2000 - RESTORING A MEDIEVAL VILLAGE IN SOUTHERN FRANCE At 22 years of age I needed a challenge, an adventure, not my monotonous and poorly paid job! So I visited the Norfolk and Norwich Voluntary Services and they told me about the WorldWide Volunteering database. I chose to apply to the Bardou Restoration Project, which was asking for volunteers to help in their thirty year work of restoring a mediaeval village set in the Cevennes Mountains in the South of France. A few phone calls and a letter later and it was all confirmed for the 1st of April - quite adventurous for someone who had never been abroad before. I was amazed at my first glimpse of Bardou, I stood on the mountainside looking down upon a village of 30 or so stone houses, complete with cobbled pathways. Four days a week we would have breakfast and start work at 8am - 12 midday. We usually cleaned houses in preparation for paying guests to stay in or outside jobs such as clearing leaves, weeding pathways, sweeping or cleaning barns. After the noon drink our time was our own. I spent my time paddling in the mountain streams, sunbathing, spotting the peacocks and lizards and enjoying card/pancake evenings with the other volunteers. It took me some time to get used to no electricity or papers or television. It felt like a sealed other world, completely removed from the world of clubbing, mobile phones and the internet. Conversely to what you may be thinking it was experiences such as washing my laundry in a sink that enhanced my time there and made it so unique! After five weeks in Bardou and six weeks in France, my money was running low and I returned home along with my battered 1985 French phrasebook and an abundance of memories. I reaped much from my travels in France, including the knowledge that I can rely on myself, and not to allow fear to hold me back. I also feel proud of myself for sticking out the first week when I desperately wanted to go home. The confidence I brought away encouraged me to apply for an Access Course and hopefully teacher training at University.” |
