France yoga holiday

Environment:
Our accommodation has been described as a 'posh commune' – you will experience an alternative family lifestyle with a communal, community and environmental ethos. The McCallum family moved from Scotland to France to realise an evolving dream – to reconnect with each other and our environment, to live in the mountains, create a sustainable venue and run 'life-enhancing' courses. It took 3 years and is now up and running and is becoming a 'phenomena'. Journalists have described it as the 'best-eco lodge in the Alps'. Guests often talk about the 'positive energy' here.

The crew and our instructors have a strong environmental policy. We educate all our clients in no-impact camping techniques. We carry shovels for toilet sumps and bags to carry out all paper and rubbish. We recycle picnic waste and insist on refilling water bottles.

The farmhouse accommodation is set up for recycling all waste and we compost. We are starting to grow our own veg. We get milk from the subsistence farm next door. We buy bulk supplies from local organic wholesalers and can supply these to our clients on request.

We used sustainable building techniques where affordable including extra thick Warmcell insulation, triple glazed windows facing North, glass walls facing South, a highly efficient wood pellet burner, low temp under floor heating, organic paint, etc.. We have mountain source water on tap.

We try to consume minimum energy. All our appliances are A or AA and 90% of our lighting is low energy. We recycle metal, plastic, glass, paper and cardboard and compost and the kitchen is set up to make this easy. Our linen is organic cotton and our cleaning products are environmentally sound.

Our heating and hot water is low energy bio mass and the house is super insulated. Our toilets are flushed with source water (and are dual flush) and our waste water is cleaned, filtered and goes back into the stream as drinkable water.

We encourage minimum use of water, the option for un-ironed sheets and 1 towel and the use of spring water vs mains (which can be pumped into the house from our Source). If people stay more than 1 week, we encourage them to keep their sheets and towels and give them a big financial incentive. We only use the dryer rarely, only when absolutely necessary. All of our cleaning products are sourced wholesale from a eco-friendly supplier.

Community:
We provide info on activities on offer in the area and help to organise them. We encourage our guests to eat in the mountain yurt and local farm restaurant and to buy all produce through local organic suppliers at the Wednesday Market.