Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
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The owners of this garden apartment are very keen to reduce the negative impact of tourism on the environment and to promote good practice. When tenants arrive they indicate the nearby recycling collection point for paper, plastic and glass. There are composting facilities for garden waste which tenants are encouraged to use. The property has solar panels for heating the water and rainwater is recycled for watering the garden.
The owners are also very knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna, particularly butterflies, and would be delighted to discuss these with any tenants who share this interest.
Although this property is only 20 minutes from the centre of Nice in the busy Côte d’Azur region, visitors are able to enjoy and appreciate traditional village life in the ancient medieval village of Gattières. This village has retained its authenticity and the owners provide detailed information about the local shops, farmers’ markets and restaurants as they want visitors to sample the delicious locally produced food. The area is renowned for its superb fruit and vegetables (cherries, peppers, aubergines etc) grown on the sunny plains of the Var valley. Also, in the village there are arts and crafts workers producing beautiful silk paintings and wrought iron work and a potter who has designed a beautiful garden displaying her sculpture. The owners employ a cleaner to look after the property. All this, along with renting the property, injects money into the local economy and supports life in rural France.
Although a car is necessary to get to the property, there is a good bus service for exploring the area and timetables are provided at the property. It is also very easy to explore the coast by train: from Nice station the train stops in the centre of all the Riviera towns.
We support a range of charities and projects in France and worldwide which provide aid to vulnerable communities and habitats, e.g. ASSOHUMA, a French charity which organises trips taking humanitarian and medical aid to women in Afghanistan and families in remote Sénégal; Shared Interest, a co-operative lending society which provides funding for Third World producers.
Our office in Devon is in a redundant agricultural building which we re-built using reclaimed, traditional materials. We support the Devon Wildlife Trust and we have nest boxes and feeding stations in the office grounds to encourage the birds. Our water for the office comes from a spring and is pumped by a water-powered ram. We do not produce a paper brochure; our bookings and enquiries are handled by email and all our office paper and printing cartridges are re-cycled. Our shredded documents go on the compost heap.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
