Help me to renovate and expand old buildings to perpetuate the herbal activity, and open them to reception and internships.

 

 

Presentation of the project

 
Imagine...

 

It’s a June’s lovely morning, by the shade of cherry trees, in an ancient medicinal garden, you harvest rose petals whose scent fill the air.

After a delicious meal, you discover the secrets of distillation in the workshop, and produce a delicately scented rose water.

In the evening, the big house who saw past Templars and peasant’s monks welcomes you, in front of its large fireplace or by the pool... A room has been prepared for you, unless you prefer the small independent house, all made from stones too.

The next day will be devoted to the development of your rose water ointment, in the laboratory of the hamlet. Several breaks will allow you to make botanical visits in the different gardens...

Rose, rosemary, lavender... those are some plants among the sixty or more varieties that surround the hamlet of Mas de Jammes...

Transformation workshops, opening onto a wild and preserved valley...

Botany courses, but not only... You can also find musical courses, basketry, old-fashioned construction...

 
How is that possible?

 
Let me tell you this...

 
 
Who am I?

My name is Fabien. I am a 38 years old man living in Aveyron, near Villefranche de Rouergue, in a small isolated hamlet called Le Mas de Jammes.

Son of an homeopath and an herbalist, I grew up among the plants my father was cultivating on the family estate, and helped to rebuild this small hamlet.

After studying architecture, I trained in the traditional trades of framing, stone cutting and roofing, and then started an ecoconstruction company that I still run today.

At the same time, I have been studying plant care with a Maya doctor from Guatemala since I was 22 years old, training I completed in France with a state diploma as a producer of aromatic and medicinal plants.

Today, following the retirement of both my father and mother, I took over the management of Mas de Jammes, developed gites there, and took care of the medicinal plants’s gardens.

My goal is to continue the work started by my parents, to share it and to let people discover it by hosting them in the lodgings, opening the gardens for visits, and the workshops for trainings.

Presentation of the premises

The hamlet

A centuries-old manor, a former templar and monastic farm, Le Mas de Jammes served as a relay on the way to Santiago de Compostela until the Revolution, then was abandoned in the 1950s before being bought by my parents in 1980, entirely in ruins.
Nestled in a fertile valley and enjoying a preserved environment, it was carefully renovated in the tradition of local architecture by my parents and then by myself.

 

Today, dedicated to the Well-Being, it includes lodgings in its ecologically renovated houses, relaxation and meditation areas, a shop where you can find the farm’s products, and all this in the middle of the herbal gardens.

Here is a description of the "Domaine du Mas de Jammes" and the link to its Gites

 

 

The Gardens

Around this hamlet are distributed gardens of medicinal plants, created in 1986 by my father, and worked since then in Organic and Biodynamic Agriculture:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In these gardens, spanning 2 hectares, there are about thirty different varieties of medicinal plants cultivated, to which are added wild harvests on some other lands of the Domaine, or in certain preserved areas of the Massif Central and the Cévennes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plants are then dried naturally, in the darkness and calm of the old stones of a century-old barn.
Particular care is given to this stage, as well as for the stripping and sorting stages, in order to get the best out of each plant.
The plants are then manually packed into kraft bags for infusions, or processed for other medicinal or culinary uses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sale is made in organic shops, in AMAP, by mail order via the online shop, but also in the Domaine’s shop.

 

 

You can find more informations on our website : http://www.jardinsdejammes.fr

 

The project

 

In order to share my passion for this place and the plants, I decided to open the Domaine, through visits to the gardens, and internships in the workshops.

This requires new infrastructure.

Currently, a charming stone barn houses the plant dryer, a packaging workshop and a shop.

 

 

 

But it has become too small and will have to be renovated and enlarged, in order to receive in addition a distillation room and its still, a processing laboratory, and a workshop for dry plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The « Roses de Provins » garden that runs along that building will be remodeled to be open to the visitor, and for this purpose equipped with stone benches around a fountain, alleys, and a kiosk.

 

All spaces have been designed to accommodate the public, while respecting the architecture of the hamlet and the principles of ecological construction.

The walls and roofs of the enlargements will be straw-insulated, the interior walls will be clay-coated, local wood will be used, as well as ancient tiles.

 

 

As of today, the building permit for these and other projects (horse hangar, motorcycle hangar, tractor hangar) has been accepted and the first hangars built.

 

I will rely for the realization of various renovations and extensions on my company of eco-construction, "Kalia Ecoconstruction",  I will also organize several participative yards, via my experience in this field and the network "Twiza" to which I am affiliated, and also thanks to the many volunteers coming and returning for several years, by the network "Wwoofing" and "Helpx"(links to my announcements).

 

You are also welcome at these school sites, which will start in the autumn!

What is going to be done with the funding ?

 

The total budget of the investments is 114 600 € and was validated by the services of the State, within the framework of my installation as Farmer.

He divides up as follows:

- Enlargement on two floors of the Southwest’s building to create a workshop of transformation of the dry plants, that will be done during a construction site - school (skeleton wood, walls straw, lime coating, interior soil coating, cover, floors, joineries, finishes): 33 400 €

- Renovation of the existing little barn (rehabilitation of the grounds, ceilings, drilling of doors and pose of joineries, improvement of the drying room, the radiators): 29 200 €

- Enlargement of the Northern facade to create a distillation’s workshop during a construction site - school (foundations, skeleton wood, roof, insulation, claddings, joineries, electricity): 18 800 €

- Boiler room and wood-burning furnace (building, installation and connection): 16 400 €

 

 

- Purchase of the still (still with 3 stainless tanks, system of steam production): 7 200 €

- Laboratory equipment (stainless tables, dishwashing, oven, stainless utensils, scales...): 4 300 €

- Infrastructures (toilets, accessibility, parking lot): 5 300 €

- Construction of a kiosk and a fountain in the Rose’s garden : on own funds

Having already obtained 70 000€ from loans and 24 000€ from European support, I am now just lacking 20 600€.

 

The funds collection will be done stepwise and the works will begin by autumn 2019.

- 1st landing: 5 000€ Enlargement on two floors of the Southwest’s building to create a workshop of transformation of the dry plants, that will be done during a construction site - school

 

 

 

- 2eme landing: 5 000€ Renovation of the existing little barn  

 

 

- 3eme landing: 5 000€ Enlargement of the Northern facade to create a distillation’s workshop and purchase of the still

 

-4eme mitigate: 5 600€  Boiler room and wood-burning furnace

 

For those who do not wish or are not able to make a donation on the Internet, it is also possible to send a check of support (by joining your e-mail address) at the following address:

Les Jardins de Jammes

The Mas of Jammes

12260 Villeneuve of Aveyron.

FRANCE

Your gift will be added to the campaign MiiMOSA, and your “return gift” will be sent to you.

In any case, I want to thank you warmly for your reading and your attention. Hoping to get your support, and to let you one day discover this magic place which is about to become even more magical, all thanks to you.

And please do not forget to share this project with your family, your friends, your colleagues, or even unknowns ...

All these projects, all these flowers, are only missing a little water, to bloom !

See you soon and THANK YOU!!!

Fabien