Place: Miramas (Bouches-du-Rhône)

Participants: Adults

Workcamp description:

Miramas-le-Vieux, a hilltop village steeped in history, has everything that makes a Provencal village so charming and offers fabulous views of the wild Etang de Berre coastline.
The Chemin de Fontville calade enables pedestrians to get from the village of Miramas-le-Vieux to the Parc de la Poudrerie Royale as quickly as possible, without having to use the road. This path is paved with a very rutted calade, about 120 metres long. A concrete trough, through which water flows from a spring that supplies the village, runs the entire length of the chemin de Fontville.
In 2025, it will be necessary to restore around 50 m2 of calade and, as far as possible, allow run-off water from the road to reach the gully.

Work programme:

• Staking joints and purging unstable stones
• Selecting and cutting replacement stones
• Inserting missing stones and filling joints

Building technique: Stone cobble on a bed of dry lime mortar

Special bonus : The proximity of the Etang de Berre and the Mediterranean will encourage you to take unforgettable swims.

Event during the workcamp: The Fêtes de l'Etang will give you the chance to discover the Etang de Berre in a whole new way.

Accommodation:
You will be accommodated in the heart of the Poudrerie Royale park. You will have access to changing rooms and communal areas for the park's teams, with toilets and kitchen facilities. You will sleep in tents large enough to accommodate two people. Camp beds will be available for those who do not have their own camping equipment. You can bring your own mattress or camp bed.

Workcamp life:
During your stay, you will be supervised by 2 activity leaders. The technical supervisor will teach you all about traditional building techniques, and the educational supervisor will help you organize your daily life and leisure activities.

Adults spend around 30 hours a week working on the site. Work on the site takes place in the mornings, starting early because of the summer heat. The afternoons, evenings and weekends are devoted to outdoor and discovery activities, providing relaxation and pleasure. Two vehicles are made available to the supervisors to organize outings.

You will take it in turns to prepare meals as a team. You'll take it in turns to prepare meals as a team, giving you the chance to share recipes from your own region and sample countless specialities from other parts of the world. If you're already a “chef”, that's perfect; if you're not... Get cooking!

On all our sites, we want our volunteers to play a real role in their stay, so we invite them to work together to propose the activities and events of their choice, in keeping with the values that the association wishes to uphold.

Some ideas for excursions: Walks in the Camargue, in the Alpilles, discovering Baux-de-Provence, visiting the towns of Marseille, Salon-de-Provence, Aix-en-Provence or Arles, observing the flora and fauna of the Park and the Etang de Berre.

A little bit of history:

At the crossroads known as the ‘four roads’, where in ancient times the Aurelia road and its extension towards Massilia (Marseille) crossed, stands an oppidum with a magnificent view over the Etang de Berre, which gave its first name to the place: ‘Mira mare’.

The town of Miramas did not develop around its historic centre as it did elsewhere. In fact, the arrival of the railways and the creation of a landing stage 3.5 kilometres from the original site led to a transfer of population and the gradual abandonment of the historic site.

Today, with its hundred or so inhabitants, Miramas le Vieux retains many traces of its past, with the remains of the ramparts, the ruins of the castle and the Notre-Dame gateway, and boasts a significant religious heritage, including the parish church of Notre-Dame-de-Beauvezer, the chapel of Saint-Vincent, enclosed in the grounds of the former Poudrerie Royale, just down the chemin de la Fontville, and the chapel of Saint-Julien, listed as a Historic Monument and located in the cemetery alongside the chemin de la Fontville, which is the focus of our restoration project.

Conditions of participation

Participation fee: €150

Registration fees: see the website www.rempart.com 

Living expenses include: food, collective accommodation; leisure activities and travel during the work camp; civil liability insurance and association membership.
Not included: round-trip travel costs; personal and health expenses.

REGISTRATION (soon)