This year we will organise the fourteenth workcamp in Allegre, in the heart of this beautiful historic village!
Every summer, international volunteers take it in turns to renovate pavements of alleyways in the village, and to create an ecological medieval garden. This year, the town council proposes to continue the development of an ecological medieval garden by building a pergola. The garden is ideally situated at the foot of the village ramparts, high up, with a beautiful point of view. What is a medieval garden? It is an enclosed, secret, quiet garden, ideal for meditation. It is made up of several areas: a vegetable garden, an orchard and the corner of medicinal and magical herbs called "carre des simples".
You'll spend about 30 hours a week on this site. Your tasks: build a pergola in the heart of the medieval garden, which will then be planted with greenery. Would you like to find out more about carpentry and woodworking? Come and learn how to handle a wide range of tools under the guidance of a technical animator. It will be a very enriching experience!
Accomodation and food
You will be accompanied by two camp leaders throughout your stay.
Your accommodation will be located at the municipal stadium, near the campsite, which is 20 minutes’ walk from the village. You will sleep in individual tents set up in the grass, near the facilities. You will have a kitchen in a room in the stadium and a large collective tent for socialising.
The group will be sharing the cleaning chores and preparing meals together. The budget will be allocated to the group leader and you will participate in the preparation of meals, prioritising products from the market and local producers. Wi-Fi is available on the campsite and in the village. Hand washing of laundry.
Location and leisure
Allegre is a small town of 1000 inhabitants located in the Haute-Loire County in the Auvergne region, 30 km of Le-Puy-en-Velay city, in the Natural Regional Park of Livradois-Forez. Its alleyways are picturesque with red roofed houses, built on the slopes of an extinct volcano, the "Mont Bar". From the preserved ruins of the Castle at the top end of the village you can overlook hundreds of kilometres of countryside!
You will have the chance to go swimming in lakes, attend local celebrations and take part in outdoor leisure activities.
Project hosted by
Allegre has a very rich historical heritage. It is located at an altitude of 1,000 metres, where the remains of a classified castle overlook the village. The town was selected as part of the "Small town of tomorrow" scheme, which enables it to carry out actions to improve the living environment and ecology. It is in this context that this project of creating a medieval garden was born.
Local celebrations, meals with the inhabitants and the discovery of the region will be on your schedule.
Directions to meeting point
The meeting point is at the train station of DARSAC at the end of the afternoon.
The exact time of the meeting will be communicated with the Info Sheet, sent one month before the beginning of the workcamp.
It is a small station served by three trains per day. There are three ways to get to Darsac, via Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon or Puy-en-Velay.
From Paris, several trains leave to Clermont-Ferrand (from where you can then go to Darsac).
If you are coming first by plane, remember that you will need some time to commute from the airport to the train station, therefore we recommend that you arrive early enough for you not to rush and have a stress free travel.
The trains are open to booking about 4 months before the departure dates, accessible on the following website:
https://www.sncf-connect.com/en-en/
Additional comments
Bring work clothes, walking boots and a backpack. Nights can be chilly, so bring warm clothes and a good sleeping bag. You can also bring recipes from your home country, musical instruments and games. You will get around Allegre by foot, car and by minibus.
On the last day (16/08), the departure time is usually set in the morning.