A heart project

This project is a project of life and reconnection to nature above all.

Driven by the need to live in symbiosis with nature, we, Marie and Rémy, decided to live in a sheepfold at an altitude of 900m in the Ossau Valley.

We live there in energy autonomy and work the land there in a largevegetable garden.

In order to share this way of life that is more respectful of the environment and people, we have embarked on the rehabilitation of a shepherd's hut using self-build and eco-construction, which is the first ecolodge available today.

A second ecolodge is under construction.

Animals and Nature

We live with our domestic animals: three marvelous female dogs, two of which are rescues, two adorable cats taken from the street and our hens protected by their knight in service, the rooster Arthur.

Being in an area of faunistic interest andfloristics we are in the right place to observe animals and their tracks. We love living surrounded by all this wild life.

We are also putting things in place toto welcome at our best: nest boxes, plant hedges, fed up...

Thus we live in symbiosis with nature and our environment.

Permaculture vegetable garden

We have created a vegetable garden large enough to allow us to be self-sufficient in vegetables for us and for you!

Fresh and seasonal vegetables, and sterilized orlactofermentation for winter.

This vegetable garden has the shape of the golden spiral according to the Fibonacci sequence.

Being at an altitude of 900 meters, we have created a semi-buried greenhouse in order to be able to sow seeds and plant the most cautious plants.

In this greenhouse there is also a heated summer shower with a solar water heater panel to make the tomatoes blush in summer!

Without forgetting an orchard in creation with rustic and local fruits.

We decorate our kitchen with plants and wild mushrooms.

Autonomy and energy sobriety + natural sanitation

Our desire is to live comfortably while saving resources.

this willseems makes sense to defecate in liters of drinking water? You guessed it here it's dry toilets.

We set up systems which have several uses and which make it possible to optimize resources: solar water heater, wood stove with boiler which makes it possible to heat the house, to cook and to heat the sanitary water, ...

The water is drawn from a well and then filtered.

Electricity is produced by our solar panels and stored in a battery bank.

The treatment ofgray water du Cabanot is managed in soil purification.

Living like this forces you to be more aware of your consumption, invites you to be vigilant when it comes to the products used, whether household or beauty products, and reconnects with the value of the resources that nature offers us.

Ecological construction, local materials and circular economy

The materials used during the work are ecological and local materials: part of the wood comes from theforest behind with us and was sawn on site thanks to a mobile sawmill, the slates of Le Cabanot are all recycled from other local huts.

We also recovered and bought a lot of things second-hand, for example the floor of the Cabanot in standing wood is made with old beams.

As far as possible we have respected the architecture and themethods used for the construction of Béarnaise shepherd's huts.

Craftsmen and professionals who support our project have accompanied and advised us in the construction, thank you to them!

And thank you also to the people who helped us during the construction, whether in participatory construction or woofing!

Marc Andre

Project manager of the participative construction site during which we erected the walls

(click on the logo to contact him ->)