{"id":3415,"date":"2014-07-29T16:52:57","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T14:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/?p=3415"},"modified":"2014-08-04T14:26:49","modified_gmt":"2014-08-04T12:26:49","slug":"holiday-volunteering-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/holiday-volunteering-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday volunteering at La Giraudi\u00e8re France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holiday Volunteering and La Giraudi\u00e8re Volunteers Arrive and Depart<\/strong><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

After spending three weeks on a holiday volunteering the La Giraudiere Volunteers arrive and volunteers depart. Even on a quiet weekend, La Giraudi\u00e8re is a busy as a hen house on Easter. There are markets in town and car boots in the village (that’s a flea market to our American friends; so named because people sell items out of their car trunks (boots.)<\/p>\n

\"Holiday<\/a>

Sal enjoys a concert with La Giraudiere friends before he departs<\/p><\/div>\n

One can wander to points north and west, Bordeaux or the west coast, or stick close to home and swim in Etang Valliers<\/span>followed by a terrific meal at Quay Sud.<\/p>\n

A good book and a nap is also a welcome distraction; there is no more perfect spot than under a shady tree facing a field of tournesols (sunflowers).\u00a0 All this and more happens on a typical La Giraudi\u00e8re weekend.<\/p>\n

This past weekend saw us wishing a fond farewell to Sal who came to us from Northern Ireland. In the evening we all met for a delicious meal over looking Etang Valliers.\u00a0 Despite the reality of having to say goodbye to a new friend, the mood at the dinner was kept lighthearted.\u00a0 Sal is not one to look backwards besides there was still a concert to attend.\u00a0 The Latin rhythms of the band added to the revelry.\u00a0 After Sal left in the morning, La Giraudi\u00e8re was hit with a sensational thunderstorm<\/p>\n

\"Holiday<\/a>

Volunteers bid adieu to Matthew at Cafe St. Bernard<\/p><\/div>\n

(or l’orage as the locals call it) that knocked out our internet and threw us back to The Stone Age – or at least to the 1980s.\u00a0 We all wondered if Sal’s flight to Bordeaux took off or canceled but we couldn’t dwell on it as we had a new arrival to welcome and bid a fond adieu to another.<\/p>\n

Richard arrived from Hungary as Matthew was packing his bags for home in The United Kingdom.\u00a0 After spending a year studying in Toulouse and a month at La Giraudi\u00e8re, Matthew still wanted to extend his stay in France but family beckoned.<\/p>\n

Another dinner, this one everyone’s favorite, Cafe St. Bernard in the center of the village of Brossac, again found us toasting a fellow volunteer with a local vintage.\u00a0 The highlight of the evening however was the trivia contest that followed. Matthew was in his element, able to show off his expansive wealth of General Knowledge. He left home with not only fond memories of a his time in France but with a trivia victory under his belt.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Richard had precious little time to experience being the new kid on the block.\u00a0 Tina from Austria<\/p>\n

\"Richard<\/a>

New volunteer Richard proves to be quite adept at petanque<\/p><\/div>\n

was scheduled to arrive the next day.\u00a0 A secondary student,\u00a0 Richard was hoping to work on his English and French.\u00a0 He certainly became proficient in all the forms of hello and goodbye in both languages.\u00a0\u00a0 He was also introduced to the French game of petanque in Brossac and despite being a novice, walked away with two victories against more seasoned players.\u00a0 Tina arrived the next morning with a near flawless American accent.\u00a0 A native German speaker, she is conversant in English and anxious to learn French.\u00a0 Despite, living in Belgium for five years, she says, with a giggle, that she didn’t learn any French there. Of course, as an American I’ve heard that all before.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A European says she doesn’t speak the local European language and then perfectly orders a meal while discussing options with the server.What they really mean is they couldn’t pass a second level exam in the subject.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Tina<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
Tina from Austria spends her holiday volunteering with household chores<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

As the weekend draws to a\u00a0close, we look to the upcoming week which will see the departures of intern Jacques, after a month, English couple Marlene and Colin who were our unofficial den parents and then<\/span><\/p>\n

finally by the end of the weekend, your intrepid travel writer sets off for points northward: Paris, London and Dublin.\u00a0 One entire crew is replaced by another as more volunteers are scheduled to leave soon after I leave. All the coming and goings are the very nature of La Giraudi\u00e8re.\u00a0 It’s all very bittersweet but the sadness is replaced by the friends and memories made here.\u00a0 Some vow to return, others are content to add their tour at La Giraudi\u00e8re to their list of places visited.\u00a0 Either way, all agree it was memorable and wish their replacements well<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Terrence<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Travel writer Terence Cremin describes his experiences while volunteering at La Giraudi\u00e8re, France<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Don’t forget to join us on\u00a0Twitter\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holiday Volunteering and La Giraudi\u00e8re Volunteers Arrive and Depart   After spending three weeks on a holiday volunteering the La Giraudiere Volunteers arrive and volunteers depart. Even on a quiet weekend, La Giraudi\u00e8re is a busy as a hen house … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3415"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3512,"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415\/revisions\/3512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lagiraudiere.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}