Saturday 21^st April

Rainy lazy day, after clearing up from the party we just had to stay indoors waiting for the rain to stop and for it to get warmer, luckily the girls had been invited to dinner with Gail an expat from England who owns a little house in the centre of the village. We had a great feast of several courses in typical French style. We had an apero or aperitif in the form of nibbles and some Pastis. Then a starter, delicious lentil soup then the main, which was roast pork, the best I’ve ever tasted with roast potatoes and delicious vegetable consommé. After that we had cheeses and desert etc. Needless to say we were stuffed and I have to get used to eating less at each stage.

Dan and Paul went to a local truckers restaurant, the Relais at Barbezieux where they watched the Barcelona, Real Madrid game and Dan was fascinated by the passive watching followed by outroar after the goals; the score was 2-1 to Real Madrid and Dan and Paul came back stuffed and happy after having the same multi course dinner that we had. A great way to pass the weekend!!

Friday 20th April and today is Paul’s birthday: The downstairs of the old house as been cleared out by the volunteers in preparation for tonights festivities.

Today we all buzzed around preparing for the big event! Yes it is paul’s 35th birthday yet again. First person to arrive was Christian a football friend of Pauls who works for the local commune of Brossac. Within the hour La Giraudiere transformed from a building site into the place to be. Neighbourgs of La Giraudiere, Friends of Paul English and French mixed in with the international volunteers to provide the perfect celebration.

Guests start to arrive at 7.30pm French time for 7pm! Us volunteers try out rusty French and looked a bit scared for a while. We slowly mingled and the lovely locals  were really patient while we tested out incomprehensible sentences of Franglais on them.

Lucy a local Expat had baked an amazing Pavlova and Sarah, our French neighbour at Chez Moche house at the end of the road had baked Chocolate tart which was gone in a second once we had sung happy birthday.

The icing on the cake for Paul was to see 3 of his first apprentices that had worked with Paul starting in 1998. Nicholas, Julien and Aymeric had either been an apprentice or had been a stageaire of Paul and started learning building and restoration with him when he first came to France and this is the first time since 2004 that they had been together at La Giraudiere.

Apparently the last to leave was Aymeric at 3.00 am

Thursday 19th April and it is a grey and dismal outside as the April showers continue relentsly. But this dull weather fails to drag down the enthusiasm of the volunteers. Paul declared a day off for the group so  we just relax and stayed warm indoors and watched a Beatles film titled across the universe.

After dinner at La Giraudiere desert was being served at the Brossac Spa and health club which is situated by the by the lake 1 kilometer from La Giraudiere. Here the group forced themselves to take in Crème Brulé, sorbets toped by a few beers and garnished with some international jokes.

The rain continues to pour and the wind seems to be picking up into a storm, lets hope the weather here in south west France eases up for Paul’s birthday celebration tomorow !

Things are getting busy here at La Giraudiere and slowly all the rooms are being filled with our volunteers. Our first arrival at the beginning of April was Courtney from Chicago, USA. She brought with her a range of skills and has a medical background, let’s hope we don’t need to call on that before she goes.

So far Courtney has been busy painting window frames, the ironwork on the original window locks and filling in the holes in the concrete walls. She did a great job draft proofing the windows in our Gites. Its been so cold and windy lately so it really helps.

Next in the Gites was Susan from New York, USA. I was shown one of her beautiful, vibrant paintings which are tributes to artists and I wish i could paint that way. She  has been hard at work doing various jobs including gardening; taking out ivy roots and sorting out an unruly hedge with volunteer Dan and bringing some organisation to the old house by sorting through all sorts of important items with Paul for when the house is done. Dan is from Liverpool, UK and loves his cricket and fantasy football and is being really keen to get his hands dirty, looking round tells me they will be very soon, muddy too!! Next was me, Alice, I’m from Nottingham, UK but near London now. I hate computers and need to learn to love them just a little so I’ve been sat in front of the screen since i got here doing photos and blogging and checking emails, so if you apply it could be me or one of my successors, could even be you one day soon that’s reading them.

Before me and Dan came Cullen from, you guessed it the US but she comes from South Carolina and has the most beautiful Southern accent, i have a feeling a little of that will rub off on me.; she is Mum which means cooking cleaning and organising the house, a very important job here!!

So everyone, good times ahead, Welcome and Bonne étés!!

Hi everyone sorry for the lack of posts but things have been busy with the arrivals of the first group of volunteers for 2012.

Alice from just outside SW London UK will be looking after the blog and keeping you up to date, any advice from previous experienced bloggers would be welcomed. Although I have the greatest confidence in her ability to please in the 3 weeks of her stay.

Hi folks sorry for the lack of posts but the 2012 program starts in three weeks and there is lots to do to make ready for the volunteers that are arriving on their working holiday at La Giraudiere.

This post is just to say that in response to many demands a new page as been placed up on the site explaining the process of applying for a place on the Project at La Giraudiere the link to the page is

 The application process for applying for a place  at La Giraudiere in South West France

The new place explains that from a simple email the process starts up to paying your depsoit and your arrival.

A new page is added to the website explaining the process of applying for a place on the volunteers project / program. 

Many questions this year relating to “how do I apply for a place?” and “how long does it take to know if I have a place”? and also some asking if they should apply a year in advance. So a link to this page will be sent to all interested applicants and hopefully this will explain the process.

The page explains that a simple email to program@lagiraudiere.com starts the process and the applicants place is reserved once the reservation deposit is made via pay pal. If you can think of anything else that should be added then please let us know

You can visit the page at http://www.lagiraudiere.com/volunteers_application_process.html

The clubhouse and spa is now open for the 2012 volunteers and your first swim will be included in your weekly fee. The clubhouse is situated next to the lake  at Brossac and can be accessed via the beach.

The club offers over 1000m² for everyone to enjoy numerous activities in a private club atmosphere including: indoor swimming in the 20m long heated pool, relaxing in the spa area featuring a whirl pool, traditional sauna, infra red sauna and steam room, playing squash, trying your hand in the games room or enjoying a snack or a drink. Outside, the Clubhouse also offers mini golf, play areas, bicycle hire and kayak hire (seasonal).

Just to confirm again that the price for 2012 volunteer program remains the same as 2011 182 euros per person per week and if you are sharing, couples or friends, the price is 140 euros per person per week.

Remember the minimum stay is 3 weeks. If you need a price for an internship then contact us with details of what internship you are looking. Remember internships are usually 13 weeks long and may entail additional costs depending upon your personal or University’s requirements.

As part of the program for 2012 La Giraudiere is going to put together some Internship programs to help those students looking for credits and grants for their input and stay at La Giraudiere. Many have been successful in obtaining both from their University but some, because of applying to late in the day or not checking first, have failed to obtain either.

Last year among the 2011 group we had Marlou from Holland who was studying management of a facility and she was successful in obtaining the credit from her university and also a grant from the “Leonardo da Vinci Program”

We are looking for volunteers who have either applied, successfully or failed, for an internship or, have monitored an internship program, or maybe you was the one that decided if the applicant received a credit, or maybe you wrote the cheque for the grant. So if you would have knowledge of the procedure of applying for an internship and a credit plus how to obtain a grant for your internship then come along to La Giraudiere and help put our Internship program in place.