About us and our approach
We love our little corner of the mountains
Laurent & Treacle
We are a Franco-British family. Laurent arrived in the Vosges in 1996 and Treacle followed him in 2003. We opened our first gite, The Annexe in 2013 and our second gite, The Charri in 2015.
Laurent and Treacle are both trained teachers with a globetrotting past. Working in tourism was a naturel step. Treacle spent several summers working at the visitors centre for the Ballons des Vosges Regional Natural Park. Laurent’s interested in archaeology saw him spending his summers taking part in several excavations for Les Mynes de Thillot. More recently, Laurent joined the team of guides in the mines.
Our own travel interests taught us tolerance, curiosity, love of nature and the need to take care of it.
Holiday Home in the midst of a preserved countryside
Our desire to have a limited impact on the environment guided our choices when renovating and decorating the house. So we tried whenever possible to:
- Reuse or Recycle
- Use natural and non-polluting materials and products
- Support local business
Our achievements
Renovation using environmentally-friendly or recovered materials
Household linen woven in the Vosges (in our village!)
Making and up-cycling furniture
Low consumption lighting and household appliances
Heating by solar panels and wood boiler (Le Charri)
Saving water thanks to our composting toilets (L'Annexe)
Installed solar panels to produce our own clean energy (Le Charri)
Materials used for construction and decoration
We had fun learning ancient techniques while renovating the gîtes
- Lime/hemp or lime/sand plaster on the walls
- Insulated with wood wool and cellulose
- Natural paints: whitewash, organic and homemade paint (linseed oil, natural pigments and Flour based paint)
- Wood felled and sawn within a radius of 5km
- Green roof on the Annexe veranda.
Everyday action
Green cleaning products
Sorting waste with organic waste composting
Disconnectable WIFI to limit electromagnetic waves.
Garden and exterior maintenance without chemicals
Support local organic producers and business
And our current projects!
- Install Independant environmentally friendly wastewater treatment by phytopurification
- Install a charging station for electric vehicles
- Trees planting scheme at Le Haut Pré to neutralize the CO2 impact