WHY: We’ll nail our colours to the mast at the outset: we see our world as challenged and we’re looking for answers. The planet is overheating, fauna and flora are in peril, and human society is on the brink of disaster. This is unspeakably sad. Yet it is still a beautiful world, a word filled with wonders, albeit a little less full with each passing day.

Solutions we have come to see as real and essential include reducing consumption, consuming sustainably and reducing waste. That also means slowing down our lives to reduce the need to consume. It’s not about asceticism, but about appreciating good things in life which don’t depend on constant updates, less microelectronics, less plastic junk made in the world’s sweatshops. We’re far from perfect and we won’t missionise, but we do believe these things and, we want to live life accordingly. Some things are simply obvious and worth striving for. That is the basic idea that underpins our project here in Grand Bru.

WHAT: The Jardin de Prangeleu is – or wants to be – a productive orchard and garden, a sanctuary for wildlife, a retreat for human beings, and a place of learning and healing – a place for people to slow down. We will offer an increasing number of activities around yoga, gardening and permaculture; seminars on various topics, from cooking and painting, to gardening and nature watching. And we provide a holiday retreat for those who just want to rest and relax in the country.

WHERE: Grand Bru is an idyllic place: on the one hand it seems to lull us into a sense of security: what do the messages we receive online and on the radio about the sixth great extinction mean to us when the forests here are full of deer and boar and badgers, when our garden welcomes so many different kinds of bird, when foxes, hares, stoats and even beavers roam the countryside?