Enjoy communal living in the calm countryside and help us rebuild an old-fashioned bread oven in Saint Loup Lamairé, France

Infos

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  Description

  SPRING/SUMMER 2024 Looking for workawayers (preferably with building experience) to help with construction on an outbuilding and rebuilding an old bread oven that we intend to share with neighbors and associations.
  
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  Hi :) We are Paul, Rebecca, our 4 year old girl, 2 dogs (Titi and Melek) and some chickens and ducks. We live in the countryside on about 5,700 m2 of land. The area is truly lovely - green, calm. The Thouet River runs in the valley. Parthenay is less than half an hour away by car and Poitiers about 50 minutes.
  
  Our home is along a leg of the Saint Jacques de Compostelle trail. From spring to autumn, our home and property is open to pilgrims on the trail. We'd like to develop more simple accomodation for hikers and bikers and other like-minded travelers.
  
  Our dream is to slowly develop the place into a space for sharing with neighbors from near and far, travelers, and other open-minded folk. There are several structures on the property we'd love to eventually convert into rooms, common spaces, etc. In short, tons of ideas - just need the time, resources, and elf hands to realize them :)

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Projets artistiques

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  Baby-sitting et jeux créatifs

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Entretien général
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  Paul is French, Rebecca is American, our daughter is both. On weekends, we'd be happy to have you join us for walks or whatever outings we take (family/friends' homes, garage sales, gardens, workshops, etc.) We can teach you how to make bread, a good crepe or pancake, play basic amateur guitar, piano, or didgeridoo, or do alternating language days depending on your native language and desire to exchange.
  
  Paul tends to two bee hives and has extra bee gear so you could accompany him if that interests you.
  
  There are plenty of lovely walks nearby in the beautiful countryside. The nearby village was voted 'most charming village of Deux-Sevres' a few years ago and often hosts small concerts, exhibitions, festivals. There is a weekly farmer's market nearby on Saturdays. We have a canoe and kayak you could potentially use.
  
  We prefer no heavy drinking, smoking, or use of screens.
  
  Rebecca leads meditation/relaxation sessions on Monday evenings that you're welcome to join. She can also accompany you in self-development.
  
  If you're interested in a longer stay, we'd talk first by Teams/Zoom to see if all parties feel it's a good fit, then do a 2-week trial before committing to a longer stint.
  
  Good communication and respect to yourself and others is key. When writing us, we ask you to include a few sentences describing your relationship with communal living/volunteer work/travel/worldview (anything to give us a good idea of who are you) and the word COMPOST to make sure you've read this far.

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  Projets impliquant des enfants

  Ce projet peut impliquer des enfants. Pour en savoir plus, consultez nos directives et conseils ici.

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  Aide

  We're really looking for people with specific DIY/artisan skills already in place, love helping out with children, or who are enthusiastic about a good day's activity outside.
  
  As of spring/summer 2024, some ideas for workawayer projects are:
  
  ***pouring slab for flooring in an outbuilding to be used as future accomodation and meditation room
  ***hooking this above-mentioned room up to electricity, installing velux (roof window), enlarging wall window
  ***helping build a bread oven and outside structure to accomodate it
  (We'd work together on anything related to construction.)
  
  
  Independent projects:
  - gardening, weeding, maintenance of green areas
  - If you have a knack for beautifying, lots of signs, etc
  - helping out with household daily activities such as cooking, childcare, etc
  
  We ask for five hours a day of work, five days a week, two days rest. We'd prefer people who are willing to work on Saturday and take their rest days on Sunday and another day of the week, as Paul is home on Saturday and we can all work together on projects that day. You're welcome to join us on excursions, activities, visits, etc on Sunday.
  
  We could potentially host couples, families with children, or other situations - it depends on the time of year and proposal. With good communication, much is possible!
  
  Our town is an hour away from big cities and we don't go often to Poiters, Niort, or Nantes, so please only write if you're ok with long stints in the calm countryside. The demographic is children up to high school age, then a jump to 30+ and lots of retired people. It's a family environment - if you're looking to party, this is not the place.

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant
  Espagnol: Courant
  Français: Courant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  I am perfecting my French and can help you perfect your English or teach you basic to intermediate Spanish. I am also interested in learning some German but have basically no level. Paul is a native French speaker and also speaks pretty decent English and Spanish.
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  Hébergement

  You'd have your own bedroom on the second floor. There are two shared bathrooms (one with a bathtub and toilet, the other a dry compost toilet upstairs). You'd share meals with us and we'd do the cooking unless you have skills :D We don't eat much meat (once a week, twice maximum) but you're welcome to prepare your own in our kitchen at your own cost should your body require more than what we provide in daily meals.
  
  During the warmer months you are welcome to camp outside as well.

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  Autres infos...

  We have a bike you can use to get to nearby villages and you can hitch a ride with us when we go into Parthenay, Poitiers, or elsewhere. Trains can get you from Poitiers to Paris in less than 2 hours.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  We have plenty of space about 200 m from the house where you could park (no electricity or water but maybe we could envision a compost toilet at the least). Campers in tents are also welcome.

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  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  We have two dogs, one of which is a male who is not always welcoming to other male dogs.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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  Nombre d'heures attendues

  Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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