The Fortress of Montaigu le Blin 4

Name: The Fortress of Montaigu le Blin 4
Start: 2020-08-17
End: 2020-08-31
Location: Montaigu-le-Blin, France

France Teenagers Renovation Teenagers Renovation Fixed dates

About the project

📝 Detailed information

🏢 About the local organisation

Inside a lovely little French village, the castle of Montaigu le Blin is an impressive medieval fortress, classified as Historical Monument. It is located on the top of a hill, overlooking the countryside. Since 2002, volunteers have been participating, every summer, to the restoration of the castle. These last years, the fortress has regained its beauty! In 2019, the volunteers started to restore the masonry of the Chambers of Lords and created a medieval vegetable garden at the foot of the tower. This year, it's your turn to live an experience back in time!

💼 What the programme involves

Participate to the protection and enhancement of this breathtaking heritage! Within the castle, you will realize various works of restoration of walls (ramparts, towers) using traditional techniques and help maintain the vegetation (clearing bushes, etc.) as well as many other varied tasks. Beyond this work, you will reflect together on sustainable development through the use of traditional techniques in the restoration of the fortress, but also in the daily life of the group. Campleaders will guide you along the project. You will also take part in the tourist activities of the site by welcoming the visitors (tourists and local inhabitants) in the castle and explain the work , show the progress you have been doing the last few weeks! Protecting this piece of heritage takes time, and a lot of energy. Come and contribute to its rebuilding !

🏠 Accommodation on site

Accommodation is under tents (2 people per tent) at the town stadium lent by the Town Hall. Tents will be provided. You will have to bring other camping material (ground sheet, sleeping bag, etc.). You, volunteer, are actor/actress of your project ! You will manage the tasks of daily life in teams (shopping, cooking, and cleaning). A rotation will be organised by the campleaders to ensure the smooth running of daily life. The objective is to gain autonomy and that everyone acts individually to allow a good collective functioning! All together, you will think about how to work, feed everyone, have fun, get around, visit the region in the most environnementaly and human-friendly way. A building on the field includes a kitchen room, 2 showers and 2 toilets for the group.

📍 About the location

Montaigu le Blin is located in the French Bourbonnais area, 30km North from Vichy and 90km North from Clermont-Ferrand, in the French Auvergne region. It is a countryside rich with historical heritage, which you will be able to discover by visiting a few of the numerous castles and medieval cities, by hiking, going by bike or canoeing, according to what the leading team and the weather can propose. The inhabitants of the village are used to seeing volunteers from all over the world come every summer. You will pick up bread from the innkeeper Didier, ask for eggs on a Sunday evening to Monique, the weather the next day to Jean Pascal, show your progress to Jean Louis who is passionate about the castle, you will feast with the fruits and vegetables offered by the local gardeners...and so much more! The campleaders will prepare games and activities for the group but will also encourage you to propose and build your own activities according to your desires. Bring ideas and be creative !

⚠️ Requirements

ℹ️ Additional information

EXTRA FEES: reduced to 250€ for international volunteers. Pay attention! Our national participants in France pay the regular 360€ of extra fees. International volunteers coming from our partners in other countries than France pay only 250€ of extra fees. Pay attention that there is no wifi access on the Workcamp site, the telephone network is also quite low. However, the volunteers will be able to find a public wifi in the village. Who needs an internet during a Workcamp anyway ? The site is unfortunately not accessible to people in wheelchairs. Globally on our teenage camps, we chose to book half of the spots for French volunteers. The aim is to allow a maximum of young people to access intercultural learning, to promote volunteer's commitment as a first step and then experience international workcamp abroad. By participating in this workcamp, you are combatting climate change (SDG 13 Climate Action)

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