Jennifer's Page

Just when you think I’m going to be a serious blogger I go and make an avatar! =) By the way I, not just my avatar, actually can flip food. And not just veggies in a wok, but omelettes and pretty much anything that will slide in a pan. I flipped my first omelette bedside (I was working for a caterer). My first omelette flip was actually pretty stressful because I kept destroying my omelettes during practice flips at the restaurant right before going out to the job.… Continue

Hopefully, these blog posts on Saint Victor la Coste and La Sabranenque have piqued the interest of a few readers. “Volunteer vacations” allow you, in a small way, to get inside a culture. To a certain extent we are what we do, and working in another culture, if only for few weeks, provides a lived experience of a different set of values and a different lifestyle. To be honest, I hadn’t thought a lot about the relationship between the how of building and the final structure, its form, its vib…

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If you bring a rental car with you to Saint Victor la Coste you will find plenty to see in the afternoon. Uzès is a 30 minute drive to the southwest and is a lovely shopping town. Orange is a short drive to the northeast. Head south to Castillion du Gard for a café overlooking the French countryside.

No car? Don’t worry; you can still see plenty of the local area. If you like…

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Tuesday morning, after a simple breakfast of baguette, fruit, and coffee (between 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.) we started our volunteer work. Because our group was volunteering late in the season (La Sabranenque programs run from May through October) we were working on the Sabranenque compound. For the first few days we collectively built some stone steps and a short dry stone wall. And we hauled a lot of rocks! I soon discovered that finding the right size rock to provide the maximum… Continue

La Sabranenque is a French organization founded in 1969 to promote the restoration of rural medieval structures. To my mind, the mission of La Sabranenque is to preserve the beauty and harmony of traditional Provençal architecture by restoring, maintaining, and conserving historic buildings; to raise public awareness about the unique qualities of Provençal architecture by training volunteers in the use of original materials and traditi… Continue