Activities include daily farm chores (looking after the animals, clean-up, cutting rhubarb in the garden, helping in the kitchen, doing dishes, etc.) until it's time to ride horseback, get on a cross-country bike, work on handicrafts or go for a swim in the pool. Riding is supervised by experienced counsellors, and at each activity, a counsellor offers help and companionship. The child decides what to do, and for how long. He or she can even choose where to sleep: in the house, in the ''Rabastan'', a wooden teepee or in the barn. The only set schedule involves meals and bedtime. This scheduling, or it's absence rather, is something outside the normal definition of summer camps.

The youngsters certainly love the atmosphere. You only have to listen to them at mealtime, it's noisy and animated but also friendly and pleasant. When we visited, some former campers were also visiting, some with their own children, to recapture that special feeling.

Pierre-Louis Richard
Consultant, Quebec Camp Association