[strawbale] introduction

Well, lets get this introduction thing started, eh.

I'm Andre de Bouter (Dutch) and living in France since one year with my wife Coralie Ferioulaud (French).

I started out as a butcher (family madness, I guess) and later studied marketing management since I (naively) believed Marketing is about finding out the needs of people and then finding ways to fulfil those needs while making a living. Also worked for Hewlett Pacard, giving technical support on the phone in French.
At some point I stumbled on the book by Bill & Athena Steen 'the Straw Bale house' and it turned on the lights big time!
I followed two workshops (one with Jolien, who suggested this introduction round), quit my job, and Coralie decided it was time for us to go to India where we gave a SB workshop in Auroville, Tamil Nadu.

When we came back to Europe we bought a piece of land in France, sold our apartment in Holland and started making plans for our SB construction.
We also took a month to travel through Europe with Catherine and Betty Wanek to visit SB-people and SB-projects (spring 2000).
When the drawings were done we left for France, bought an old caravan and set up camp in Charente, France.
At the moment we are building our 240m˛ house/'hotel'.

To share the SB/sustainability gospel, we are creating a place to receive people for guided tours and SB workshops as well as other workshops and bed and breakfast.
The idea is that people talk all their lives about a nice (SB) holiday experience.
We'll see what happens.

Other dreams are.
*Publishing our material (India/Europe/our house and whatever comes next) on our website in French/Dutch/English.
http://www.la-maison-en-paille.com/ (the Dutch and French part takes some time, but the English part is comming along nicely)
*Getting the 'official' French SB website started (hopefully this winter)
*Creating a European SB video
*Create a CD-ROM on Natural Construction with the CopyLeft Statement
*Create a 'ECO-Route' for tourists through Charente, France.

For the summer I'm working as a tourist guide at a Cognac house. A nice way to get some training to in front of groups, great colleagues and a nice drink every now and then ;-) You are all welcome to come and have a look, at the Cognac house and/or our 'little' project.
Bye the way, besides the 3 workshops we are giving this year, we also invite volunteers to come and give a hand (just like last year). So if you feel like coming to France, your are more than welcome. If you want to see more about what we have been up to, have a look at our website, you'll find tons of photo's on the workshops and our project in France as well as lots of other SB stuff.