 Our vision for Vera Soleil is to restore this small farm of two hectares to a modern example of a polyculture farm. There were many, many, many small farms in this region that was the actual economy of this region in France. And we are trying to demonstrate a reasonable and sustainable way of living in today's world close to the land using modern technology but not relying completely on it. I came to Camp Vera Soleil because I'm trying to understand how we can do a better job of restoring depleted land. There's just so much of it across the planet and we've got to figure this out. There are all these meadows, you have mountains in the back, you have these typical French houses like this one. And I know, ooh, this is going to be perfect, especially with this little friend here. This is Maya and she's just the best. Terral and Claudia have only moved here recently and they've got lots of big dreams for how this property is going to look. And it felt exciting. It felt like we were here at the beginning. There's just this free flow of ideas and inspiration and sharing. And the meals and more like the conversations at the table are at least as important as doing the actual work in the fields. They also showed us in a very honest way that it's hard work. It gave us, I think, a lot more respect when it comes to farming and where our food comes from. This is what it's all about, to understand more and increase the respect for the work people are doing and nature is doing. I think the things we did, you can actually immediately see the results. So we made up there the lavender garden, so we had to build like a hill like you do with asparagus. No. What I saw is like a holistic view. If you just do the land and then you're not living it and understanding it, I don't think it will fly. You've got to connect with the land, you've got to read the signs, the weather, everything. It's all interconnected. Right now we are making more beds to grow vegetables. First time in my life I'm harvesting fertile soil from grass to not let anything go to waste. We did excursions, like going from Camp Wieselay to other places, farms around here, doing permaculture, doing regenerative practices. I liked that we went to different farms. So to see there's not one way, but there are several ways of regeneration. If you learn things in an academic environment or you're reading books about permaculture and environment, it doesn't mean anything to you. But when you get a chance to come out here and actually feel it and engage with it on a day-to-day basis, these problems become real. At Wieselay, one of the biggest points that we intentionally set out to do was create a place for human restoration as well as land restoration. We realized there's a lot of amazing world changers out in the world and oftentimes people get a little burned out, they need a little time to regroup, reset. So our goal is to provide super nourishing food in a supportive environment. Welcome to Sparky's Kitchen! I usually cook for a couple of people at the most and now making meals for eight people three times a day is really an experience. All my fellow campers will say something about the amazing food. I mean, I think I gained a couple of kilos just because we ate so well. I am a high-performance therapist in real life so I work with very motivated people including myself and I'm very athletic. And to be in the kitchen is a departure, to be honest. This is my new life. What I want for people that come here is I want them to come, get their hands in the dirt, eat really well, relax, take time to read a book, jump in the pond, be outside, just be. When I got here I was truly depleted. What we really needed was to be restored. When we got here on the land and started to just work with the stones and cook really well and keep the vision alive of what we really could see for this place, we started to feel renewed. It was kind of a holistic experience to have here to regenerate not only the landscape, the soil, the farm but also ourselves. You get to work but there's also a lot of space for you. You can step out any time if you think you need a break. You would prefer to have some time for yourself or read a book. That's okay. For me, I'm a city girl and it takes some time to be grounded but then if you are I felt that I did things differently. We did several different types of activities around being able to tune into your body, tune into your spirit. What I also learned is that the power of community, you can do this by yourself but I think the strength is to do this together. It was immediately a very friendly and open-hearted atmosphere. Really interesting people, really interesting perspectives and there's a hopefulness that I'm coming away from here with. To be able to have really good food, get your hands dirty, plant a few trees, be around really smart people, what else do you need? What I felt was that sometimes you have to open up your heart and that just made it complete.