John Krivine
When I came to Israel from England 33 years ago, I stumbled into this village, a university research campus with a ridiculous view into the desert, the people were kind, unspoilt and welcoming.
They were selling half-dunam parcels of land for $2000. I borrowed the money from my friend Simon in Paris and bought a plot very close to the cliff.Because I had no job I had a lot of time on my hands, I thought I might try to build the house myself, how complicated could it be? At some point in the process a journalist who happened to be a relative thought this would make a good story; he said that if I wrote it up he would put it in the Jerusalem Post…
Marion Krivine
I arrived in the village in 1997, I had come directly from France for one year to write a PhD and I was living in a caravan. I was introduced to this unusual man who had been building his house for seven years and had just finished it. I moved in and 21 years and three children later, here I am still. I have since then become an osteopath and I now combine this activity with the guesthouse.
Krivine Guesthouse
Twelve years ago we started taking in guests. At first they were referrals from the university, then one day a guest arrived from Germany clutching a copy of Lonely Planet and we were in it with a lovely review! That was a turning point. It has taken ten years but gradually we have turned ourselves into the quality guesthouse we were purported to be. Over a number of years, we closed down for two months for us to add, remodel and refine the property and now we have pretty much finished the job. I don’t think there is a single wall that stands in the same place it did 12 years ago.
Because neither of us were born here, because we were strangers in this land, we seem to have created a little slice of England and France in this barren desert. We could see that guests often arrived tired and disoriented, a little overwhelmed by the remoteness and quiet of the place so we would sit down with them; they had questions which we could answer. They wanted a comfortable room that felt like home, they needed a hearty breakfast, a quiet shaded corner to read a book, ideas how to spend their time in the desert. An unexpected bonus was the realization that our little oasis actually appealed to Israeli families too. Because we have four apartments, we have a lot of three-generational Israeli families staying with us. Grandma and grandpa, their three children and half a dozen grandchildren. They are naturally more self-contained, so we step back and let them get on with it.
But our main mission remains to host foreign visitors coming to get a taste of the desert and what better place than Midreshet Ben Gurion to do just that.
For more stories about the guesthouse, check our Krivine Guesthouse category.
