Become a Volontaire de Charette!

The philosophy of the Terre de BRIORD project is:

RESTORE — PRESERVE — SHARE

the Land of BRIORD.

Who are we?

We are women and men who decided, four years ago, to join Eric in the great Adventure of the Land of Briord.

We live in the area, often in the town of Port-Saint-Père and the neighbouring villages. But sometimes we come from further afield, driven by the simple idea that it is up to each of us, young and old, to take our shared heritage into our own hands.

The Terre de Briord project is far more than work carried out on historic buildings, however beautiful they may be.

The Terre de Briord project is, above all, the putting into practice of a philosophy: that of Sharing.

Today we are more than 70, and more numerous every month; we are aged from 10 to 90 (truly!).

We are students, working people, retirees. We come from every social background and you know what? It makes no difference between us, because as soon as we pass through the main gate of our wonderful estate, we become the Volontaires de Charette, and that is the only thing that matters to us.

Why join us?

If you love your region and wish to be involved in preserving it, if you cherish your regional historical and cultural heritage, if you want to become a participant in a great historical restoration project within a preserved environment, then you will be most welcome among us.

What do we do?

We do a thousand and one things, all of equal importance.

Sometimes we are in the great conservatory kitchen garden, sometimes in the orchard, sometimes in the forest gathering branches.

Sometimes we clean our Château to make it look its very best for the Grand Free Tours that we organise on the first Sunday of every month.

Sometimes we put on our red caps and become Guides of Briord to share our treasure with visitors.

Sometimes we make pretty bouquets of flowers, sometimes we rebuild a door or a window in the stables, sometimes we rebuild a wall, a few roof tiles, a sheepfold, sometimes we cook up good meals in our HQ, the joinery workshop, sometimes we digitise old documents, sometimes we write articles for our blog...

But always, at every gathering, in every mission... We share!

We share very good times among friends, we share our enthusiasm, our solidarity and our good humour with all those who give us the pleasure of paying us a visit.

How are we organised?

We are brought together within a non-profit association (loi 1901), "Les Volontaires de Charette". We have a committee and section leaders who help coordinate our missions.

We of course have internal rules and a charter written by Eric that set out all the core principles of our collective commitment. But above all, we are welcoming and always happy to greet new Volontaires de Charette among us.

Have no fear: some of us have a great deal of time, others much less. We all learn from one another and our skills are very varied but of equal importance.

The most important thing: to be together and to Share an extraordinary project.

Don't wait any longer - Become a Volontaire de Charette!

You can send us an e-mail at: vdc1770@gmail.com with your contact details, or fill in this short form.

We will get back to you very quickly to talk.

You can also come and meet us during the Grand Monthly Tours.

See you soon,

Eric and the Volontaires de Charette