France
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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.
Gardening
General Maintenance
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
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 :)
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!
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
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!
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.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
More than two
5 hours
