Low-tech tour - a week's cycling tour to discover low-tech solutions

By project FEEL

Published on 02 September 2024

France

Bretagne

LORIENT

About this good practice

Local context :
-Several low-tech players are present in the region
-Low-tech is attracting more and more interest
-Low-tech still has an image of ‘DIY at the bottom of the garden’.
-The City of Lorient and ALOEN want to develop the Low-tech philosophy in the area.

ALOEN organised a meeting of low-tech players in December 2023 to assess what can be done together. The meeting was a great success, with 30 people in attendance around the question: ‘A Low-tech community in the Lorient region’. Clearly there was a desire and a need to create links between the players, to get to know each other better and to develop projects together.
The idea of organising a Low-tech tour together came up at this meeting, a very unifying idea.

What is a low-tech tour?
A cycle tour to meet low-tech players, visit sites and carry out workcamps.
We did it over 1 week, open to all interested players and residents, with camping on the sites visited and collective meals.

What types of low-tech projects did we visit? A few examples:
-An ecolieu of light habitats (yurts, tiny houses)
-Visit to a recycling centre, a source of strong social ties
-Presentation of a workshop shared by local craftspeople
-Visit to a training centre that teaches individuals how to create their own heating systems: stoves, solar panels, etc.

Objectives:
-Visit each site and meet the project leaders to get to know each other better as a group
-Spend time together
-Raise the awareness of low-tech in the region

Resources needed

Funding/financial resources used : 4000€
Human resources required to set up and to run the practice : 50% of a full time job from the 1 January 2024 to 8 June 2024
With the help of volunteers (members of the Low-tech community) divided into committees: Communications, Catering, Visits, etc.

Evidence of success

- 20 people involved in the organisation
- 65 participants
- Strong interest from the media, helping to raise the profile of low-tech
- A number of participants said that the event had inspired them to launch their own project or to develop it differently. It also inspires them in their day-to-day personal lives.
- Cycling as a group creates momentum and a feeling that ‘anything is possible’. Cycling and camping on site provides an impetus for openness to others

Potential for learning or transfer

Organising a cycle tour is very easy. We chose the stages collectively, using a map of the Lorient region on which we referenced all the places and players involved in low-tech.
We went to meet the low-tech players, but it could be a cycling trip on all kinds of themes (energy cooperatives, climate change adaptation projects, etc.).