‘Voluntourists’ make their mark at La Giraudiere

This week marks the arrival of five new British additions to the team at La Giraudiere: Marcus, Lucy, Lydia, Saskia and Rob – all recent University students who have chosen to devote part of their holidays as ‘Voluntourists’ in France, helping to further the progress being made here at La Giraudiere. Marcus has been quick to lend his hand to the promising construction work being done in the Old House by Christian and Katie. Lucy and Lydia have adopted the roles of joint Household Managers – responsible for the day to day upkeep of the four apartments which house the volunteers; a job which not only includes making sure that the cupboards and fridges all stay fully stocked, but also that the volunteers here enjoy a clean and comfortable stay! Meanwhile, Saskia and Rob have taken over on the computing side of things, responsible for the daily management of La Giraudiere’s blogs, social media, and email correspondance. As a recent Electronics Engineer Graduate, Rob’s computer knowledge and skill set have proved to be a great help so far, and the pair already have plans for making a few adjustments and updates to the website and causing a small storm in the world of social media! (We hope!)

Fortunately for the project, but rather unfortunately for our ‘Voluntourists’ here at La Giraudiere, the weather has taken a bit of a turn for the worse over the last couple of days, meaning that as of yet the new team are yet to really enjoy the benefits of the (usually) beautiful French sun! Daily weather updates from the French news ensure us however that we’re in store for some much more promising weather towards the end of the week… Which will also coincide with Christian’s departure as he returns home to Cambridge, England for the duration of the summer holidays.

So here’s hoping for some better weather, a contiunuation of the excellent progress currently being made at La Giraudiere, and maybe a game or two of petonques with the locals to really immerse our new ‘Voluntourists’ into the spirit of French culture here in South West France.