Hi, I'm absolutely new to the forum, but this looks like a really interesting place to find out about all sorts...
We're preparing for a new adventure in France. Building our own (Cob) house (although that's not set in stone ), live off grid, get started on a permaculture garden/forest garden and be as selfsustainable as possible. I'm looking into rules and regulations at the moment(amongst MANY other things) and was wondering if any one out there has any valuable lessons to share, any tips on do's or don'ts ...anything is welcome. I'm getting the impression it's not going to be easy as far as building codes etc are concerned. Does any one know of any area's/ regions where there might be more leniency as far as eco building is concerned. Hoping to hear from ye's. Thanx! Karen

Hi Karen and a warm welcome to the forum !

It sounds as if you're setting out on an adventurous project. There are one or two people on here who are mines of information on self-sufficiency and I'm sure they'll be along shortly with some useful information.

We have many members who have lived in France for several years so if you hav any specific questions, fire away

Nice to 'meet' you, Karenien.

I can't help you - as I live in UK, mostly. The person who knows most about this is almost certainly Hard WorkingHippy - she lives off grid. If you look her up in the member's list you'll find a link to her blog which is a mine of information & I'm sure she'll be along soon!

Here you go, Karen :

http://www.lafermedesourrou.blogspot.com/

Hi Blaze, thank you for your warm welcome. I'm sure I'll be coming up with a good few shortly... First it's home work time here. Be back later I'm sure!

Hi Demi, I've already found her blog a while back and was pleasantly surprised to see she partakes in this forum. What she does all looks amazing. Definitely hoping to speak to her as by the sound of it, they got engaged in the 'red tape' of rules and regulations big time.
Thanx for the tip!

Hi Karenien. A warm welcome from me too!

There is a whole eco-centre a few km from us - HWH knows of it very well. They have examples of dwellings built in cob, straw, and goodness knows what else, it's very interesting!

Here's their website:

http://ecocentre.org/

It would certainly be the place to visit to answer all your questions, but would tax your French language skills too!

Thanx Bayleaf! Just checked them out. Golden Tip! For all the info and it being in French as well! Cos that can do with some polishing up; the street slang from days gone by won't suffice when dealing with trying to obtain building permits and the like I'm sure So far I found it quite hard to come across any eco info in French, but I guess I didn't look hard enough. And great it's in the Perigord as well. Thanx again. Lots of new stuff to investigate...

Hi and welcome

Apologies if you are already doing this but re: finding info in french - if you type in www.google.fr and then search using some key words in french you often get very different results to using google uk.

Good luck

clare

Not done that yet, but will do in the future. Thanx for the tip!

Hi Karen,

Welcome to the forum.

I've been working on a cob project since Christmas, it's fun but takes a lot longer than you think !

Fill in your profile to let us know roughly where you are. Do you have any land to build your house on yet and why did you choose cob ?

Hi HardworkingHippie. Pleased to 'meet' you. I've been delving into your blog and love everything I see & read there. I'm in awe with how you have the time for all that it is you do!!

I wish I could say I'm in France yet, but we're not quite there yet. At the moment we live in Ireland and before we can make the move to France we have to sell our house in Holland (I'm dutch) (it's a long story...).
However that turns out we won't have a great deal of money and that's where the cob comes in (amongst other reasons). I'm also investigating earth ships and all sorts of other eco homes, but there's just something about the cob... From the first moment I got acquainted with it I 'fell in love...'. I've always loved making something out of 'nothing' and the possibilities with cob seem endless. Don't know how well it'll agree with the French building codes etc though...
I was hoping you could share your experiences with 'the system' with me. I read on your blog that it took you quite some time before it all got sorted.

Hope to hear back from you and I'll definitely fill out my profile. (I've never actually posted anything on a forum before... )

Of course you'll hear back from me, I'm a mod in the forum, I look in several times a day.

It's always nice to talk about alternative building and alternative energy - both favourite subjects of mine.

Hi Karen and welcome.

Good luck and bon courage with your project. I know HWH will be a mine of information for you, so you've come to the right place.

Thanx! I feel 'at home' already...

Hi!

Basically you would be building a house, with a wooden frame, with cob ( French term " torchis ")

See here ( last pages ):

http://www.trajectoiresdd.org/2011/11/1 ... temporain/

The are quite some associations you can look up.
For such house, there can be assistance.

There are specialist firms who build such houses.( Possibly with your participation )

Yours,

pomhorn

If you need a " rough Google translation " - you can copy link or the text you require in the following box

http://translate.google.fr/?client=fire ... fr&tab=wT#

NB. For an exact translation, especially in administrative matters, you may need the help of an expert, to do an exact translation.)