Working Holiday workday in France

Vacationers taking part in a volunteer workday sound a bit strange to you? Maybe the idea of a working holiday, combining work and pleasure into one vacation feels a bit daunting. After all you get plenty of the former and perhaps little of the latter in your everyday world. it’s a fair concern but not one that presents a problem at La Giraudière. The week is divide into two sections with four days, Friday through Monday devoted to free time and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday set aside for volunteering.

A volunteer learns “doublage” or dry linning

Program Manager Paul spends time with each volunteer to assess their particular interests and how he or she feels they can best contribute to “Project La Giraudière.” At he heart of the project is the restoring of the main house, a beautiful stone and stucco maison some parts of which are dating back to the 1700s.

There are plenty of tasks perfect for the skilled or amateur builder. But what makes La Giraudiere special, is that Paul and other more skilled volunteers relish training a novice in the art of restoration. If you are willing to pick up a paintbrush, a sander or a hammer, you may find yourself leaving your volunteers working holiday with more skills than when you started.

Building not your cup of tea? Pas de probleme, as the locals say. Maintenance is a big part of the operation at La Giraudière. Keeping the kitchen stocked, weeding and planting the gardens, cooking and maintaining the order of the household are all essential elements of a well run organization.

Jacque helping with the administration at La Giraudiere

Get enough of that at home? Clerical duties (answering correspondence, keeping track of volunteer arrivals and departures, billing, accounting etc…) may be more to your liking. Keeping the website up-to-date through blogging, reporting on the many activities associated with the volunteer experience and supporting social media sites such as Facebook are enjoyable workday skills that are put to good use at La Giraudière. If you still don’t see something to your liking, then Paul is quite creative in tailoring your volunteer activities to your needs and desires.

The current crop of volunteers are a diverse group ranging from ages nineteen to sixty two, university students to retired teachers and nurses.

Some have come from as far away as Australia and America and as close as Toulouse, France or The United Kingdom. Matthew, our third year physicist from The University of Birmingham, spent his last year studying at Toulouse in the south of France. He considered La Giraudière one more good opportunity to learn more about French culture and language before returning to England for his last year at the university.

Colin gardening on his working holiday in France

From Tuesdays to Thursdays you can find him with a drill or saw in his hand, ably framing doorways or windows under the watchful eye of Paul. He’s not averse to doing a little edging or trimming in the gardens, also Married couple, Marlene and Colin have nursing and social work backgrounds but have proven to be adept at restoring order to the sometimes chaotic structure resulting from so many people of different backgrounds joining together. Happily they have taken over kitchen maintenance, overseeing daily lunchtime preparations as well as tidying up the common living areas. Gardening has also proven to be their forte as they restore life to areas overgrown with weeds. Jacques, still a teenager, busily keeps up with the correspondence and social media necessary to keep La Giraudiere running smoothly and accessible to people all over the world. A second year university student, he will be studying the next year in Bordeaux, France, improving his already impressive French skills after his internship here is complete.

Salwan from Northern Ireland repairing garden benches during his working holiday in France

Musician and raconteur, Sal, from Northern Ireland, admits his French language skills consist of little more than “Bonjour” and “Au Revoir.” However, he does not see language as a barrier when mixing with the local villagers. Nor has he found it difficult to transform his fingers, so comfortable with the keys of a piano, to an almost equal ease with a sander and paintbrush. The beautiful picnic benches, just days ago suffering from the effects of weather and age, now sparkle as another of Sal’s compositions. Leon and Bridget, our most intrepid travelers are seeing the world before settling down in Melbourne. They will return to The Land own Under not only with an expanded vision of the world but with painting skills as you can watch them industriously adding vitality to the walls of La Giraudiere through color and a touch of pride and love. Of course, you wouldn’t be reading any of this if there wasn’t a role for a blogger at La Giraudière

Marlene from UK helps out with the Gardening and also the housekeeping at La Giraudiere during her working holiday

The chance to spend three weeks writing in the south of France sounds like the pipe dream for all aspiring writers. Yet, here I am, three days a week after coffee and croissants, sitting behind a computer letting my creative juices flow as I try the impossible – to capture my experiences here in words. There are some technical aspects to the position that present a challenge.

It had never occurred to me before but its perfectly logical that a French keyboard would be different than an English keyboard. In turn, an American has substantial differences from an English keyboard. Years of training go out the window as you struggle to find the new location of the letter a or the letter w. The period is in a different spot and I never did find the French apostrophe.

I always had to switch to the English keyboard to find it and, of course, it is in a different place than the American apostrophe. Its all part of the adventure and though its a small thing, I would never have learned that on a canned tour of France.