Summer comes to an end and the Autumn Volunteer Group arrives at La Giraudiere

           Over the past two weeks, new arrivals have been steadily showing up at La Giraudiere.  Now every room in the house is occupied and the Autumn Volunteer Group is all present and accounted for!  The newest members of the team are:

• Katie, my fellow American, who is also from my hometown of Denver, Colorado. She arrived  a week and a half ago, eager to see the sites and get to work.

• Cordula and Frederich, a mother and son from Berlin, Germany.  Cordula is here to volunteer and Frederich is attending a local school.
• Liat, an American from San Jose, California.  Liat is a French tutor and her excellent French skills have already come in handy.
• Peggy and Jim, also originally from Northern California but now full-time world travelers.  The couple recently spent several months in Costa Rica and they are now beginning a European adventure.
• Steve, from Sydney, Australia.  He arrived yesterday afternoon and immediately jumped into action, helping out with dinner preparations.

We’ve all stayed very busy the past two weeks, both working and playing!  The main project at the moment is getting the walls of the main entryway and dining room of the old house finished.  Grace, Cordula, and I put all our energy into sanding, plastering, and painting the walls of the future dining room.  The room is now bright and shiny. Dan demonstrated a great deal of care in the restoration and painting of several doorways.  Katie spent last week in the yard and is now our gardening expert.  Last Thursday we decided to take advantage of the warm weather and have a group gardening session.  We lopped branches, pulled weeds, mowed grass, piled branches, and trimmed vines…Now the back garden looks very civilized!  This week the gang is working on the main entry hall of the house.  In addition, Peggy has graciously agreed to be our “house mum” and has started taking over the cleaning and cooking duties.

Aubterre, a lovely little village

During our time off we’ve found plenty of activities to keep us occupied!  The weekend before last we visited Aubterre, a village that has been officially listed as one of the Most Beautiful Villages in France for the past ten .years–and for good reason!  The whole town had a Mediterranean kind of charm; it’s laid out on a hill, crossed with winding footpaths that lead past red-roofed houses and gardens full of colorful flowers.  Everywhere you look there are beautiful views of the rolling green hills of the surrounding countryside.  During our time in Aubterre we visited Eglise St. Jean, a breathtaking subterranean church constructed in the 11th century.  Later that day we also experienced an absolutely heavenly meal at Poirier Gaston, a restuarant in the local village of Bardenac.  The restaurant is only open for lunch and is a favorite meal spot for local workers.  Lunch lasted for about two and a half hours,  during which we ate soup, bread, salad, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, turkey with vegetables, a cheese platter, wine, and dessert and coffee to top it off.  All for only 13 Euros!

Dan and Grace at Restaurant Poirier

            Last weekend we each had our own mini-adventures.  Katie and Grace went off to the Dordogne for three days, where they stayed in a centuries-old house and enjoyed the gorgeous views alongside the river.  Peggy, Jim, and Dan went with Paul to watch the Brossac football team play.  They also visited a brocante (flea market) in the local village of St. Quentin, where they perused the secondhand goods.  Cordula and Frederich spent some time cycling and exploring the area.  Cordula has become our resident botanist, researching the local fruits, flowers, trees, and incorporating wild herbs and berries into our meals here.  Liat and I spent some time practicing our French by hanging out with the local youths, including swimming at the lake, going to a BBQ (which, after spending three weeks here, I’ve learned is a weekend tradition during the summer), and attending a small birthday get-together for one of the local lads.  On Sunday evening a big group of us went out to weekly dinner at St . Berndard’s, the local restaurant in Brossac.  We were joined by some of our French friends and ended up with a bilingual English/French table (which resulted, as always, in lots of hilarious attempts to translate conversations back and forth).  Overall it’s been a wonderful last few weeks of summer and we are ready to see what the fall brings to Charente!

A Weekend Full of Wedding Festivities and Welcoming New Volunteers

The team at La Giraudiere doubled over the weekend as we welcomed two new volunteers: Dan, a reitred judge, and Grace, a solicitor.  Now we have quite the international group, with four different nationalities represented.  Paul’s unmistakable West London accent, Grace’s lovely Irish lilt, Dan’s soft New Zealand intonation, and my own (somewhat less melodic) American drawl are now ringing through the halls of La Giraudiere. So far, we’ve all been getting along swimmingly!

Congratulations to Julien and Jessica!

When Dan arrived on Saturday, fresh from several weeks of studying French in Bordeaux, he and I decided to spend the entire evening communicating only in French.  We successfully prepared an entire dinner without wavering from our goal.  Our efforts resulted in new vocab for both of us, including congelateur (freezer) and les œufs brouillés (scrambled eggs).  Dan’s great respect for the French language is evident in the way he takes care to ensure that every sentence he utters is grammatically correct.  Always eager to share his vast knowlege of the language, he prefaces his mini lessons with “Sorry for playing the professor…”  He needn’t apologize : his insights are always much appreciated.  If you need a word or phrase in French he will drop everything he’s doing to look it up for you (and will probably throw in the etymology andan example of how to use it in a sentence.) 

The moment Grace got to the La Giraudiere on Sunday morning she set about fixing Dan’s glasses for him, and she’s been on a roll ever since.  Whether making coffee, cycling, learning to play petanque, or exploring the weekly market at Chalais, she demonstrates her boundless energy and enthusiasm.  She appreciates everything and everyone; taking in each new experience in with unfailing optimism (as long as she gets her morning cup of black coffee!)  She truly has a gift for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.  Even when the usually sunny Southern France began pouring rain, she said “In Ireland we say, we need the rain to cleanse our souls.”  Her hearty laugh seems to improve every joke.

On Saturday night Paul attended the wedding of Julien, his former apprentice and good friend of La Giraudiere, and Jessica.  After a late night (we didn’t hear his car return until around 3 am) Paul regaled us with tales of the party games, the five course meal, the free flowing drinks.  The newlyweds were kind enough to invite us all to a post-wedding lunch the next day.  We showed up as everyone was good-naturedly cleaning up after the remnants of the previous night’s party.  We were invited to eat a delcious lunch as well as to imbibe with various beverages: punch, vin (rouge et rosé), champagne, and pineau, the grape-based aptertif that is made right here in Poitou-Charentes.  It was a great opportunity to meet some new people and practice our French.  Félicitations to the happy couple!  We are so glad we were able to participate in the special occasion.

Check out our Facebook page for more pictures!

Check La Giraudiere page for information about the volunteer program.

La Giraudiere hosts three Swedish volunteers

Earlier this summer La Giraudiere had the pleasure of welcoming three Swedish volunteers.  Linn, Caroline, and Sophie are all students who have studied French, so they were eager to try out their French skills and immerse themselves in the culture of the French countryside.

The girls’ hearty appetites were matched by their enthusiasm and hard work.

All three of these volunteers tested the logistics of LG’s food supply.  Fridges, freezers, and larders were laid bare following their stay, which was only to be expected once you saw their input into the project.

Linn, who had some previous experience with restoration work, passed her stay volunteering by preparing and painting the rear doors to the old house.  Sophie picked up the ancient art of crépi.*  Caroline, who was a great cook, helped keep house and prepare meals, volunteering alongside Christine from Ireland.

Paul added, “A big thank you goes out to the three of you.  I’m sure Sweden must be very proud of you all.”

La Giraudiere appreciates the hard work these ladies engaged in and we wish them all the best for their upcoming time at university.

*Crépi is the French term for rendering with original materials such as chaux, a based cement product from Saint Astier.

Check our Facebook page to see what all our volunteers have been up to lately, including lots of recent photos!  If you’re interested in volunteering in France visit our website for more information.

Students Volunteering after Year Abroad

Hannah and Helen, friends since their schooldays in the UK are two students volunteering at La Giraudiere for a few weeks. Arriving at the end of July and volunteering through to the beginning of August.  Their  visit came after spending some time studying and working abroad in Spain as part of their university course work.  Both girls studied French and Spanish at university and were eager to test out their language skills here in France.

During their stay at La Giraudiere these young ladies accomplished impressive amounts of yardwork.  They cleaned up weeds and gardened, transforming the courtyard into a beautifully landscaped space. They also did a fantastic job helping with the cleaning up of the windows in what will be the main room in the old house.  When it was their turn to cook, they wowed us with authentic Spanish recipes they learned during their time in Spain.

But it wasn’t all work and no play.  They made the most of their free time, practicing their French with the locals and demonstrating prowess at petanque.  They also spent a lovely day at the coast of Southwest France.

Thank you again, Helen and Hannah, for all of your hard work volunteering at La Giraudiere.  Your delicious Spanish omelette was one of the most memorable dishes of 2013!  We hope to see you again and if you return we’ll be sure to have the paint brushes ready for you so you can finish to fence you so carefully prepared!

La Giraudiere is an ideal project for students wishing to volunteer abroad

Australian volunteer journalist writes for La Giraudiere

Barbara, a retired freelance journalist  from Australia, recently spent time as a volunteer journalist at La Giraudiere. During her three week stay she wrote in-depth articles about the project and its founder.  She focused on the topic of how to combine travel with volunteer work (she is something of a volunteer-extraordinaire herself, having volunteered in her native Australia as a guide at the National Gallery of Victoria, the Immigration Museum, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and the Perth Zoo.)  She is currently working on getting these articles published.  We will also be publishing Barbara’s articles on La Giraudiere’s volunteering in France website soon!

Barbara Australian Volunteer Journalist

For Barbara, the calculated decision to fly from Melbourne in Victoria; Australia to Paris, France and thence by train to Bordeaux , Bordeaux to Chalais and finally to be collected and driven by car to Brossac would take just over 24 hours, 21 of which would be spent crammed into the economy seat of an uncomfortable plane,  lucky to catch four hours sleep! At 76 years of age, every second of every minute of every hour of every day seems more valuable than at any other time in your life,  so why sacrifice two days to spend  only three weeks in a place you know very little about and are even obliged to ‘pay’ for the ‘privilege by sacrificing nine of those 21 days ‘working’ for a man you know virtually nothing about?!! As with most questions for which the answer is “‘bleedin’ obvious”, as the man himself would say, it’s worth it because it’s La Giraudiere!

  We are so pleased that Barbara decided to dedicate some of her time to volunteering on the opposite side of the globe at La Giraudiere!  Her enthusiasm, warmth, and homemade biscuits are already missed. Thanks for everything Barbara!