Adrien, Théa & Naia
A french couple, coming from the Alps. In 2016, after getting married, they started a long journey around the Pacific Ocean. Canada, Alaska, New-Zealand, Australia, French Polynesia... After one year and a half of new experiences, they decided to return to the Azores where they had been for holidays in 2015, with one goal:
To live on Pico island!
In 2018, they finally moved to Pico island, and they are now living their dream; waking up in front of the ocean while observing whales and dolphins by the windows of their house. They love to meet and welcome people, to share the beauties and the secrets of Pico Island.
In 2020, Naia arrived in their life and was born in Faial island. The first and unique Portuguese in the Family!
Certified Parc Natural Guide
of Pico Island, she knows all the best places to explore on the island, and she loves to share the stories about the Culture, History, Fauna and Flora of Pico.
Adrien Laydevant
Théa Pestre
Naia
Marine Guide and Skipper,
he is working everyday on the sea to show to the people the wonders of the ocean.
He is expert in cetaceans and has a lot of stories to share with you.
Our little princess Naia arrived the 08th of September 2020.
She is very lovely and curious. Always happy to meet and talk with new people.
Our Green Eden
Before setting up in Pico island, we had an other dream... to grow our own organic food.
The Azorean climate is warm all year round, so it seemed really easy to grow vegetables and fruits. But when we started, we realized quickly that it was not going to be that easy.
Being on an island, the elements can be tough. Wind, rain, salty fog, parasites... A lot of parameters are giving hardtime to the gardeners.
Unfortunatly to solve these problems a lot of chemicals are used in the Azorean agriculture.
We wanted to try a sustainable way of growing food without chemicals, so we started permaculture on a land we also have in São João, which is protected from the winds and the sea spray.
We also planted in this land 40 fruit trees.
For sure with this way of working we produce less than the industrial way with chemicals.
But we believe that what we finally eat contains much more nutrients and is much more healthy.
We also had to deal with the ground.
We don't have a lot of soil in São João
,so Adrien got the idea to try an aquaponic system in a greenhouse.
The vegetables grow in a substrate which is into a constant water circultation system. There is a tank with fish which is always giving the nutrients to the water and then to the vegetables.
We don't need to water the plant, to pull out the weeds, to put industrial fertilizers and the plants are protected from the wind, the salt and the sun.
It's producing quite well with very low amount of work !
We also raise hens, ducks and gooses to have free range eggs.
The noisy animals stays in the land that we have in the bush, and close to our house we have the calm ones :)
We also have some oudoor pets one cat and two rabbits. They don"t go inside the house and they are very friendly.
Our goal is to be as self suficiente as possible and respect the environment.
