Promote voluntary, natural, and community-based simplicity to create our own resources without generating waste

Welcome to Les Flamants!
Our approach: to embrace voluntary, natural, community-minded, and friendly simplicity to create our own resources and avoid generating waste as much as possible—here and now!
Here: in the Camargue, in Le Grau-du-Roi and the surrounding area. Because it is within our own living environment that we must find solutions.
Now: because it’s high time to find inspiration for ourselves and our environment! There’s an urgent need to tackle problems that are easy to address.
How? Together. We have so much to learn from one another, so many solutions to invent, and so many connections to forge—by sharing, pooling our resources, and coming together to act collectively and locally. 

Let’s be creative! With imagination, we can turn a problem into a solution.

OUR ACTIONS

The Flamingos’ LETS: THE SALADELLE: The Inspired Green Flamingos have adopted the LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) principle: everyone has resources, skills, or time they can exchange with others.
They created the Saladelle, a unit of value equivalent to the euro, to serve as a currency for exchange among Flamants, with the goal of developing a secondhand market and establishing a local mutual aid platform that facilitates equitable exchanges and fosters social
connections. Walking or dog-sitting, learning to cook, lending a chainsaw, running errands, helping with harvesting, lending a juicer, hemming pants, fixing a computer… everyone can exchange!

Each Flamant has a Saladelle account that’s valid only for the duration of their membership in the association.

 Saladelle can be used through virtual debit/credit transactions on Flamant accounts to:

• purchase goods belonging to other Flamants on the Flamants Marketplace;
• borrow items owned by other Flamants;
• receive services from another Flamant;
• purchase natural products made in workshops by Flamants to benefit the association.
•  

Participatory and collaborative “Do-It-Yourself” workshops

• ​Garden composting
• Worm composting
• Reusable fabric bulk bags
• Tawashi (eco-friendly sponge made from recycled fabric)
• Reusable washcloths
• Hygiene, Cosmetics, and Household Cleaning Products

A Different Kind of Market: The nonprofit organization Les Flamants Verts Inspirés regularly organizes “Marchés aux Flamants” open to the public, which consist of:

• dropping off and selling secondhand items that are no longer used by a “Flamant” member, with the aim of extending the life of these items for the benefit of others;
• the sale of natural products made by the association.

 The Flamant Markets are scheduled in advance around a specific theme, and any items not sold by the end of the market are retrieved by the person who dropped them off.

Inspired Fishermen: Les Flamants are ready to band together to ensure that small fishing businesses can sell their catch—freshly unloaded onto the dock—to them at regular intervals.

Repair Festivals: The association Les Flamants Verts Inspirés organizes Repair Festivals open to the public, during which handypeople work to repair items and extend their lifespan, while sharing their expertise in this area.​ Check the calendar for upcoming dates.