Grape Picking in France

I can thoroughly recommend my experience picking grapes in France. This was something I did one year in my late teens on a break from university. I wanted to travel through France to visit a friend of mine whose parents had a summer home in the Dordogne.

When I arrived I really fell in love with the place and decided to stay for the summer months. However in order to be able to afford to do this I had to find a job. Doing this with only a slight grasp of the French language was always going to be difficult but then someone suggested grape picking.

It was September and the harvest was just about to begin. The work is only 'minimum wage' and it's true that it is hard work - particularly on your back. But you meet a good group of people and it's nice to be outdoors all day.

We had a really lovely mix of people on our team of grape pickers. There were French locals looking to supplement their incomes, there were overseas students like myself from a wide range of countries like the United States, United Kingdom and many other European cities. We all got along really well and as well as getting paid at the end of each week, were also given free meals each lunchtime. In France this isn’t just a sandwich and a Coke – it’s a full four course meal with starter, main course, cheese and dessert. Plus you always get a glass of red (from the vineyard of course!) and a fresh cup of coffee to round things off.