Glamping is camping with glamour. And here with us, at Maisquenada cultural association, you will have plenty of comfortable and cozy spaces, because our nomad roulottes are very special!
They are really magical because they have been made with lots of love from our dearest friends Rosa and Sylvain. They are actually our main source of inspiration for this project. Both together run a magical space called CAMPEARTE (https://campearte.com/), a very unique project where you can stay overnight in super comfortable hand made wooden tree houses with great views to Sierra Nevada’s mountains, in Granada, Spain. So when Sylvain told us that he was thinking about building gypsy looking French roulottes, we already fell in love with the idea. We knew how he works and that the result was going to be simply stunning! He used two agricultural old trailers that once were pulled by tractors to carry olives in the south of Spain and he magically recycled them into two hand made movable cabins, selecting the wood and recycling as many materials as possible. This actually fitted a fundamental part of our philosophy, as we consider reusing and recycling a very healthy habit to keep sustainability running.
The first roulotte was done and ready right in the middle of the lockdown, when uncertainty was the predominant feeling around us. At that moment we could not know if it was ever going to be used as we intended or it would have to be sold to get the investment back. Anyway Sylvain had done an incredible job and the roulotte looked great. For the second one we suggested some variations, like two single beds instead of one double and the rest, once again, was left in his expert hands. At that moment we didn’t even know if we could make it to Portugal since the border with Spain was closed due to the pandemics. But we kept pushing our dream forwards and the God of Fortune was on our side. The 1st of July, authorities decided to reopen the frontier and we rushed to Ericeira with our kids and some stuff.
In October 2020 both roulottes arrived from Spain loaded onto a huge truck.
I will never forget that day. It was raining a lot! We were right in the inside of a true Atlantic storm! But with the help of an old local man called Domingos, who has a tractor, we managed to move them into our land.
Both roulottes were fully packed with our stuff, as we also moved from Spain to Portugal a few months before: books, pictures, furniture, kids toys, clothes… Step by step we started to put things in order and everything is finally finding a space in its new home.
Finally, to make them fit the local atmosphere and the idiosyncrasy of this project, we gave them a proper name. The blue one is called “Sardinha” which means sardine in Portuguese, one of the most typical meals around here. The second one, has a colour that reminds us of red wine, so along with the foods and the traditional Portuguese cuisine, we named it “Churrasco” which means barbecue.
It’s an honour and a pleasure to have these two incredible beauties in our land! Come visit us and experience the feeling of sleeping on wheels, surrounded by wood, vegetable garden, fruit trees and good vibes, just 5 km away from the Atlantic Ocean.
Under Construction
Arrival under the rain
Arrival under the rain
Be patient!
Our Roulotte now!