby, Iain, Louie and Flo for 10 days in the latter part of July - our first Workaway experience and we couldn't have asked for a better one. During our stay, in exchange for painting the walls of their barn, soon to be chambres d'hote, and ceiling of the gite, plus a bit of weed destruction, they made us feel like a part of their… read more

(Excellent )

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Host ref number: 267175157461

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