France

October 2007 La Brenne and Congis-sur-Therouanne

We had spent eight days in La Brenne in February as a trial run, but this was the first Leonardo funded placement to France. We spent one week mainly scrub cutting on several sites in the vicinity of La Chérine reserve and the second week near Meaux east of Paris where we worked on a reserve called Le Grand Voyeux situated in former gravel pits.

In La Brenne we worked with an English couple who now live in Brittany, three French volunteers from the WWF and the adults with learning difficulties from the ‘Foyer’ in Le Blanc. In Le Grand Voyeux we were accompanied by the volunteers from the ‘Association’ which runs the reserve. One particularly notable achievement here was the superb reconstruction that John Winterbottom and Diana Hall carried out on the main observation hide to make it more child-friendly.

Memorable moments included an amazing meal at the Cookery School in the local College (one of many amazing meals!), the visit to a small-scale champagne producer, and being able to watch the England rugby team beat France in the World Cup semi-final in the bar at Mézières-en-Brenne, all very amicable!

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