New volunteer social media coordinator arrives at La Giruadiere

The social media channels at La Giraudiere were silent this past week after an electrical storm took out our Internet. But have no fear: we’re back in business!  The Internet is working again and I’ve arrived to serve as LG’s volunteer social media coordinator for the next few weeks.  I plan to update everyone on the work that’s been done this summer and give a much-deserved thank you to all of the volunteers that have recently passed through.

Karyssa, LG’s current volunteer social media coordinator

As we transition from summer to autumn, a new group of volunteers is beginning to trickle in.  As it so happens, I’m the first one to arrive from the Autumn Group.  I’m Karyssa, a recent college graduate from Denver, Colorado who’s come to help out with social media (as well as to try my hand at whatever other projects Paul decides to tackle over the next few weeks.)  I was enticed by the promise of a unique French experience, and so far I haven’t been let down!

Last Thursday evening, I arrived in the little village of Brossac after a long day of air and train travel.  After briefly stopping by La Giraudiere to drop off my luggage, Paul, excellent host that he is, immediately dragged me off to a concert at the nearby lake.

Even in my sleep-deprived, travel-weary state, I could tell that the community of Brossac is really something special.  People of all different ages and nationalities joined together to enjoy the simple pleasures of Spanish music and flamenco dancing.  Since then I’ve spent the past several days meeting quite a few of Brossac’s residents while participating in numerous local activities.

I attended a birthday party, visited a brocante (a kind of flea market / exposition), swam at a local lake, dined at one of the restaurants in town, visited an outdoor market, learned to play Petanque, saw a daredevil motorcyclist and watched fireworks (and drank quite a bit of red wine, bien sur).   And it’s only been one weekend!  Oh la la!

I look forward to chronicling further adventures and ensuring that the volunteer happenings at La Giraudiere are shared with the world. Check our blog and social media channels for more updates soon!

Following the électricité storms two weeks ago we are still waiting the arrival of our replacement NEufbox so please excuse the lack of posts as we are working from iPads and téléphones.

Volunteering in the Charente

In the (paraphrased) words of the great soul singer Marvin Gaye: « What’s going on at LG?».

It’s funny you should ask, Marvin. Ange, our current housekeeper from Australia, has been getting stuck into her new role with enthusiasm and panache! Serving the gang with breakfast, elevenses (my personal favourite) and lunch – today’s spread was simply marvellous – we’re certainly not going hungry!

Peter, fresh from the triumph of last night’s delicious chicken chasseur, has taken on the task of repairing our fleet of battered and buckled bicycles. Meanwhile Ian, who plans to wow us tonight with pork normandy, has been busy beautifying our picnic benches with a fresh coat of green paint!

Men discussing manly things in a manly manner

Over in the Old House, these are exciting times! The second half of the ceiling went up yesterday, and it really does look like a room now – even just in the two weeks that I’ve been here, there has been so much tangible progress, which is incredibly satisfying. All being well, by Christmas it could well be a fully functioning room. Amongst the hammering, gluing, plastering and sanding, the dependably cheesy tunes of Cheri FM continue to set the tone for Paul, Luke, Bridget and Vitor!

Sid is, of course, overseeing the wider operation, providing oversight and moral support.

Sadly, Rob is leaving us today, having performed all sorts of computer wizardry with operating systems, hardware and RAM over the last few weeks, as well as a spot of plumbing and knife sharpening, as he heads back to the bustling metropolis of Stockport, famous for its Pyramid. Apparently.

In any case, it’s onwards and upwards here at LG as we head towards the fast-approaching Bastille Day celebrations!

The current LG Team

A volunteers weekend at La Giraudiere

Chateau de La Rochefoucauld

The winds of change swept across Brossac this week, as five cherished and much-missed La Giraudiere volunteers departed for (generally) less sunny climes. Marcus also left. Ah, humour. In their place were summoned three volunteers of utmost speed, strength and, most importantly, culinary prowess: Ange, Ian and Vitor. Together with Pete, Bridget, Rob, Luke and Dom – and under the ingenious, innovative and deeply inspirational leadership of Sidney, along with his glamorous assistant Paul, we make a pretty good team!

The weekend was a real mixture, with all sorts going on! Pete and Bridget explored the wider region, first visiting the Martyrs’ village of Oradour-sur-Glane, where 642 villagers were murdered on the 10th June 1944, four days after ‘D-Day’. The fact that the occupation of France was nearing its end only adds to the tragedy of the story of this emotive place, which has been preserved intact as a memorial. After leaving Oradour, they also visited the supremely elegant Château de La Rochefoucauld and cultural Limoges, famous for its porcelain – all being within a couple of hours of La Giraudiere! Meanwhile, Luke, an American volunteer aged 20, headed to the coast! Along with a bunch of ever-welcoming Brossacians, he camped overnight on the beach and had a great time whilst improving his proficiency at French.

Back at LG we had a pretty laid-back couple of days, with a BBQ on Saturday night and Sunday’s customary trip to St Bernard’s! Blessed with gobsmackingly beautiful weather, we had a trip into nearby Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, visiting its bizzare yet beautiful monolithic church and – much more importantly – a fantastic ice-cream parlour! My selection was a classic cookies and cream with candyfloss combo, which scored 26/30 on my complex personalised rating system – the best score since last summer! That’s something to put in the diary. Or maybe I need to get out more.

In any case, we had a lovely time, and capped off our long weekend in style with the first floodlit petanque session of the summer on Monday evening – playing until after 11pm! Whilst late-night petanque may sound incongruous to the uninitiated, it’s deadly serious stuff. As Americans, Australians, Brits and Brazilians, we each drew on our nations’ (presumably) long and proud(ish) histories of competitive petanque-ing and, on the whole, came away with reputations intact! Of course, we had to let the locals win a few to do our bit for the ‘Entente Cordiale’!

So, as the working week is underway, we can look back upon a cracking few days of R&R! Next weekend are the Bastille celebrations – so watch this space!

Time spent volunteering at La Giraudiere is time well spent. A thank you.

Fresh from completing my first year as a university language student, with a significantly less than bronzed complexion and no real idea as to what my time spent volunteering at La Giraudiere would have in store for me, I arrived in Brossac just under three weeks ago. As today marks my final full day here at La Giraudiere – incidently, it’s raining outside for the first time in over a week.. pathetic fallacy some might say – I can say with wholehearted honesty that if I could rearrange my flights and summer plans and stay for a further three weeks, I would do so in an instant.

My time spent here has been rewarding in ways that I had simply not anticipated. For starts, I’ve discovered the world of blogging – completely unchartered territory for me previous to my stay, but something that I would love to be able to keep doing once I arrive back home; difficult though it may be to find many sparks of inspiration from my rural village on the outskirts of Bristol, having now experienced the Brossacian way of life! I’ve spent time working as Paul’s ‘PA’: responding to enquiries about the project, sorting through volunteer applications and booking tables at restaurants for the group, to name but just a few of the day to day tasks. I can proudly say that I now have the French for ‘a table for 13 please. Yes, 13.’ mastered almost to perfection.

On that note, although I had hoped that I’d get a chance to speak snippets of French in the market, ‘Intermarché’ or restaurants, I really never thought that I’d have the opportunity to indulge in such lengthy conversations with the locals, discussing all manner of topics until the early hours of the morning, as I have been able to do over the past few weeks. And for this I really can’t thank Paul enough for introducing us to all his friends here, and to those friends for being so welcoming and patient! There seems to be a real community ethos fueling the way of life here in Brossac, whereby no one is ever made to feel like an outsider; indeed, the locals are as keen to embrace all our different cultures and languages as we are theirs! Perhaps a book that us English-speakers could take a leaf or two out of… Food for thought, anyway.

So it is with a heavy heart, a slightly more golden skin tone, a few new colloquialisms to add to my French repertoire and a wonderful selection of memories of my time here at La Giraudiere to take home with me, that I write this final blog and hand the reigns over to the next volunteer. Thank you thank you thank you to Paul, all the team at La Giraudiere and to the Brossac community for making my stay here so enjoyable and worthwhile. Time spent volunteering at La Giraudiere really is time well spent.