At Home in the Hills: Life at Meyras
In October of 2017 nestled in the hills of Southern France near a small town called Tournon Sur Rhône, we spent two weeks living and working on a French homestead called Meyras. We spent our days working with friendly farm animals, fragrant plants, and a few hardworking French farmhands. Through hours of lively conversation shared over meals of French bread and butternut squash soup, we learned all about regional French cuisines, the agricultural state of the region, and the French language. Let’s take a glimpse into just what shaped our extraordinary experience at Meyras.
The Residents
The Bernard Family
We were hosted by the lovely Bernard family, a couple who have been kindly hosting WWOOFers since they moved to rural France in search of a new life five years ago. Sylvain and his wife Pascale moved to Meyras from the suburbs of Paris, where Sylvain worked for the corporate management of Danone and Pascale studied fine art. The entire home is run by the joyous pair, who together have three grown daughters, one of which currently lives on the Meyras property with her husband.
Sylvain is a tall, hardworking man who spends his time tending to the animals and land, and has simultaneously been continuously renovating the Meyras property. Pascale is small, joyful woman and incredible artist who has spent her life crafting sculptures while also mentoring students in fine art. Their ambitious daughter Garance lives on the property with her husband Emil in their own separate homestead, where Garance nurtures her own garden and harvests the materials to make homemade teas and jams. During our stay, we were also joined by a clever young French women named Cecile who was volunteering at Meyras for her third time. The entire family often had giant, contagious grins on their faces and we spent many afternoons over lunch chatting about our cultures and the events of the day.
The Furry Friends
The Bernard’s have a 9-month old sweet but hyper Border Collie named Jaz who works with the horses and spends his evenings either snuggled up in bed or running around the house with a blanket in his mouth (and his name made it really confusing for Jas around the house). Garance has her own loyal and loving dog named Keanu, an Australian Shepherd who loves to play fetch and have his belly rubbed.
Meyras is also home to a curious blue-eyed grey cat and a noisy, shy black cat. Both cats spend their days hunting in the fields and soaking up the sun, and at night the grey cat Samosa always came to our door looking for some attention (which we happily gave her).
Ten horses, two donkeys, and six sheep roam the vast fields of Meyras. There were several days when the horses escaped and we would spend the day building up a stronger fence. One horse named Baxter stuck out in particular, as he was the friendliest and the only large draft horse in the mix.
The Setting
The Main Home
Sylvain has spent the past five years renovating the historic stone buildings that make up the Meyras property. The main home where Sylvain and Pascale sleep is a big, open two-story house with many rooms and traditional French ceilings. Pascale works in her studio downstairs, which is home to an array of her beautiful sculptures and paintings. There is an additional building with two apartments which Sylvain renovated and currently rents out for additional income. It is in this building where you can see engravings which date back to the sixteenth century.
In yet another renovated building on the Meyras property, we stayed in a cozy room called Le Princese et Petit Pois (the princess and the pea). Meanwhile Garance’s workshop and sales space is being built next door, and downstairs is a recently completed meeting room with a traditional stone furnace where Garance recently held her wedding. Sylvain tells us this property used to belong to Danone dairy farmers, and we even spent some time moving some of the equipment which was left over from the previous owners.
The Hills
Besides their renovated stone buildings, the Bernard’s own quite a large piece of land in the hills of Southern France. Grassy fields occupy a major part of this land, and the horses, sheep, and donkeys happily graze their days away on this vast landscape. Among the fields are several wells where the Bernard’s get most, if not all, of their water for their animals and gardens. At the convergence of two grassy hills lies a small creek tucked away in a sprawling forest, which the Bernard’s carefully maintain using the principles of agroforestry.
Garance’s Homestead
Garance and her husband Emil live on the hilltop in a sturdy and warm yurt which they built entirely themselves. Garance has a degree in agricultural engineering and is using that knowledge to maintain two organic vegetable gardens and a medicinal herb garden. She also cares for ten roaming hens and six energetic sheep, whose wool was used to insulate the yurt. During our stay, we harvested wild mint root and replanted it in the medicinal herb garden, and we also spent many hours sorting dried herbs for Garance’s specialty teas.
