Enjoy beautiful surroundings whilst helping with a 14th-century house and garden restoration in Pays de la Loire, France

Details

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  Description

  In 2013 Bob and I (Helen) bought our current property, a 14th century maison de maitre that had been derelict for a few hundred years. Since then we have been working on the house and grounds to create our dream home.
  We have 15 hectares which are shared between our six horses (and two goats) and our developing garden. We have discovered that the more you do the more you are capable of tackling and the best thing about such a big project is that there are so many different things to do you can never get bored.
  We are often distracted by fun projects, last summer we built a bread/pizza oven out of cob (mud and straw) in the garden and have had great fun making pizzas together with all our visitors.
  We have two dogs that are very much part of the family. Our son is often with us at the weekends to help out, although less so now as he has just bought a house near Nantes for restoration ( maybe an opportunity to give a helping hand there too).
  We love cooking together and exploring new food ideas so if you would like to cook with us and share your favourites we would be really pleased.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We would be delighted to share with you any skills we can whilst working on the house and grounds. We are restoring the house using traditional methods and so can teach you things like plastering with lime and clay/mud. We are native English speakers and speak French.

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  Help

  We are currently looking for workawayers for May and August for the following tasks:
  
  Replacing the wooden planks on the hayloft floor. Sanding and preparing the old planks to be relaid in another room. Plus the other tasks listed below
  
  The tasks depend upon the time of year and what we are currently tackling but we always have different things on the go and of course there is always general maintenance. If you have any particular skills we will be sure to find you a project to use them.
  The jobs are generally outdoors and physical.
  A few of the possible tasks: preparing/laying terracotta floors; cutting grass; lime washing walls; hedge trimming; strimming, roofing; plumbing and electrics; chopping and splitting firewood; laying a path; mixing up mortar; sanding and painting etc etc
  And we do have machines for these jobs, i should add.
  We are totally flexible with the times and days you help so that you can make the most of visiting the region or just relax by our lake with a book. We ask for 28 hours per week and you choose when you do them.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  French: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  We have a guest room in a separate wing of the house with a double bed and a private bathroom. Next to this is another bedroom so if you are two friends traveling together you could have separate rooms and share the bathroom. There is WIFI. We would provide your meals, our meal times can be erratic but the food and local wine is always good.

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  What else ...

  We are close to: Le Mans, famous for it's 24hr racing and ancient Plantagenet city; to Angers; to the Loire valley with it's chateaux and vinyards. There is a train station a few km from us and we would be happy to drive you there sometimes, we also have bicycles you can use. the train takes you to Le Mans, Angers etc. The Sarthe river is a half hour walk through the forest, the river offers fishing, kayak and walking its banks.
  We also have a baby grand piano that would love to be played and a drum kit if you are musical.
  We have a lot of wildlife around us, we see wild boar and deer as well as a range of birds, ducks and eagles etc
  We have resident Little Owls who are often in the garden especially when they are training their young during summer evenings.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  We now have fibre so the connection is very reliable and works from the guest room.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have a lot of land and parking areas so any size of van would be fine and not in the way.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  4 hours per day/night with us, you choose your hours and days off as you like.

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