imagined-community

Hopefully, these blog posts on Saint Victor la Coste and La Sabranenque have piqued the interest of a few readers. “Volunteer vacations” allow you, in a small way, to get inside a culture. To a certain extent we are what we do, and working in another culture, if only for few weeks, provides a lived experience of a different set of values and a different lifestyle. To be honest, I hadn’t thought a lot about the relationship between the how of building and the final structure, its form, its vibe even, before I went to La Sabranenque. I certainly had no idea how much work went into building those “quaint French houses” nor did I have any sense how personal, intimate, and rewarding that building process could be. Admiring a beautiful French village for the pleasure it brings is one thing. But mixing that pleasure with even a little physical and emotional understanding of what it feels like to build a village is so much richer.

So enough of that. Here are the nitty gritty details. The price for two weeks volunteering at La Sabranenque was $750. The cost covered 3 meals a day, jugs of wine at dinner, and slightly Spartan accommodations. How Spartan? Well, here is the skinny. Our house was coed. We had two showers and two toilets. We also had one room with three sinks and three mirrors in which we all washed/shaved/brushed our teeth. We did not have a stove (though you could go to the main house to boil hot water). We did have a refrigerator. We washed our laundry by hand in two very big sinks (cold water only). No TV. No heat. We slept two to a room on cots. Wool blankets were provided. We did have some large spiders and tiny scorpions in the house. They were not a big deal though. The spiders were easy to catch with a cup and the scorpions were VERY tiny. But if you have arachnophobia, you might find the spider situation a problem.

The food was the highlight of the day, no doubt about it. A chef and two kitchen staff prepared an amazing lunch and dinner. And all of the volunteers do one morning shift in the kitchen while the others are building (I was lucky enough to get two shifts). I really enjoyed working in the kitchen because only French was spoken. And I did learn quite a few little cooking things. For the most part we ate a lot of veggie dishes and usually only ate meat at dinner. We always had some kind of pasta, couscous, potato starchy dish, a cheese plate, a super tasty salad, dessert, and those jugs of wine. My favorite dessert was baked pears with melted blue cheese.

If you would like to lean more about traditional building techniques, enjoy the peace and tranquility of the French countryside, partake in the solidarity of working and living side by side with a group of international volunteers, than I can’t recommend La Sabranenque enough. It is not perfect though. La Sabranenque could provide more information to volunteers about the sites and methods. A lot of learning happens by osmosis. And unless you make an effort to find out why you are doing something a certain way, or how old something is, they probable won’t tell you. There are no written pamphlets lying around that describe the area or La Sabranenque. Nor is there a volunteer coordinator that closes the day with an interesting story about the stone you have been hauling and where it came from. But for what it is, La Sabranenque is a great experience and I highly recommend it.

Want to read more? Check out Michael Fitter’s website detailing his time at La Sabranenque.