The venue for the residential intensive field ecology module at the start of the course is an old Napoleonic farm close to the town of Poitiers, to the South of La Loire, about 2 hours drive to the East of La Rochelle. 

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Poitiers is well connected nationally and internationally, and a bus service is available from Poitiers train station (2 hours SW of Paris on the Bordeaux line), or from the other transport options eg coach or airport. There are two buses a day from Poitiers train station which stop in the village closest to the farm. Details of bus times and where to get off will be provided on enrollment. From the bus stop, you can either be picked up or make your way to the venue on foot.

 

The Napoleonic farm with ancillary agricultural buildings, is set on the boundary between two agricultural paradigms. To the left are biodiverse woodlands, pastures, and the wetland called 'the marais', together with permaculture plots, and to the right, industrial agri-tech monocultures of France's prairie heartland. This provides the ideal location to use as our ecological base camp, from which to compare and contrast different modes of agricultural production within walking distance, from sustainable permaculture practices to the unsustainable industrial monocropping of export commodities with the fossil fuel, artificial fertiliser, and pesticides that this entails.