📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
Participating in eco-construction work on a mountain cottage at the heart of an idyllic mountain landscape, that sound interesting ? Joins us and come discover the Hameau de Vaunières and its natural setting at 1173 meters above sea level ! Vaunières, a hamlet unlike any other ! Lost at the end of the valley of Buëch, at the heart of the Hautes Alpes, the association Les Villages des Jeunes has managed, organized, and renovated the welcome center of Vaunières since 1964 ! Vaunières is a former small mountain village that today has become a launching pad for local youth and adults, but it’s also a venue that hosts French and international volunteers. Vaunières is a vacation destination for many families, tourists, and constituent groups who come to take advantage of the calm mountain atmosphere and the dynamics of the environnment. The workcamps that we organise at Vaunières with volunteers from all countries, allow us to reinforce the cultural diversity of our engagement and make this site a place that’s open to the world, where people of all ages and of all social and cultural backgrounds agree to meet each other and work together while participating in life within a community. We hope that you too, a volunteer from France or abroad, will come with this spirit of openess and collaboration that fuels our project !
💼 What the programme involves
Since 2019, we’ve worked on the reonovation of the cottages that have been abandonned for the past 20 years. This year we’re continuing this work, but focusing on taking care of the cottages’ framework, roofing, and insulation. All with eco- materials. With the help of a technical supervisor, we’ll work with wood, and you’ll become familiar with framing and ecological insulation work. Warning, work will sometimes be conducted at heights (scaffolding). The time spent at the worksite will be around 30h per week.
🏠 Accommodation on site
Housing will be in individual tents, that we furnish and provide matresses for, on the campgrounds of the hamlet of Vaunières. The campgrounds have access to showers, restrooms, and the kitchen. There’s no WIFI, but you’ll be able to meet people from all over the world ! You’ll take turns cooking, that way we’ll be able to taste a number of different specialties ! Here, we pay attention to what we eat, and to reduce our impact on the planet, we try to eat a maximum of local products and we limit eating meat to twice a week. Community life will be organised together : organization of menus, grocery shopping, activites, etc.
📍 About the location
Location : Le Hameau de Vaunières, 6km from the village St Julien en Beauchêne, is 23km away from the main city, Veynes. Grocery shopping, which will be conducted once or twice a week, will be organised using our vehicles.
Leisure activities : You will be in an exceptional location to discover the joys of hiking among the mountains, its rivers, its lakes, the farmers markets, and festive events organized in the surround villages (depending on programming). As a group, you’ll decide the activites and outings that you want to set up (subject to distance). Once a week, the welcome center generally organises an evening of music with homemade woodfired pizzas.