2. THE PROJECT

When I came back in 2000 to my native village in the middle of France , my intention was to develop some activity to get people to come and visit the area from the outside world.

I wanted to use an old barn I owned as a 'backpackers' hostel to induce travelling young people to visit the village. It meant a lot of renovations to the building and thus a permit to do so. After a while, due to rampant antagonism and a lot of blue print, I realized that it was not going to be possible.



In 2001 I bought a house with a smaller barn in St Civran, another village in the same
province of Berry. I spent what I received from my mother's inheritance to turn it into a pottery studio. The idea remained to attract people to the area.

The studio was geared for six people working at a time, either handbuilding or throwing on the wheel. The problem remained the accomodation of those people likely to come and wanting to stay a week or so. Locally there are what is called 'gites', a French version of the Bed 'n Breakfast system. However, I haven't found I could rely on this kind of accomodation as I need it. I need to be able to offer a 'package' deal to hobby potters, a stay of, say, a week or 10 days with access to the studio and accomodation inclusive.

To this day, accomodation of visiting potters remains a problem.