Mélusine Roch has decided not to put all her eggs in the same basket. She owns Le Clos Fougères, a 60-hectare farm located at Châteauneuf-sur-Isère, in northern Drôme, and is developing various other activities that complement her agricultural work. Her core business is made up of 50 hectares of orchards, four hectares of vines and six hectares of market gardens, with vegetables and aromatic plants. “With the exception of the peaches, apricots and cherries, most of our produce is organic,” she explains. “We grow around 20 different fruit, including rare varieties such as vine peaches from the 18th and 19th centuries, a few apples and pears including the very old Président Héron variety, mini-peaches, white apricots, flat peaches, jujubas, medlars and persimmons. We began making wine in 2010, producing 10,000 bottles that are sold throughout the Rhône-Alpes in organic shops. We’re also a discovery and an educational farm, which means that we host a lot of groups under that banner including a number of companies from the region wanting to organise their seminars here”.
Le Clos Fougères has developed this sector in particular. In addition to farm tours through the orchards and fruit conditioning area, followed by a tasting of either fresh fruit or their end products, the site also offers a 50-seat seminar room. Next June should see the opening of a second 200 m2 room with capacity for 150 people (an investment of 100,000 €). “A tour lasts an hour and a half and costs 3 € per participant, including the tasting,” adds Mélusine. “The meeting room, which we opened in 2007, costs 120 € per day during the week to hire. We can also provide welcome refreshments (coffee, pastries, fruit juices) for 6 € and we use local caterer Marie-Laure Estève, from Châteauneuf, for lunches costing from 15 €. The site also boasts five gîtes (3”épis”) with space for 20 people”.
Other complementary activities include gardening courses lasting one or two hours (25 € per participant) and two-hour pastry courses led by Benoît Parnay (30 € per person).
At the moment most of the meetings organised at Le Clos Fougères come from local companies. However, Mélusine Roch is using the novelty of her product and its easy access (10 km from the Tain l’Hermitage exit off the A7) to attract clients from further afield.
04 75 71 80 94
