auberge collective le Repos du Pèlerin

DEAR VOLUNTEERS, our hostel is closed to pilgrims, to renovate the restaurant, until the end of March. We re-open it to pilgrims and hikers at the beginning of April 206. if you want to join us since the beginning of april, and if our project suits to your wishes, we probably will a place for you... Please, read the following text carefully to check if our values meet your expectations... if not, feel free to apply to another project better for you!

Our wish is to make our hostel open to the world and its different cultures, and YOUR culture as well. With you, we would like to organize some concerts, music, presentations of your culture, and typical meals from your home cooked by you.
We hope that this excites you, and it would be great if you would like to help us in our daily tasks (about 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, mainly gardening, cleaning, dishes, , ironing and cooking) but also to host evenings around your culture, and exchange with pilgrims and walkers. We therefore hope that you like to sing (and make the other people singing with you, for example with polyphonies), that you enjoy playing and sharing music (we have a piano, guitar, accordion and of course, you can bring your own instrument with you) with our guests and that you feel at ease to cook for a large group and like cooking and sharing your cooking skills with the pilgrims around the meal you prepared ! We hope you take initiatives and are quickly autonomous, mainly in the garden, in the kitchen, with the ironing and cleaning
If so, contact us and come and spend at least 1 month, ideally 2 months, at the hostel!!

We have moved to Haute-Loire, in France, in a beautiful area, to take over an international hostel for backpackers, hikers and pilgrims. We would be pleased if you are interested by the values shared on the way to Saint-Jacques de Compostelle (Santiago de Compostela) : respect of nature and of each other, good mood, open mind :), ready to help even if the tasks are sometimes hard. The qualities that are expected from volunteers are : autonomy, initiatives, creativity, flexibility (fluctuating schedules and fluctuating free days depending on the number of pilgrims), ...

Our village is situated on the 1st or 2nd step from Puy en Velay, just in front of the river called Allier and old volcanoes, in a preserved area in Haute-Loire, in France. If you are not afraid to be far away from the "civilisation" -I mean the city :) because our village is very REMOTE, situated at 27 km from Puy en Velay (rare buses : don't be afraid to use the train, to do hitchhiking), if you enjoy sharing experiences with other volunteers and hikers, if you enjoy being in the nature, and doing sports like swimming, climbing, walking, running ... So, come to visit our hostel !

I would be nice if you enjoy walking and if you want to discover a few sections of the Camino de Santiago to "feel" what our guests live on this path !

We wish to welcome you and we would be grateful to receive your help in exchange of accommodation and food : we provide 1 meal a day, mostly supper. We wish you to help with the dishes in the evening as well about 30-45 min if you eat with us at this time. The rest of the food (breakfast, dinner, snacks, etc) has to be bought and cooked by volunteers themselves. You can buy food during your free time in small cities attainable by bus, auto stop or train) and there is a small bakery open in the morning, next to the hostel. During your free days, we ask the volunteers to cook their own food bought and prepared by themselves in the apartment they share with the other volunteers. We wish you to help us, about 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, during minimum 4 weeks (ideally 6 to 8 weeks) in the following tasks : - with the gardening vegetables, with walking our dogs, - helping us with the welcoming of pilgrims, with the cooking of healthy organic food - mostly vegetarian and vegan food-, with the cleaning of dishes and the restaurant - with room cleaning and ironing of sheets of the hostel In addition to the 5 hours of daily help, as you share the flat with the other volunteers and friends, we ask you to keep it tidy, clean (do the dishes, vacuum the floor, sort the trash, clean your bedroom when you leave and wash your sheets... to welcome the next volunteer in the flat) every day. Thank you for your understanding! Are you interested in : - learning the daily tasks of hostel life (cleaning, cooking, making homemade drinks, ironing, washing dishes,...) and promoting healthy food and drinks? - Playing music and singing in the evening with us and pilgrims ? Presenting your country, your culture, your food -cooked by you :)- to pilgrims as an exchange ? - Meeting us and our children and animals ? - Playing sports (river just in front of the hostel for swimming, basaltic rocks near the hostel for climbing, beautiful paths all around the hostel for walking, cycling...)and discovering the beautiful nature with its volcanoes and its nice history (27 km from Puy-en-Velay, main departure for pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela) ? If you are ready to help us and interested in this project, we would be happy to welcome you at our place. About us : Like you, I was a volunteer for many years, taking part, during my free time, in a number of international projects and workcamps all around the world. I was a sciences teacher in Waldorf school (alternative pedagogy) for 20 years but since one year I take care of the hostel. My husband is an architect and enjoys singing and playing music. We have 3 children, including 14 years old twin boys and a 12 years old girl. We have two nice dogs. We are mainly vegetarian, even if my children and my husband sometimes eat meat. We love and respect the nature ; the natural setting close to the hostel is beautiful. Our village is lucky to have a small train station where you could take the train to travel around. The village is small, even if you can find a good restaurant and a small bakery open in the morning ; the first small grocery is at 5 km from the village where you can go by walking. We wish you are open to help us more hours during busy days, dare to take initiatives, you enjoy sports in a remote and preserved nature, you are independent and resourceful, you are open to "adventures"! Cultural activities : Playing music and singing with us and pilgrims :) Depending on your interests during your free time, you could improve your french (and english) if you wish to meet locals. It is possible to go to Puy en Velay on your own and go to the theatre, cinema, sightseeing (there are rare buses riding from the hostel to this city or auto-stop) and you can go for nice walks, go for shopping in Langeac, a small city you can reach by train at 30 min from Monistrol d'Allier. We hope you are AUTONOMOUS, you are creative. We hope that, during your free time and when the hostel is closed : - you enjoy travelling or discovering by walking the natural areas in Haute-Loire, - you are able to cook your own food - you enjoy doing sports : possibilities to practice water sports (swimming, possibility to do rafting, etc), but also cycling -if you bring your own bike-, walking, running... We can host you mainly since April to September, when we open the hostel to pilgrims and hikers (since October to March, the hostel is closed to pilgrims because we need to renovate it and finish all the rebuilding). ☺ If you find this project in accordance with your values, we hope to see you soon☺ Please write us an e-mail and we will write you back as soon as possible!