Australian Volunteer in France

Posted on May 6, 2015 by La Giraudiere

An Australian in France

This is to welcome Margaret, our new volunteer from Australia, who arrived at La Giraudière yesterday. Living and working in France has always been one of Margaret’s dreams. Her recent retirement has now offered the excellent opportunity to let this dream come true. The 4 weeks she will be staying at La Giraudière are just the beginning of an exciting and adventurous year in France.

Australian Volunteer France Cultural Exchange

Our housekeeper Margaret – Always with a smile on her face

Margaret is a qualified accountant and have had extensive accounting experience in various industries. Therefore, she has got excellent skills in accounting, administration and computers which are highly needed at La Giraudière. Furthermore, she would like to help with everything which needs to be done and fixed. Her first task during this week will be the very responsible one of the “Housekeeper”. Everybody is going to love her for taking over this job because usually nobody is really interested in doing it 🙂

Dear Margaret – We are very happy to welcome you on board and look forward to the next 4 weeks including a unique French volunteering experience. Moreover, we wish you a wonderful time in France with many exciting adventures!

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Learning English in France

Posted on May 5, 2015 by La Giraudiere

English – French learning program

This is to welcome Idriss, an ambitious young French volunteer, who will spend 4 weeks at La Giraudière.  His main goal during his stay is to improve his English by interacting with native speakers and by participating in regular English lectures at La Giraudière.

Idriss has just finished school and will start his career as a firefighter soon. As he considers to go to university later in his life he wants to become a fluent English speaker. Only after a few days at La Giraudière he has already learned a lot and improved his written and spoken language skills. Furthermore, he has got very good computer skills and a hands-on mentality which allows him to carry out every work that needs to be done at La Giraudière. Moreover, everyone is very happy to now also be able to practise their French language skills not only in Brossac or during excursions throughout France but also by using the French language directly at La Giraudière.

French volunteer in Brossac learn English

Idriss preparing beds for arriving volunteers

Idriss – We are very happy to have you here and look forward to an intense and very interesting French – American – British – Australian – German cultural exchange.

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Cross Cultural Learning

Posted on April 30, 2015 by La Giraudiere

Cross Cultural learning and  Intercultural teamwork

This is to send a big THANK YOU to Davida, from Canada, and Elizabeth, from USA 2 volunteers who helped in the preparation of La Giraudière for the arrival of 22 students from the Freedom Preparatory Academy located in the US.

Volunteers Canada USA cross cultural teamwork

Volunteers Davida and Elizabeth preparing La Giraudière for the arrival of the American students

Davida who is originally from Canada works as an Underwriting Support Representative for an insurance company, although she confessed that after La Giraudiere she would be looking for something new,. Elizabeth who arrived from the US has just finished her high school education in January 2015 and wanted to experience the French culture during her stay at La Giraudière before continuing her studies at university. Both were forming an excellent team that contributed decisively to the success of the hosting of the American academy. They were preparing all the gites( by the way gites is a french word for accommodation in the countryside) after the winter, preparing the beds, fixing everything that needed to be fixed, carrying out gardening work and making La Giraudière safe for the students to arrive.

Cross-cultural communication

Every task was completed very precisely and efficiently at the same time. Davida and Elizabeth were the brilliant example that international volunteers and teamwork and proved cross-cultural communication can work out perfectly and produce excellent results.

The academy had a wonderful time at La Giraudière which gave them the chance to authentically experience French culture and to improve their language skills. All this would not have been possible without Davida’s and Elizabeth’s extraordinary contribution. Thank you very much for all your help and effort which is highly appreciated. You are truly missed at La Giraudière!

If you like to read how you can volunteer at La Giraudiere then visit Volunteer in France

La Giraudiere is where volunteers help, interns learn, schools, academies and universities visit and a sejour linguistic for our French hosts read About Us

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German Volunteer in France

Posted on April 28, 2015 by La Giraudiere

Volunteering in France – A Cultural Exchange between France and Germany

Julia, a volunteer from Hamburg in Germany, has just arrived at La Giraudière and will be joining us for the next six weeks. The opportunity to experience French culture in a beautiful village in the countryside, to improve her French language skills by interacting with the local community on a daily basis and to work in an international environment at the same time was her main motivation to come to La Giraudière and to help with everything that is needed.

After having studied International Business Communication in Germany and the UK, Julia has worked in sales for a company selling medical devices for 3,5 years. Following that she decided to take some time out to discover the world , to get to know different countries and to authentically experience new cultures. She has been travelling through Asia for 3 months and will finish her travels after having volunteered at La Giraudière.

French Culture Brossac La Giraudière

Cultural Exchange after a competitive match of Pétanque with a taste of vin rouge

Julia has only been here for three days now, but during these days she has already been completely involved in Brossac’s village life by playing Pétanque with the locals in a very competitive and serious atmosphere. Pétanque is a famous sports in France with the goal to throw metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (literally “piglet”) or jack. Furthermore, she was lucky to witness France’s most beautiful spring weather which made it possible to explore the wonderful area   around La Giraudière straight away.

During her stay Julia will be responsible for different tasks such as writing articles, carrying out social media activities or housekeeping. Her first task was to write an article about a group of students from Utah in the USA. The Freedom Preparatory Academy spent one week at La Giraudière to learn about the French way of life and to experience French culture. This included cooking courses and language classes as well as trips to some of the nicest cities and towns in the region. Three famous newspapers in France (Sud Ouest, Charente Libre and Courriel Français) each published an article about the French – American cultural exchange. To create a press page covering all these articles was also one of Julia’s first tasks. As the “Season 2015” has just started, there are many more projects and tasks to come she can look forward to for the next 6 weeks.

 

 

 

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Brossac Comité des Fêtes Dinner

Posted on March 18, 2015 by La Giraudiere

Brossac Comité des Fêtes Dinner

On Friday, March 20, 2015 there was a Brossac Comité des Fêtes dinner held in appreciation of its members and to celebrate another successful year of events.

Comité-des-fêtes-dinner

Comité-des-fêtes-dinner

This dinner was to be the final gathering for the season as the Comité will be on break until the end of spring.  La Giraudière is highly involved in la Comité des Fêtes’ events.  Some of the main events include the Fêtes de muguet in May for which the La Giraudière team helps with the bike race and Bastille Day in July for which volunteers help produce the fireworks.

This special occasion was held at the newly reopened restaurant, Quai Sud, situated across from the lake.  The delicious meal consisted of gizzard salad, duck filet with a Port wine sauce, oven roasted potatoes, apple tart for dessert and all served with wine.

Dinner-at-Quai-Sud

Dinner-at-Quai-Sud

 

During the evening, the committee members shared stories and laughs together.  The laughs increased when the evening took a surprise turn with a display of balloon busting clowns for entertainment.  It was a night that was well enjoyed and an indication of the fun cooperative projects to come this year in 2015.

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