Correze Cycling Holidays

Before you apply, please note : In From mid October to April we need help processing firewood and with forestry maintenance, also with gardening and getting the house ready for the start of the season. This would suit someone with experience of gardening and property maintenance and who likes physical activity. You will be very well looked after and well fed :0) please DO NOT APPLY for these dates if you are looking for hotel type work looking after guests as the guest-house is not open then.

We are an English family living in Correze in the beautiful Northern Dordogne Valley / Limousin region of France. We moved here over 14 years ago and undertook a 3 year building project to create our cycling holiday business. We also have a small dog called Noodle the YorkiePoo.

Our main business (May to October) is running Road Cycling holidays – guests come from all over the world and are usually keen cyclists who enjoy the challenging terrain and the almost traffic free roads of Correze. As we are in the foothills of the Massif Central it is not flat around here and James often drives guests up to the mountains to cycle the Cols of the tour de France. If you are a keen cyclist, you may be able to join the guided days out some of the time if one of our specialist rental bikes is available. We also have a couple of hybrid bikes that you will be able to use to explore the local countryside.

The holiday season runs from May to October and we are looking for help throughout these months, and during the winter with other maintenance projects when the guest house is closed. The summer weeks are busy but fun with lots of interesting and fun people arriving every week, many returning year after year. The work here mainly involves helping Sam with preparing and serving meals, and housekeeping for the 5 guest rooms and public areas, as well as some gardening. We try to create a comfortable laid back holiday experience where guests feel like they are staying with friends. Our goals are to give people a lovely holiday – promote this lovely and little known area and to cook great food for our guests to eat.

Between October and April volunteers would be helping in the garden and with logging in our woods and maintenance projects around the house and grounds, so this will suit someone who likes hard physical work. We do not need help with hospitality at this time of year...

Our village is very small and there are no shops or bars locally. Our closest large town Tulle is 25km away, so you can expect to feel a bit cut off, although we will be happy to give you lifts when we are going down to the town. If you love the idea of a very rural, quiet life then this will be perfect for you. If you are party person who needs entertainment and night life, this is NOT the place for you.

NOTE : THIS IS NOT THE PLACE TO COME FOR FRENCH LANGUAGE IMMERSION.
We speak mainly English at home and most of our guests are Anglophones, so if your goal is to learn French then this may not happen here, but we can speak sometimes in French to help you improve, most of the family are fluent. We also have plenty of French guests and friends to practice on. We have thrown ourselves into local life – Samantha also drives the local school bus and sings (out of season) in the local choir and James knows all the coffee shop owners in Correze as he frequents them all with hordes of cyclists.

We are ideally looking for longer term helpers (single or a couple) (3 weeks plus) who are over 20 and don’t mind pitching in with any kind of work, and who have a good sense of humour and like meeting new people. If you are permanently attached to your mobile phone, this will not be the right place for you. We would expect you to be respectful of our standards of care for our guests. We hope that you will be able to learn something of the hospitality and hotel industry during your stay with us, and hope that you can contribute to the positive ambience and experience that we have created for our guests. We have 100% 5 star reviews on Tripadvisor

You will be eating with the family and occasionally with the guests – please expect lively and interesting conversation! We expect to treat you as a member of the family. I am afraid that we cannot accommodate vegans as it is too complicated when we are catering for guests.

We have a large garden of 2 hectares which includes a small private fishing lake and a pool which you will be welcome to use.

Summer Season tasks
You will be helping out around 6 hours a day, 6 days a week.

Main tasks will include:
Helping serve and clear breakfast
Changeover of rooms – cleaning rooms and changing bedlinen, also help with laundry
Helping with food preparation (cooking lessons included!)
Light Gardening – mainly weeding the vegetable patch, maybe some mowing
Chatting with guests
Helping serve and clear the evening dinner
Opening and Closing the swimming pool and basic cleaning
Washing bikes

You will have your own bedroom with a double bed and with shared bathroom in the family house. Now our children have left home we can accommodate up to two volunteers at a time , and we can accommodate couples. You will be provided with all your meals, and lunches and there is usually cake in the afternoon. If you are an excessive snacker we would ask that you provide your own snacks. When we have guests you will have the same main course and desert or cheese as they do, either eating with the family but more usually with the guests, so you will have restaurant quality food during the holiday season. We also provide basic toiletries, shampoo, shower gel soap etc There is a large washing machine which you are welcome to use. We appreciate a good level of personal hygiene. Free WiFi is available to use. We now have Fibre internet. You will be able to use the pool and gardens There are hybrid bikes and road bikes (if not rented out) available to borrow to explore the local area We are happy to help you improve your English and a little French. We do expect that you have a reasonable level of English as it is very important in a busy environment to be able to communicate. We speak English generally at home but most of the family speak French also. Our cycling guests are mainly Anglophones. If your goal is just to learn French then this may NOT be the place for you as it is not our first language and you would be better doing an immersive experience with a French family. We are well integrated into the local community (Samantha was a local Councillor and also runs sewing lessons in the local village community centre) so you can expect to participate in village social events with us. In July and August there is a 'Repas' every Saturday in the village (200-600 people eating together) and we always take (and pay for) our volunteers as well as out guests. You will be welcome to come to the local market and experience a different kind of food shopping - we use local suppliers of fresh produce Sam is also very happy to teach cooking skills Road cyclists will love this area - when possible and practical you will be able to join the guests for guided rides (once per week). We have good quality hire bikes for our guests and they will be available to volunteers if reservations allow. You can pick up tips on bike maintenance from James (and often the guests) in our Bike workshop. Correze is a lovely area to explore on your days off. There are lots of lakes with open water swimming and kayaking close by, and you will only be 25 minutes (by car) from the Dordogne river. Where possible we will try and give you lifts or include you on family days out. There are local airports at Brive/Dordogne Valley and Limoges , and SNCF train stations at Brive la Gaillard and Tulle. Tulle is the closest town to us. From Brazil it is worth flying to Lisbon and then travelling to Porto where you can get a direct flight to Brive, our closest airport. Many volunteers come by coach or BlaBla car. Most usual pick up point for this is either at Brive West or Tulle North. We cannot offer pick ups from Limoges. It would be very helpful if you could arrange your travel plans so that you arrive at a pick up point between midday and 17h. We are generally serving breakfast and preparing rooms etc before 12h and after 18h we are preparing and serving the guest dinner, so it is very difficult to collect people in the evening. Please only apply to come to us if you are happy to help with the tasks that we have specified. The volunteering entails helping clear up after the guest's breakfast, usually starting around 9 am, then housekeeping /kitchen duties, and gardening until around midday. You are then free until around 18h when we start to prepare for the dinner service when you will be helping serve the meals and clear up (as well as eating with the guests!). We expect you to be responsible, friendly, courteous to our guests, be presentable with good standards of personal hygiene, think on your feet, be able to integrate and be open-minded and positive. We hope that you will become one of our family while you are here. Also when applying please let us know your possible arrival and departure dates and if you are flexible with these, and a tel. number, WhatsApp, Facebook profile if you have these