Poitou-Charentes yurt accommodation, France
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
At La Voute we are surrounded by amazing wild life, you will regularly see Deer, Red squirrels. Birds of prey such as Buzzards, Hen Harriers, Kestrels and Sparrow Hawks, Owls are frequent visitors and bats live in the barn and in the eves of our houses. From April you wake up to the sound of Cuckoos and early summer brings a nightly serenade of Nightingales and if you are lucky enough you may glimpse a wild boar in the late evening or at dawn. Our home is on the migration route for the European Cranes signaling the end of summer when they leave and the arrival of spring when they return.
France is very keen on re-cycling here at La Voute, all waste materials are seperated for collection, vegetation & food waste is composted to re use on our vegetable patches. Water is collected from our barn roof and used for watering our vegetable plot and herb garden. All the renovated building have been renewed using locally sourced materials and sympathetically restored in the traditional local style, from re-cycled roof tiles, re-used oak beams to using lime mortar when re-pointing.
Being very rural car transport is necessary, however we do offer bike hire on site and electric bikes are also available locally. We try and grow all our own vegetables, herbs etc all fertilised with our own horse manure, giving us a great bounty of food throughout the year, we normally raise a few pigs in our woodlands and each year we have our own organic pork, we also swap with a neighbour some pork for their free range lamb,even the wine is sourced locally!
Having over 22 acres of woodland, we coppice and manage our woods providing fire wood for our own use as well as neighbours, some of the wood and bamboo is used around the garden and the Yurts as well.
Community
We have used local craftsmen for all our renovation work over the used and still use them for any work we need to have done. Local farmers assist us in working our land providing assistance, specialised machinery and guidance when required.
Our welcome pack for guests includes a "what’s on" guide for the time you are with us, a list of local restaurants and style of food provided. A list of local shops, markets and farm producers/sellers are also provided.
We also happy to pass on information for local trips to chateau, abbeys, churches and pre-historic sites in the area as well as info on all the local villages and towns. There are numerous activities close by including canoeing, fishing, pony trekking and great walks through woodland all on marked paths, carriage drives and a host of other things to do during your stay with us.
We are pleased to offer twice weekly meals in our summer kitchen, again with home produced or locally sourced ingredients, we also have a 600+ year old vault (Le Voute, hence the name of our house) which we have converted into a honesty bar area, we often host quiz nights and events for neighbours and guests throughout the year.
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