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Evaluación del anfitrión
100 %
Last replied
29 dic 2023
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100.0 %
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Descripción
Hello
We would like help from volunteers to renovate and maintain a beautiful old Maison de Maitre and gardens in Saint Marcet, a small rural village in Haute Garonne, South West France, 1 hour south of Toulouse.
19 years ago we fell in love with this beautiful house despite the work it needed. For us the amazing space and rural location was perfect for our young family. Its been our greatest pleasure bringing up our 2 daughters with the freedom and relaxed lifestyle we have found here.
However whilst doing this we haven't managed to get as much work completed as we would have liked. But now our girls are 'all grown up' ..... well kind of ...... the time is available to get on with the renovations.
Brian has recently retired after working in the aviation industry, loves all sport and in particular Rugby but just as much he loves his Triumph Bonneville. He is a fluent French speaker with French nationality. He has experience with renovation of both houses and gardens and there is always a DIY project on the go which can vary between making cupboards, decorating, and garden work.
I, Caroline, enjoy undertaking the renovation work in the house and garden too. I am interested in Permaculture and Eco living. Cooking, anything crafty and animals are also my passions and my hobbies include sewing, stained glass, pottery and art. I am also a member of an amateur dramatic group and a dog club. I have learnt French organically and am confident when speaking but not so great with reading French.
Our daughters, Harriet, 28yrs, lives and works in Montpellier, and Alana, 23yrs, lives and at University in Toulouse. Both pop home occasionally.
We have some lovely pets; our 3 dogs are Mowgli 12yrs, Lilly 5yrs and Teddy 4yrs. We also have Matilda and Harry our cats as well as miniature goats and chickens. Occasionally horses and donkeys come to help by eating the grass in our fields .... there is a lot of land that gives us great privacy !
We love being outside in the gorgeous weather we are lucky to have in the Summer months, so if you like the idea of coming to Saint Marcet, sharing a glass of wine alongside a good home-cooked meal in exchange for some help, then we would love to meet you.
PROJECTS CURRENTLY BEING UNDERTAKEN DURING SPRING 2023
* General Garden Maintenance, pruning, planting of shrubs
* Preparation and planting seeds in greenhouse & vegetable beds
* Tree and hedge trimming
* Cutting down brambles
* Help with fixing fencing
* Renovation of furniture (sanding, staining, painting and upholstery)
* Caring for animals and their accommodation
* Current indoor projects for rainy days will include furniture renovation, sewing projects, painting
* A larger indoor project for autumn of 2023 is to completely renovate & create a Winter snug where there was once a kitchen.
PLEASE NOTE: Previous experience of using petrol equipment like a brushcutter, hedge cutter, chain saw or ride on mower would be an advantage to be involved in bramble, tree, hedge type work. Brian is extremely experienced in these areas and will be happy to teach and work along side you.
Tipos de ayuda y oportunidades de aprendizaje
Jardinería
Construcción y bricolaje
Cuidado de animales
Cocinar para toda la familia
Ayuda doméstica
Mantenimiento general
Intercambio cultural y oportunidades de aprendizaje
Improve their language skills, we are able to speak both English and French.
Learn to use DIY and renovation tools and outdoor machines.
Renovation & upcycling of furniture, painting, upholstery, sewing and various other crafts if they are being undertaken at the time of your stay.
Learn concepts of permaculture living, recycling ... (and real cycling if you fancy riding a bicycle up and down the hills ! ), knowledge of plants, propagation and other general gardening skills.
Ayuda
We are looking for workawayers to help with both indoor and outdoor projects and have listed those currently being undertaken above.
PLEASE NOTE: Some of the help required is physically demanding so you need to be fit, and have experience working in outside environments.
*️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️*️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️ You will need to have your own suitable clothes, shoes, gloves etc to work in. Items you do not mind getting dirty as we do not supply overalls *️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️*️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
It is important you can work independently and without supervision at times but only with things you are comfortable undertaking. You should be someone who likes the countryside, rural locations, the outdoors and animals.
In the Summer it can be VERY hot and because of this we are happy to be flexible with working times ie. to work early morning and late afternoon/early evening by prior agreed arrangements.
Some of the outside work will require the use of electric and petrol tools for which we can give training if you are unfamiliar with these. Examples of the equipment we use are ride on mower, hedge cutters, brush cutter, chain saw.
Help with caring for the animals, some general household jobs, food shopping and cooking are all things you will also be involved with.
Idiomas
Idiomas hablados
Inglés: Fluido
Francés: IntermedioEste anfitrión ofrece intercambio de idiomas
Brian is fluent in English and French and has both English and French nationality. Caroline is fluent in English and Intermediate in French. We have lived and worked in France for 19yrs and of course bringing up our daughters in French schools required us to help them learn the French language too. We generally communicate in English with Brian happily speaking and helping in French.
Alojamiento
Our house is large with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, large living/dining room, kitchen, utility room, rooms requiring renovation.
Two outdoor patio areas and several acres of garden.
There is also plenty of room outside should anyone want to camp or come with their own motorhome.
We currently offer Workawayers use of all shared areas and a bedroom with a double bed with bedside tables, sofabed, coffee table, wardrobe, chest of drawers, table suitable to work at and the use of a shared bathroom.
Algo más...
We live in a rural farming community area and the village is small with a church, a local baker, small bar, tennis courts, a small fishing lake and a very large village hall that occasionally has an event or two happening.
We have bicycles available to explore the area although they are not new and it is pretty hilly around here. There are some lovely places to go on walks.
When possible we are happy to take you to and from our nearest towns Saint Gaudens or Boulogne sur Gesse which are approximately 10kms away.
The nearest main line train station is in St Gaudens and there is a cheap bus service to Toulouse running from Boulogne sur Gesse.
Local towns have weekly markets, all the shops and amenities you may need, lovely lakes, walks to explore and offer rail and bus links to bigger cities such as Toulouse, Tarbes and Pau.
The Pyrenees are an hour away by car and of course public transport can take you to lots of different areas there, where you will find lot of activities, including mountain trails for walking and cycling. There are also many places for canoeing, rafting, paragliding, tree climbing adventure parks, Balnea Spas around the villages between us and the Pyrenees.
Spain is just over an hours' drive away if you fancy practising another language !
Nearest Airports are Toulouse, with budget airlines Easyjet and Ryanair flying in and, Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees (sometimes just known as Lourdes) with Ryanair flying in. There are many other airlines that connect with Toulouse.
There are train links from both Toulouse and Tarbes to Saint Gaudens and a bus link from Toulouse to Boulogne sur Gesse.
We can collect you from Saint Gaudens or Boulogne sur Gesse.
Car shares are often available through blablacar
Coach/buses to and from Toulouse through megabus, flixbus and ouibus. All offering cheap deals from city to city.
Un poco más de información
Acceso a Internet
Acceso a Internet limitado
Tenemos animales
Somos fumadores
Puede alojar familias
Puede acoger a nómadas digitales
The bedroom available has an area with a sofa and desk to work from and has Wifi access.
Espacio para aparcar autocaravanas
We have a large gated driveway 20 metres off the road suitable for motorhomes
Podría aceptar mascotas
We can accept pets but they need to be house trained and able to get along with dogs and cats as we have these ourselves. Prior discussion and agreement is required before we can agree the acceptance of any pet with a workawayer.
¿Cuántos voluntarios puedes hospedar?
Dos
Horas esperadas
Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week
Comentarios (20)
They helped with… read more
The job was great, mostly outside in the garden and inside when the weather was not so great, doing some furniture renovations, but also… read more
Fotos
Comentarios
Son opciones de calificación adicionales para cuando los miembros dejan sus comentarios. Se muestra la calificación media dejada en cada opción.
Precisión del perfil:
(5.0)
Intercambio cultural:
(4.8)
Comunicación:
(5.0)
They helped with… read more
The job was great, mostly outside in the garden and inside when the weather was not so great, doing some furniture renovations, but also… read more
These guys were great to me since the first moment. I swear from the moment they picked me up at the bus stop I knew I was in a great place. Brian is… read more
He happily worked independently both in our garden and indoors including cleaning out our chicken shed, digging, recreating new compost bins, helping… read more
She is hard working, keen to learn new skills and enjoys having a go at any task.
These are some of the tasks Sarah helped us with:
* Clearing of the vegetable garden, moving compost, trimming of shrubs
*… read more
We helped them in their beautiful garden, I planted vegetables, trees, cared about the garden, helped in the… read more
Flora is super energetic & worked tirelessly to transform so many areas of the garden, weeding, moving compost, rotivating, planting ....… read more
I really enjoyed my time with Caroline and Brian. They have both been very friendly to me and welcomed me with open arms. We never had any communication or organisational problems. Brian drove me to and from the train station every weekend when I visited other cities. Caroline, in particular,… read more
She was happy to help with all tasks we gave her which included gardening - clearing areas, weeding, sweeping watering. She helped every day with feeding the animals & when needed driving me to… read more
Jonas is a highly skilled carpenter and in the 2 weeks he was with us he fixed up our goat shed, boxed in pipes in our bathroom to a high standard ( both jobs I am so pleased are now sorted ) and under took clearing of brambles… read more
We came back to find they had been busy doing a few jobs, which we hadn't expected or asked them to do but was a great surprise to come back to.
They collected leaves, kindling wood, cleaned some windows and some genetal… read more
They worked hard to a really good standard either together or independently. They loved a challenge and completed many different tasks in our garden. So much was achieved in the time they were… read more
Anyway I want everyone to know you were both delightful to have as workawayers. You obviously very much enjoyed the animals we have and were happy to help out with the variety of tasks we asked you to do.
And of course I have to say I… read more
Juan worked very hard at all the tasks he was given including lifting some pretty heavy stones. He helped construct a new patio area from digging the base to getting and filling with hardcore. He then helped build a… read more
They were very willing and able to help in anything that needed doing from project work to domestic chores
Harry completed indoor painting and some dry wall plastering on the ceiling where I couldn't reach and helped Brian complete a wall… read more
This was our first WorkAway and we loved the family atmosphere, the work and the area surrounding Caroline and Brian's beautiful home.
They were also super helpful for our days off - loads of recommendations and advice about places to visit and transport to use!
We had a wonderful… read more
Beth was able to move our kitchen project on fantastically. In particular she is really good at doing plaster filling and painting. She is patient, careful and tidy in all the work she completed. She is… read more
The… read more
You fitted into our environment just as we hoped and just got on with doing things that needed doing. I don't think there is anything you couldn't tackle or be willing to do.
You loved our animals as if they were… read more
thankyou Caroline and Brian for the best week ive had in ages!
as my first workaway placement, i was hoping for a good experience and nice people.
To say i was made to feel right at home instantly was an understatement- after only 7 days i felt i was part of the family!
carolines cooking and hosting is wonderful, we shared… read more
You were hard working and happy to work along side Roy another great guy staying and between you achieved so much.
Including dismantling an old deck, moving loads of wood and creating a wonderful bonfire and a major… read more
I've been at their place for a week, and helped them out with various tasks. What I liked, was that we would be given some tasks to complete on that day, or in the week, and we could make up our own schedule. We were given all the freedom to do things our… read more
