Our Environmental Charter

Madam, Sir,

We are delighted to welcome you toAllée des Noyers, our guest house located in Saint-Michel-de-Bannières in the Lot. Nestled in the heart of unspoiled nature, we are committed to protecting it. The guest room blends harmoniously into a family farmhouse, a wooded area where everyone can enjoy peace and quiet and the freedom to live at their own pace.

Since our inception, we have placed environmental responsibility at the heart of our business. For ourselves, for you, and for future generations, we strive to minimize the environmental impact of our operations while ensuring you enjoy a pleasant and authentic stay.

In concrete terms, this translates into a series of strong commitments: saving resources (water, energy), reducing and sorting waste, choosing responsible and local products, soft mobility, healthy and seasonal food, and raising awareness among everyone about good practices.

Michèle and Jean-Pierre personally manage the guesthouse and implement this approach daily. We also work closely with local partners who share our values, contributing to the dynamism of the regional economy while reducing our carbon footprint.

Finally, our approach is designed to be evolving. Every little action counts: as visitors, your participation is valuable, whether it's respecting waste sorting, saving water, or supporting the local producers we introduce you to.

Thank you for supporting our efforts during your stay!

Why did you decide to pursue the Green Key eco-label?

To undertake a structured and progressive approach, to be at the forefront of actions related to sustainable tourism.
Reduce operating costs related to water and energy consumption.
To meet the growing expectations of French customers, but also foreign customers, with an international label.
To help preserve the territory and the destination by limiting the environmental impact of the establishment's activity.
To have an existing environmental and responsible approach recognized by an external and recognized label.
Anticipate future regulatory expectations.

Webinars were viewed to provide us with information on this commitment in our eco-labeling process.

Our concrete actions

Exceeding customer expectations to deliver an exceptional experience

Our motto atAllée des noyers is to do everything in our power to make our guests feel valued. My husband, Jean-Pierre, and I are excellent listeners and enjoy chatting with our guests to better understand their tastes and passions, so we can offer them a personalized and memorable experience. We know our region very well and love sharing recommendations for restaurants, activities, and places to see. We've also noticed that our guests particularly appreciate our suggestions for unique and off-the-beaten-path hikes and bike rides. Therefore, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the guest experience.

Local flavors to share

As a bed and breakfast, we do our best to offer a hearty, homemade breakfast. We source our ingredients from local suppliers and markets near the house. We get our free-range eggs from a local farmer, and our fresh fruit for making homemade jams. Our yogurt is also homemade, which helps reduce plastic packaging. I usually bake a homemade cake, such as yogurt and apple cake, apple flognarde, clafoutis, fruit tarts, or pancakes. The same goes for our tasting platters, which include charcuterie from a local artisan caterer, homemade pâté, cheese from a local family business, a mixed salad with fruits and vegetables from the market or our own garden (depending on the season), and a glass of wine from local vineyards.

Sharing our commitment to more sustainable travel with our customers

We are committed to sustainability. We are native to the region and have chosen to stay here to live and raise our three children in a less polluted environment. When renovating the farmhouse, and particularly the guesthouse, we tried to preserve as many original features as possible. We primarily used natural and healthy materials. These materials regulate temperature and humidity, in addition to possessing interesting acoustic properties. Many people ask us for advice or compliment us on this unique combination of materials; see the section on our eco-conditionality approach.

We strive to share the benefits of tourism throughout the region. We encourage our guests to visit and support local businesses, including numerous farm shops, and to sample local products through cheese and wine tastings at nearby vineyards, as well as walnuts and nut or chestnut products from our son's organic farm, which are available for purchase. We have two electric bikes for those who wish to explore the area; we prepare routes for them using GPX tracks of local walks that begin right outside our door. By offering a breakfast made with local produce, and by using our vegetable garden, composting, and recycling facilities, we hope to show our guests that they can easily implement these small steps when they return home.

Example of a guest review :
“We had a wonderful stay – though too short – in this subtly renovated old house. The materials chosen are understated, natural, and of very high quality (linen, bedding, flooring). The technology is so efficient that you completely forget it's there, which is exactly what you'd expect from such amenities (perfectly quiet ventilation, a magnificent bathroom, etc.). The simple and soothing architecture of the place fades into the background, allowing you to fully appreciate the human interaction. On this point, our hosts were very available and attentive, as evidenced by the homemade clafoutis made with cherries from the garden, picked the day before right in front of us, which was served as a surprise at breakfast (a real treat!). After a coffee on the terrace overlooking the walnut groves, the ideal location allowed us to discover some of the treasures of the Quercy region. Total immersion guaranteed! Thank you so much, Michèle and Jean-Pierre, for your hospitality. We can't wait to come back…”

Bed linens and towels are white to minimize sorting and washing. Cleaning is done almost entirely without cleaning products. We are fans of H2O at Home and Body Nature , whose concept aligns with our goal of reducing consumption.

H2O at Home

" H2O at Home offers a range of natural and organic household cleaning products to reinvent cleaning . Discover how to save time, energy, and money with eco-friendly and high-performance accessories for cleaning your home. With our high-quality, more durable microfibers, we can perform 90% of household chores using only water! It's the perfect opportunity to say goodbye to chemical, toxic, and polluting cleaning products and maintain your living space more healthily, quickly, and efficiently. For the remaining 10%, we offer eco-friendly, concentrated, and refillable products to help you control your consumption and reduce how often you need to buy. Taking care of your home is also taking care of yourself and your loved ones."

Body Nature

« Our product ranges, made in France, are eco-friendly and organic, with a formula that respects nature and uses high-quality, gentle active ingredients… all while preserving the planet. Clean, descale, degrease: one product for dozens of uses! A flagship product in the Body Nature cleaning range, Le Propre is a concentrated, diluted cleaning product that replaces up to 11 household cleaners. Discover this multi-purpose cleaner and its dilution bottles to clean your entire home! With Body Nature, choose to wash your laundry with eco-friendly liquid or powder detergents certified by Ecocert. For hand washing or machine washing at temperatures as low as 30°C, Body Nature's have been formulated to clean the whole family's laundry: from delicate fabrics to high-temperature whites.

Guest soaps are offered to each customer, and a display stand offers their soaps for sale

" Exquises Caprines is a family business whose story is first and foremost a human one. Founded by Xavier and Stéphanie, it began in 2009 in the heart of Rocamadour, France. These two former agricultural teachers decided to change their lives and start a goat farm. The idea of handcrafting goat's milk soaps came naturally. Since then, Exquises Caprines has offered high-quality products, including goat's milk soaps and skincare, while prioritizing a warm welcome and interaction with their customers. Florence and Xavier strive to control production to avoid exceeding their capacity. They want to continue offering handmade products and working transparently with local partners.
It's an honest brand that operates with respect for itself, naturally respecting those who place their trust in them (customers and suppliers)."

In each bathroom, dispensers of hand sanitizer (organic apple, made in France by Comptoir des Lys ) and organic family shower gel (East African lemongrass – Fair Trade – COSMOS ORGANIC certified by Ecocert Greenlife – made in France by Douce Nature) have been installed, along with advice given to our guests on how to limit their consumption of these products, given the presence of an Ecowater

A water softener lets you enjoy the benefits of water treatment! It protects your plumbing, dishwasher, washing machine, water heater, faucets and pipes, as well as your bathroom fixtures and bathtubs, from the harmful effects of limescale. By removing limescale from the water, a water softener increases the efficiency of your water heater. The water temperature rises more quickly, and you reduce your water heater's energy consumption by up to 30%. Thanks to our range of water treatment products, your household appliances last longer. Your shampoos and soaps lather better, and your skin is softer. You reduce your energy bills and your detergent consumption. Your laundry and clothes are brighter!

The Ecowater Systems "Drinking Water" range improves the taste and smell of tap water. Your hot and cold drinks regain their full aroma. Your ice cubes are exceptionally pure. Drinking water treated by an EcoWater reverse osmosis system is an excellent option for those seeking a pure and clean water source. And best of all, no more buying and lugging around bottled water! You reduce your expenses as well as your environmental footprint. From reverse osmosis systems to complete filtration systems, the wide range of Ecowater Systems water treatment products filters and purifies your water for greater comfort!

As for the interior decoration, for the layout of the bedrooms and the communal kitchen, or for the exterior with the garden furniture, we did a lot of thrifting, salvaging and restoring (chairs stored in attics, old milk jugs or vases, old kitchen tables from a restaurant, workbench from the garage, house clearances or various flea markets) thus allowing us to give a second life to the objects and to limit our costs.

Eco-conditionality approach in renovation

On the ground floor, a lime-hemp slab was created on a ventilated stone bed to preserve the natural properties of the soil and for insulation.

"The ground floor slab, made of lime and hemp concrete on a ventilated stone base, is suitable for both the renovation of old buildings and new construction. It is a key element in a biocompatible building project. This type of insulating masonry provides immediate comfort to living spaces. Maintaining a constant temperature, the slab promotes thermal comfort thanks to the effusivity of the hemp concrete. The choice of a porous surface enhances the success of the installation: the large exchange surface provided by the slab allows for high-quality water vapor to enter. The stone base ensures continuous ventilation of the building through air drainage. This capillary break is reinforced by the high pumice content of the hemp concrete. The recommended thickness is 15 cm. The hemp slab is intended for living spaces."

In the common areas, natural stone is laid on a screed with the addition of cork insulation beneath the screed. This optimizes insulation.
In rooms 1 & 2, solid wood flooring was installed on joists to limit the feeling of cold in winter.

Insulation of ceilings and sloping roofs with 250 mm BIOFID trio
Insulation by lining the exterior walls with 140 mm wood wool panels ensuring a thermal resistance of 3.85.
Installation of an airtight vapor barrier around the perimeter of the walls and sloping ceilings

bed and breakfast with swimming pool Collonges la rouge

Environmental Charter Allée des Noyers