Normandy vegetarian hotel and restaurant, France

We use as much home grown produce as possible in our restaurant. We have free range chickens to supply delicious eggs. We conserve as much produce as we can. We buy organic produce from local suppliers and from organic co-operatives. We don’t use any chemicals in the hotel or the garden. We use ecological washing and cleaning materials the soaps in the rooms are vegetable based, biodegradable and not tested on animals.

We use energy saving measures such as insulation and use high efficiency rating fridges and freezers, low-energy bulbs and try to decrease water and power usage. We conserve water by using dual flush toilets. We only change towels and sheets at guests request. We are very careful to turn off appliances when not in use.

We recycle everything possible. We feed food scraps to our chickens, turkeys, geese, sheep etc and mix in the manure from our chickens, geese and ducks to enrich it meaning we don’t need additional fertilizers. We compost kitchen waste along with the general garden shredding. Every village here has recycling bins for all sorts of waste. After recycling composting and feeding the animals we are left with very little rubbish that goes for general collection. We recycle jars and bottles by filling them with homemade jam and cordials from the garden! We collect all stamps and give them to charity. We donate any electrical/computer items to charities. We always separate guest’s waste. I avoid printing wherever possible. I send cartridges back to the supplier using their recycle service. We work 10 paces from our home and try to limit car use.

We companion plant in our vegetable gardens to encourage aphid and other pest eating insects. We grow more than 50% of the vegetables we need for our restaurant and ourselves. We grow from seed and propagate from cuttings using our own compost. The fruits from our garden are using to make ice creams, desserts, cordials and liqueurs.

We have bird tables and natural nesting areas all round our 3½-acre garden. We leave large areas wild and allow plants to seed for birds. We have a large natural spring fed pond, which is left wild around the edges, and we regularly have moorhens and ducks breed here. We leave fruit on the trees and don’t prune out mistletoe but leave it for the thrushes. We have large areas of wild flowers, some planted some naturally occurring.

We encourage guests to purchase from local shops and organic producers who sell cider, apple juice, cheeses. We use electricity from Direct energie ‘100% jus’ (100% renewable energy). We collect rainwater in water butts. We also use a drip watering system in our polytunnel using rainwater. We use some grey water from the kitchen for the vegetable garden.

We helped to fund the printing of a booklet detailing the history and buildings of Ticheville, we then encourage our guests to buy the booklet. All the proceeds go to renovating the church the 11th Century Priory and other buildings in need in Ticheville. We also regularly donate to this fund. We encourage guests to visit local attractions and each of our rooms has a file with details of local museums, gardens and organic farms to visit. We encourage our guests to spend their money in local shops and restaurants and thus aid the local economy.

Personally we are members of many charities. The Vegetarian Society, VIVA!, Alliance Végétarien, The International Vegetarian Union, Animal Aid, IFAW. We advertise in fundraising magazines for local sports clubs. We do volunteer work for the ‘Conservatoire federatif des espaces naturels de basse-normandie.’ We have volunteers through the helpx work exchange who work a few hours a week in return for board and lodging. They are generally students from all over the world and we pass on our knowledge of organic gardening, vegetarian cooking and of good environmental practices.

We grow as much as possible for our restaurant and most other food is bought in organic co-operatives and local markets. We use cider and other apple products from Mme Schreiber who has an organic farm 5 kms away. We always use local tradesman, our plumber M. Patrice lives in our village. We also use ‘ACI Development’ who employ local people unable to find work and train them in building, maintenance works and gardening. We try to use recycled materials for building works.