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A Love Affair

This week to coincide with our first wedding anniversary, I thought I would recount a love story between Max and I and a run-down old house in the French countryside. Like all good love affairs there are highs and lows, good times and challenging times, times when you feel like this will not work out, other times when you know it will. This house, or rather the village’s petit château, is testing us but also allowing us to tend to her.

I am sure I have told you that we put this house on our viewing list for fun really, a wild card, a quirky different addition to a list of maisons de maître. Our first viewing was on a damp day in April 2018, but in spite of the weather she started to hook us in. The light in the house was magical, the layout quirky in the extreme, the appearance beguiling but also odd. As a house she has clearly evolved over the centuries. Who knows how she started, nor what she looked like in 1595. We have been told that something was built in 1790. We don’t yet know if that is accurate. We do know that it was in the early 1800s that she was made to look grander, the tower being added in the mid-1800s, turning her into a grand country house, to the little commune their own petit château.

The photo that made us come and look

Try before you buy! We returned to stay that summer to allow us time to look at the financial aspects of this potential purchase, to see if the repairs that needed doing would work within our very finite budget. The 5 days we stayed saw us fall under her spell. The views, the peace, the terrace, the features, the tower, the belvedere and pigeonnier. The old worn step through the fascinating front door, the tiles trodden by many before us, the contrast between rustic and sophisticated in places. The thick stone walls that must hold so many secrets, stories, events, tears and laughter. We know of one family who lived here in the 1800s who lost all their children, some at birth, the rest at a very young age – what sadness must have existed within these walls. Why was this – was there illness around? So many questions.

After meetings with builders, roofers and others we took the plunge, deciding to take a chance on this petit château. She had somehow enchanted us, the leaky roofs seemed worth it, the damp patches, the lack of heating and the woodworm seemed minor hurdles to overcome to have the chance to live within these walls, to be a small part in her history and walk the paths of countless others before us.

We signed the Compromis, the first stage of a house purchase in France in September 2018 and, after some nerve wracking moments when we wondered if the vendor was going to pull out, we eventually completed with the Acte de Vente on 15th March 2019. We became the owners of a huge front door key to an old house in the Tarn countryside. To add to this special occasion, we had treated ourselves to a stay for 2 nights at the loveliest chambres d’hôte in Albi, but decided to have supper and a glass of fizz at our new home that evening. Chilly but ours! This weekend also marked the moment that Max officially proposed to me! Lovely memories.

So here we are 2 and a half years (and 6 rescue animals) into our time with this house, and 2 years since we moved everything over to France for good. We have discovered some of the history of this petit château, some of the upheavals and many hidden treasures in the house itself and the gardens, some of which we have shared with you in previous posts. We have a lot of work to do. As any renovator will tell you, each job becomes at least 4 jobs, each problem slightly bigger than anticipated. The pleasure, however, of breathing a bit of new life into an old house is wonderful, feeling that we are making a tiny mark in her history, giving her a few more stories to tell.

We still have so much to share with you, so in spite of the snail’s pace of our progress, I hope you will continue on our journey with us.

Thank you to everyone who is reading these posts and for your supportive comments.

The fizz is chilling in the fridge, the pool beckons, the sun is shining and today is a day to celebrate.

See you next week.

A bientôt

Ali xxx

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