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Last replied
5 Nov 2024
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Details
Description
Hello,
we are Pierre and Winnie and we live in our little paradise. You can find us in the Charente, about 25 minutes south of Angoulème and only 10 minutes from the Dordogne. We have about 2 hectares of forest, 3,5 hectares of grassland and a big lake. On the land we have about 80 fruit trees: apple, pear, kiwi, cherry, kaki, nashi, plum,... And we started a vegetable garden.
Very often we have deer in our garden and there are often traces of wild boar too. Apart from that there are plenty of birds and insects to spot.
We have moved here beginning July 2019 and we still have lots of things that need to be done and with which you can help us.
We have 2 donkeys (Bob and Maxou)
We have a daughter Martha who is 4 and our son Tobias who will be 3 in November.
We live in a very rural area. Villebois-Lavalette is the closest town to us, with a supermarket and small market on Saturday, and this is at 8 minutes drive by car. It is very quiet here, it is easy to get used to the peacefulness surrounding us. There is little public transport here, so it is nicer for you to have a car or at least a driving licence. You will be able to go discover our region a lot easier that way.
Pierre works full time in IT (Monday to Friday). Winnie is managing a cabin (at our lake) and a gite for 11 people (in the village).
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Interests
Events & social
Sustainability
Vegetarian or vegan
Self development
Van life
Movies & TV
Music
Languages
Gardening
Drawing & painting
Cooking & food
DIY & crafts
Yoga / Wellness
Nature
Camping
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We are open to many initiatives, so you can suggest things too.
We both speak fluent French and English, Winnie also speaks Dutch. We can help you with these languages.
We live a very rural life with the closest little town at about 8 minutes by car. You can really enjoy time in nature, surrounded by few people and little noise.
Au Pair Help
Further details can be found here
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
What do we really need help with:
Autumn holidays : Help out with the kids or with small building projects
September/October: Help out with harvesting and making all sorts of preserves, help in the garden, etc
November: Help out with the kiwi harvest, preparing the fruit trees for Winter, small maintenance jobs around the garden and the house
the rest of time: anything mentioned in the list below :-)
What do we need help with:
- keeping the veggie plot going
- if you like cooking, that is a welcome help as well ;-)
- cutting away brambles, cleaning up the land and the garden (mainly weeding in the garden)
- fruit picking, making jam and other preserves
- if you know how to: taking down some dead trees and cutting wood
- we also have some furniture that we want to give a new look if that is more your thing
- we have an old building on our site where we need help to take down some walls and take the debris away
- ...
Harvesting is a huge task where we could use help. There is the picking of the fruit, but also the transforming of it, which takes most time. We currently dehydrate, freeze, transform them into jams or syrups, or put them onto syrups. Winnie likes exploring this a lot, so any idea you have is a possibility. June is cherry harvesting, from mid-August to end of September we have the apples, pears, plums, mirabelles, figs,... And then even later we have kaki's and kiwis, and wild mushrooms depending on the weather.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
Dutch: FluentThis host offers a language exchange
I would like to get my German up again. I speak French, English and Dutch fluently.
Accommodation
We have a room with double bed (or 2 single beds) available in the house, so please enquire about this if this is what you are looking for. Outside there is plenty plenty plenty of space for you to hide out with a tent. A campervan is welcome too.
We will enjoy the meals together on the working days, on the days off this will depend on what everyone is up too. The kitchen will always be available. Breakfast is usually bread and homemade jams, lunch and dinner are often warm meals, or a salad or soup, it all depends. We almost always eat glutenfree (except for breakfast, but if you are gluten intolerant just like Winnie, then just say it in advance and we will provide glutenfree bread or porridge for you too). We often eat vegetarian or even vegan, also here, if this is the kitchen you prefer, just tell us and we can play along. We love travelling and also travelling by food, so we would love it if you could cook a lunch/dinner for us during your stay.
What else ...
We live in a rural area with a lot of nature. There is very little public transport available, so you need a bike or even better -sadly- a car. On your days off you can visit some small towns around us (Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, Brantôme, Ribérac,...), go to Angoulème, go hike in nature, go swim in a river,... or just enjoy the peacefulness here at our house. The sea is at 1h30-2h from us, but it is rather busy there in July/August.
Pierre and I met in Plum Village France, after we met we went on a 2 month trip to Sri Lanka and Kerala, India. 1 year after we met we moved into our house in Ronsenac.
We have a camping car with which we travel. We plan on going to Morocco in January/February 2024.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have a good internet connection. Pierre also works from home.
Space for parking camper vans
A normal sized campervan is absolutely no problem and can be hooked up on electricity. For water we can try and see if there is a solution, depending if you need it.
Can possibly accept pets
It is possible but depends on the pet. We have donkeys and our land is not entirely fenced. There is a lake with free access for animals too. We also have the woods just next door with lots of wild animals living there. We also have people renting our cabin all the time, we don't cross paths with them often, but they might cross paths with your pet. Please think about all this before coming with your pet.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
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