Poitou-Charentes holiday gites

All labour and material used in the renovations of our Poitou-Charentes holiday gites was locally resourced and with respect to local traditions. We encourage all our guests to buy all food stuffs locally and if possible organically. We have made contacts with several local organic food producers and shops to encourage guests to purchase from them. We also help local businesses and attractions by providing free promotional material within the gites for guests to peruse, and actively encourage the guest’s participation.

We are planting trees at our Poitou-Charentes holiday gites to offset CO2 emissions involved in travel to and staying at our Poitou-Charentes holiday gites. In January 2008 we are planting over 60 new trees including rare and endangered species as part of an ongoing programme.

We recycle all recyclable materials at our Poitou-Charentes holiday gites, compost all organic waste, we have planted over 250 local shrubs to help negate our carbon footprint. We also heat our properties with wood taken from sustainable sources, and have insulated to better than recommended levels, this ensures excellent heat retention during winter months (reducing the need for heating) and ensures a cooler environment during summer months, reducing the need for air conditioning.

We have double glazed all our windows and doors at our Poitou-Charentes holiday gites and use low voltage light bulb wherever possible and use A rate white goods in our kitchens. We have installed a saltwater pool system which minimises the use of harsh and harmful chemicals, and we recuperate rainwater and have installed a 12,000 litre tank for gardening use. We also are investigating the use of alternative energy sources, wind, solar, geothermal and are committed to becoming as energy self sufficient as possible within 5 years.

We have a large selection of brochures for local attractions (not just the obvious larger ones but also those which are less well marketed like a village close to here which has reproduced a medieval herb garden which we found by chance and has no real marketing), restaurants and providers of bio foods in the area, we have contacts in the local archaeological society who provide trips around our area which we encourage visitors to use, our local farmers have horse and cart trips around the area which we help organise and also encourage people to use the village stables which provides employment for many local youngsters.

We are treasurers of the village's patrimonie society which raises money for the upkeep of the village and it's amenities, this year we fixed the church bell broken many years ago, raised enough for the village's wells to be repaired and have started to look at raising money to refurbish houses in the village for low cost housing for local families, we also have a number of social events which we encourage not only our guests to join in but also other members of the foreign community here in the area, most of our guest have contributed to this and we encourage people to shop at at those enterprises which have sponsored the society. All of this is available for our guests to read and participate in. Our website is a fairly comprehensive guide to the area and is reproduced in a booklet.