Australian testionial of Volunteering in France
It’s 3 months since I stepped off the train at Chalais in South West France to meet Paul Rice, an unknown quantity to me, and be driven through the beautiful French countryside to a destination I knew little about except for the glowing testimonials on the website presenting Volunteering in France internet. And, yes, you were a surprise, Paul – not an Englishman posing as a Frenchman, not a poseur in any sense of the word, but a truly genuine person with the best possible qualities for the task you set yourself when you and your family bought La Giraudiere in 1997.
I’m still so jealous of a lifestyle that brings together so many wonderful people from all parts of the world, singularly united in their love of all things French and willing to do any work to help you achieve your goal of sharing the essentials which make a culture unique.
A Cultural exchange like no other
One of the things that impressed me most was not only the way you chose your volunteers, because being a volunteer at La Giraudiere became a privilege not an expectation, but the intuitive way in which you judged the many, thousands in fact, applications you received.
You weren’t asking for the traditional CV, you were asking for a commitment of only three days a week for three to six weeks working at any skill the volunteer felt would contribute to the restoration of a significant part of French history and achieve a present-day goal.
There were dozens of other volunteering opportunities on that Volunteering in France site but there was something about the way that request was worded that made me take a leap and write exactly who I was, how old I was and what skills I felt I could bring to the project. I had never been good at or even believed in the traditional CV way of judging a person’s capabilities and this was a revelation.
Of course, the overall winning factor was the presence of the glossy black Labrador with the name of my birthplace, Sydney, who greeted me as we arrived.
As a person who’d had many different jobs over a long lifetime as secretary, teacher, journalist and mother I was prepared to work at whatever was needed but pleased to find a seat at the computer to help with the La Giraudiere website that had attracted me in the first place.
A world of volunteers in France
It gave me a chance to interview the other volunteers – toweringly beautiful young girls from Sweden on a break from their university studies, an Irishwoman who was back a second time to attend to the ‘housekeeping’ duties at which she excelled, two English girls who’d spent a year in Spain to perfect the language degree they were doing and another young lawyer from the United States who was taking a year off to travel around Europe.
Each had so much to offer and I appreciated the lack of prejudice towards somebody old enough to be their grandmother. Of course, while I knew it must have been me who attracted the many gorgeous young Frenchmen who would suddenly turn up to see Paul, there was no doubt that it was the spirit and enthusiasm of these young people. The spin-off with the French wine they usually brought along with their invitations to visit neighbouring towns and beaches.
We all had varying degrees of ability with the French language and the free lesson included in exchange for our work made stories around mealtimes hilarious at times.
Added to that was the memorable food each one took a turn to cook in the evenings after a visit to the local markets to source the ingredients they needed.
The days went quickly, ovens cleaned, gardens weeded and replanted, walls rendered, wrought iron painted. When my second three days were up, I took the opportunity to take the train to Toulouse and Carcassonne but, much as I enjoyed the immense tourist attractions of those visits, I was pleased to return to La Giraudiere and share the experiences in a place that already felt like home to me.
I hope, I’m sure I will return one day. Thank you, Paul. This testimonial, or article, was from Barbara Booth a retired writer from Australia.