Fantasy Farm is a queer smallholding in the south of the Vienne, at the hamlet of L'Armigère outside Chatain. It calls itself gay by nature, and it is run as a non-profit association on permaculture lines rather than as a hotel. People come for a few days or for a week or more, and guests take a hand in the work of the place.
The buildings were derelict and have been rebuilt by hand. The stone cottage at the centre holds the kitchen, a dining and living room and two bedrooms, one single and one dormitory, and was insulated with lime, hemp and straw bales. The barn beside it now has a workshop, a four-bed dormitory and a raised platform used as a stage. A greenhouse framed with salvaged windows holds three showers, and the toilets are dry composting ones outdoors.
There is a self-built wood-fired sauna with a cold plunge pool in the meadow and a massage area next to it, and a wood-fired bath in the open air. The land around is vegetable garden, orchard, hedgerow and meadow, with rainwater kept in two underground tanks. Swallows nest in the buildings in numbers.
What happens here is yoga, massage and gardening. Some of it is men-only and naturist, including tantra workshops for men, and some is mixed and inclusive; the place is explicit about which is which. There are longer training courses in yoga and in naturist massage, and artist residencies. Board is vegetarian and shared, there is no alcohol or tobacco, and rates are set on a sliding scale.
