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By Danielle Stagg
If a ticket to Glastonbury or a week in Malia are a bit beyond your budget this summer, how about a holiday destination that pays you to be there?
Sound too good to be true? Well, you’re half right as payment follows a hefty bout of grape picking in the fields of northern France.
For decades, young backpackers have needed to work their way around Europe, many finding employment in one of the thousands of vineyards which litter the French countryside.
For those of you who don’t have any French farmers amongst your facebook friends, Wirerecommends Appellation Contrôlée. For £85 this small Holland-based company puts you in contact with a farm in the wine-enriched area of Lyon. Flights to Lyon are cheap and regular, Easyjet offering a cheeky one-way ticket for just £28.
Whilst working on the farms, pickers are provided with both accommodation and food. While it’s important to bear in mind these can range from a loft in a 17th Century farmhouse to a converted cattle shed, the whopping pay rate of €50 a day makes it a little easier to sleep at night.
While it’s not all fun and games with eight-hour shifts in temperatures reaching 30 degrees, we’re sure much fun can be had getting trashed on the very wine you’re helping to bottle.
For more information on this grape opportunity (see what we did there?) visit www.apcon.nl.
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