Welcome to Moulin de L' Auvergne !

 

                           Linguistic holidays for children, young people, women, men from 7 and on !

 

                                             the best way to really improve would be to come alone !

 

                                              (if you bring a friend, you must promise to speak, only in French…)

                                                                    Welcome to our family !

 

Bonjour ! My name is Claire and I live with my husband Jean-Paul in an old house by a small river, in South West of France. He has been a town council deputy for twenty years -and he is still- in our village south Gironde where he spends long working hours in the town council. He looks after our  water turbine, the bees, the orchard and the vegetables garden. He is also a superb chef who cooks with loving care and humour.

 

We have five grown children, three sons and two daugthers. They live in France and abroad and visit us often.

 

I have travelled,  studied and worked abroad. Proficiency in English in London, a bachelor’s degree in Spanish in Madrid, and the D.A.E.F.L.E, a French diploma to be able to teach French as a second language. So I have taught French in Spain, Australia (Alliance Française in Canberra) and in France to all kinds of students…

 

We try to respect others and nature, to live with simplicity, to favour sobriety, as there is just one planet Earth. We  are on the Santiago trail and we are used to accomodating pilgrims.

  

 

Bedroom and food :

 

On the first floor, the bedrooms are spacious and comfortable with a private bathroom. 

 

The living room is bright and serves as a classroom, with a piano.

 

 When the weather is nice and warm you may study, read, write, dream, draw... on the terrace above the river.

 We eat together in the dining room with a big fireplace or outside on Summer. 

 

You may help us to prepare and cook the meals with healthy  organic food and our vegetables or local and seasonal products. We adapt to your specific needs : vegetarian, vegan, no salt or no gluten...

Natural site :

 

Moulin de L'Auvergne is situated at 3.5 kilometres from Bernos Beaulac, a village with 1 200 inhabitants in South Gironde. Bordeaux is 80 kilometres north ; the huge pine trees forest, les Landes, is South of us

 

The Ciron tributary  flows into the Garonne river which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The Ciron is a quiet small river, bordered with leafy trees such as alders, oaks, beech trees, elms, poplar trees, willows… Many birds  live, nest and sing here : blackbirds, robins, tits, goldfinches, kingfishers… Migratory birds  such as woodpigeons, cranes, nightingales, cuckoo,... visit us every autumn and spring. You may be able to spot Roe deer, wild boars, hares, foxes, … who  live in the forest, or an occasional otter in our river. By the way, we do not hunt or fish. Nature is beautiful !

 

At the end of the 19th century, the mill became a paper factory to produce brown paper with rye straw. It was functioning  until 1965. Our home was built in 1880 by its manager, then deserted in the fifties. We acquired it and worked  on the needed renovations, finally making it our home in 1991. 

 

In 2004, thanks to our children's help,  we opened a rural gîte inside a part of the factory with a large terrace on the river. They also helped us  a lot to install the water turbine under the mill which began to produce electricity in 2014.

 

An alder tree  is un aulne or un vergne in French. In Latin, Bernos means alder tree too ! This is  where our place name  comes from. The logo represents leaves and fruits of an alder.

The beech trees that grow along the Ciron river  belong to the primary forest and have been there since 30,000 years.

 

Classes are according to your level, to bring you up to the standard you wish, with enthusiasm :

 

As far as possible, we will be as flexible as we can for your need.

 

Classic example of a day :

 Breakfast will be served between 7h30 and 8h30, followed by three hours class in the morning.

 We will have lunch together and then a one hour free time (nap, walking, reading, swimming in the river, sunbathing on the beach, cycling on little roads...)

We will resume our three hours class / or walking around  / sightseeing …( look on "Visites selon vos envies")

Dinner will be served around 19h30 and then the evening is free for you.

 

All kinds of books from our library are at your disposition, dictionaries, grammar books, etc...

You just need a pen, a notebook and your motivation !

It is possible to make great advances in your French in only a week's time when you have lots of motivation !

 

 

 Prices :

Arrival is scheduled for Sunday afternoon after 5 pm. ; departure is  before 12 am on Saturday mornings.

Changes will be taken into condideration, as we do our best to adapt to each individual circumstance.

If you have to stay longer than a week, we ask you more.

 

The price  below includes : Accomodation, French  classes, all the meals, afternoon local outings, and day trips. It also includes the ride between the nearest local railway station in the city of Langon, in Gironde and our home. There is an additional charge if you arrive at the Bordeaux Saint-Jean railway station or at the Bordeaux Mérignac airport. It is a long way and it takes a long time because the trafic on the road.

1 200 euros a week with local outings  

1 300 euros a week with one trip one day and local outings 

1 350 euros a week with two trips and local outings 

 

Terms of payment

 We ask that you pay half the price four weeks before your arrival and the other half when you arrive. If you do not come at all and I can schedule someone else to come this same week, I will reimburse you the full reserve payment. Otherwise,  25% will be returned to you.

You will need to pay for any bank  charges in your country.

If the price is a problem for you, please ask us, we may find a solution.