Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Reply rate
91.7 %
Usually responds within 2 days
Feedback
51
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Details
Description
Hello kind stranger! Our names are Claire and Michiel, we're a Franco-Belgian couple living on an old farmstead near the coast at Wissant, North of France. For 5 years now we are renovating the farm bit by bit. After living in a mobile home for 2,5 years, we finished refurbishing a stablehouse as our home in 2020, just in time to welcome our now 2yo daughter Fleur. We renovated our 'longère', a typical long farmhouse in 2021-2022 with WorkAway and now it's almost finished! We took a winter break to welcome our second daughter Perle and starting this spring, we'll continue renovating the adjacent buildings and preparing the vegetable garden.
We're welcoming help constructing an office space and workshop in one part of the building, and renovate a small adjacent building as additional rooms for WorkAwayers. The animals will also need to be fed (only chickens at the moment, but sheep are coming this summer), as well as maintaining the garden and/or keeping our daughters happy while we're outside working :) We'll also do landscaping and gardening. We've planted trees this winter and need to prepare the terrain to welcome our new sheep.
We'll be hosting from the 3rd of March to the 27th of April, and from the 15th of May to the 10th of August.
If you'd decide to come and live with us for a few weeks, we'd be very happy and eager to get to know you! We have quite some experience in hosting our friends, WorkAwayers and helpers from other sites, people say we're very hospitable :) So far we've hosted 56 WorkAwayers from 16 different nationalities, each and every one was an unforgettable experience!
We love hosting people and look forward to meeting you!
Claire and Michiel, Fleur and Perle
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Help around the house
General Maintenance
UN sustainablity goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
In your spare time, you may go for long walks on the beach or on the countryside with a view of the English coast across the channel. There's a lot of museums in the region as well, mostly dedicated to WW2 or the sea and sealife.
We always try to have about 4 volunteers present, so you won't only pick up un French culture and language but also on the other nationalities present. We've hosted 16 different nationalities so far!
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
In the summer of 2021, we've started construction on the largest farm building. We started demolishing walls, taking out concrete flooring and re-did the roof. Next up is building a workshop and office space in a part of the building, with a wooden structure, insulation, plasterboarding, ... We'll also renovate a small adjacent building to make additional rooms for WorkAwayers, we'll redo the entire building, keeping only the exterior walls. The tasks on hand will depend on the status of our works. There's some heavy lifting as well as light work, so anyone should find what suits them!
Building experience is not a requirement, but being curious and wanting to learn is ;)
For those with green fingers there's our biological vegetable garden to maintain, as well as feeding our chickens and, starting this summer, caring for our sheep.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
German: Intermediate
Polish: Intermediate
Spanish: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
We're a Franco-Belgian couple, with partly Polish roots. We can practice with you in French, Flemish/Dutch and English.
Accommodation
We provide your meals and housing in either a mobile home or a room of the not-yet renovated mansion house, with a makeshift bathroom nearby. The kitchen is shared in our house. All ameneties on site are available for you, woodstove, barbecue, pergola, terrace, mountainbikes, tandem, jacuzzi, kayaks, SUPs, ...
You can use a car to visit nearby cities if we don't need it ourselves.
What else ...
To allow us a family life, breakfast is shared between WorkAwayers in the mobile home, all other meals are shared all together in the main house. Working hours and days are decided with everyone present, with respect of the 25 hours/week.
We're in the middle of the 'Parc Régional Naturel' so there's a lot of wildlife to be spotted around the farm and a lot of nice walking and biking routes around. We're also within the 'Grand Site des Deux Caps', which means that a lot of the nicest spots are arranged for visitors with explanatory signs etc.
If the weather allows for it, we'll take you on kayaking trips at sea, we might even have a barbecue on a sandbank 4km off the coast, only visitable a few times a year!
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
Office space would be shared with Michiel, who is an architect working mostly from home. Time to socialise with us and the other volunteers present is really important to us, so we only accept part-time digital nomads, no more than 2 hours/day or 1 day/week.
Space for parking camper vans
There's more than enough space on our farm to find a nice spot for a van :D
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
6 a day, 4 days a week
Feedback (21)
He's strong as an ox, pulling more than his weight on our project and not being scared of hard work. He was… read more
They're a very complementary couple, with a nice common project (Elma the truck) and similar goals in life. It was great to have them together!
Ruby is a great listener and was always trying to help, in the kitchen, with the dishes, always trying to make life easier for us, which was really… read more
Feedback
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Communication:
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He's strong as an ox, pulling more than his weight on our project and not being scared of hard work. He was… read more
They're a very complementary couple, with a nice common project (Elma the truck) and similar goals in life. It was great to have them together!
Ruby is a great listener and was always trying to help, in the kitchen, with the dishes, always trying to make life easier for us, which was really… read more
They were always motivated to finish the job, sometimes even climbing up the roof in the evening… read more
Even though the work was often quite hard and… read more
She's very strong and always motivated to work, even the stuff she didn't really like doing. It really was a joy having… read more
She… read more
It is amazing to look back while going back home and think about how many supercool experiences we… read more
His stay with us was amazing! He's a kind, gentle and funny guy. Our baby daughter Fleur really loved him, as did we all! From day 1 we had a great contact, he was helping in the kitchen all the time, cooking, preparing, cleaning... He did the dishes almost every evening, even when there were 4 WorkAwayers!… read more
Even though communications were not always easy, they got along really well with us and the other WorkAwayers.
Ge was always very motivated and working really hard, he was very open to the others, sharing a lot in the group and making real connections. He has arms the size of my legs and is REALLY… read more
they have a really cool project and all the tasks were really nice. they are super cool people, they welcomed us in their family and Claire was our mumy for all the days we spent there!! thanks so much to host there guys, we miss you :(:(
She was great with our baby Fleur from the start, playing and giggling with her whenever they got the chance.
On our project - renovation… read more
In general I liked the work and being outside. Also I learned a lot about renovating and building stuff. If I had any questions they were always… read more
Coming from a big family, she… read more
She arrived into a group of people who knew eachother quite well, but found her place really quickly. She's a very discreet and kind young woman, not taking a lot of space in a group but always helping in the background.
Even though the work we did was quite physical, she always found a good way to do it and… read more
She's a great person to have around, always respectful and discreet, kind, clean and motivated. She got along really well with the different people that came by during her stay, taking them on trips around our place on their days off and teaching them the do's and… read more
In my time there I got sick a few times and they cared for me so lovingly and heartwarmingly, I really felt like I was part of this amazing family!
Working was so… read more
Unfortunately she had to leave early due to personal circumstances, so we feel like we didn't get to know the real Lena.
She worked very well together with the other WorkAwayers and did a very good job at cleaning… read more
It was a wonderful experience, she is one of the calmest, softest and kindest people we've hosted, with the most wonderful voice. She was amazing with our 1-year old daughter, patiently playing with her whenever she got the chance.
She found her place in the… read more
She always did more than her part, working tediously on the jobs… read more
She did an amazing job sanding and welding an old agricultural trailer we had standing… read more
And I could not imagine a better place to have done that than with Claire and Michiel.
They are the most heartwarming, polite, funny and caring persons I have ever met! The way they made the yet "construction site" to a… read more
He got along very well with most of the other WorkAwayers, never taking the lead but always being kind… read more
They're both easy-going, responsible, kind, open-minded and have a real 'mom-and-dad'-vibe going. They naturally took a lead with the other WorkAwayers present, preparing breakfast and taking them on trips to nearby cities on their days off. They were responsible for what… read more
We can… read more
The work we did was quite physical, moving rooftiles, breaking down walls, woodworking... She… read more
He is easy-going, respectful to the people and the place, speaks fluently in Spanish, English, French and German, has a perfect work ethic, learns new skills fast, likes children, likes to cook AND do the dishes, doesn't complain, fits in, is funny, ... The list of his… read more
The work on hand was quite hard, breaking up a concrete floor and taking it out with wheelbarrows, but they did the job with motivation and passion, sometimes even continuing after we told them to stop because they… read more
The work, although strenuous at times, was incredibly rewarding, and was made even more so by the determination and pride within our small team of what we had achieved thus far. I cherish my memories of misty mornings in the French countryside as we gathered for work… read more
Sara specifically has a lot of interesting… read more
Even if I took some days to get used to a new kind of life Claire and Michiel made me feel at home since I stepped in their house.
I really love cleaning tiles while… read more
He arrived at the same time with a Swedish girl, with whom he got along quite well. When other WorkAwayers arrived later he was very hospitable, showing them around and making them feel welcome. He is a kind, discrete and generous young man, helping where he could and making… read more
Sara specifically got along… read more
Work wise it was quiet physically but not overly so, and our work always felt… read more
With her friend Rose she was our first WorkAway experience, meeting them was a lot of fun!
Regarding the work, it was very physical so my muscles felt like I just had went to the gym. So if you want to strengthen your muscles this is perfect for you. Not so much if you… read more
