Le Saint Andre B&B, France
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We are doing our best to be as energy efficient and as green as possible.We recycle plastics, papers and cardboard, glass, cans and more and there are containers in our kitchen for each to encourage guests to do the same. We have a recycling guide in English and French. We have recently installed a thermo dynamic boiler which creates hot water from ambient air. There are new, efficient electric heaters in the common spaces and in one of the bedrooms.
We do not change linen and towels every day. Thankfully as summers are so warm we can minimise our use of the tumble dryer. L'Occitane is our chosen toileterie suppler. L’Occitane is a socially responsible company, committed to limiting the impact of its actions and products on the environment; we do not use small product bottles but larger refillable ones. This cuts down on waste and is welcomed by our guests. We encourage guests to walk and cycle around where they can; the country side is too lovely to miss by speeding around in a car. We cook using local produce where possible and although we do not have a vegetable garden we use our own herbs and are planning to grow what we can in pots.
Community
We support all our local commerces (even though Autignac is a small village). There is a lovely village store with home grown fruit and vegetables and a fantastic boulangerie. The bar/restaurant is owned by locals and we try and encourage our guests to eat there if they do not want to take the car.
As wine making is so important to our area we serve wines only from producers that we know well. Many are organic even though they do not all carry the organic label. We can organise tastings for guests and through our social media we promote wine and other events in the area.
We are part of the Workaway Network where we have welcomed volunteers into our home to help with maintenance and general upkeep on our B&B. In return for board and lodgings workawayers have the chance to experience French village life, speak the language and learn new skills. Note, we only use this scheme when we have no guests. We are linked with the local tourist offices so are in touch with local events details of which we can pass on to our guests. Our local town hall or "Marie" has recently had an urban study done on the village where we can see the potential of our village. All ideas are sustanable with the environment in mind -for example more green spaces for villagers and tourists. We support this initiative which can only be good for the local community and tourism.
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