📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
The Castle Les Prureaux needs you to renovate a central element of its past daily life: its fixed cooler, the ancestor of our fridges! The fixed cooler is a large well where our ancestors used to pile up ice they collected during the winter, to ensure that there would always be supply of ice to refresh food and drinks all year! At the heart of this region, come and discover how this cooler functions and get trained in different renovation techniques! Surrounded by a bamboo grove, the cooler must be protected from this invasive plant. This is also an opportunity for you to discover the biology of this underrated plant and to imagine alternatives to ehance it: decoration, construction, furniture, textiles, the possibilites with bamboo are endless!
With this project, you will be actively working for the Sustainable Development Goal n°15 from the United Nations: Life on Land.
💼 What the programme involves
The work will consist of developping and ehancing the cooler's surroundings: leveling and earthing the area with gravel, cleaning up the surrounding vegetation, protecting access to the cooler with a wooden barrier, renovating and enhancing the access stairs, building a temporary wooden shelter to protect the cooler from the rain. You'll also work on delineating the bamboo grove that borders the cooler by setting up a bamboo barrier to prevent the plants spreading through their roots. You'll also remove the existing bamboo to recreate a second bamboo plantation. Finally, you'll work to promote the use of the recovered bamboo through different workshops!
🏠 Accommodation on site
You will sleep in tents with access to outdoor showers and dry toilets. Food is provided and meals will be prepared by the volunteers themselves in turns. Meals will be had under a big tent outside or, in case of bad weather, inside in the dining room of the castle. We provide a fully equipped kitchen and activity rooms.
📍 About the location
Location: A former bourgeois home, the Castle Les Prureaux is in the middle of an agricultural area. Since 1993, our association has worked to maintain and enhance the historic buildings on the site. This "permanent" project, led by volunteers and hosting young people all year round, remains a rich educational opportunity that supports exchange, doing, and collaboration.
Leisure activities : Afternoons and weekends are collectively planned with the whole group. If you like spending time in the city, Moulins and Vichy are located about 40 kms away. If you’re more of the countryside type, don't hesitate to discover the region on foot or by bike, explore the banks of the canals, swim, or take advantage of local festivities and cultural events.