Taking on the complete renovation of a
What’s left are the decisions that are made by us to guide them on the way to making this our dream home.
Early on, we knew all interior walls – which are about 3 ft thick – were to remain, but we’d need to cut doorways through some of them. All the old plaster was chipped off, exposing gorgeous stone walls. At that point, we learned that some of the stones were better looking than others, with some having larger, more consistent stones, and others comprising small, rough stones. We had to decide which walls could remain bare stone with a lime render to contain moisture, and which ones would be covered with plasterboard. There has to be someplace for the electrical and plumbing to hide so the walls with plasterboard are built with metal rails that create a space for these necessary things.
We’d hired an architect to help map out the exterior spaces and also deal with the reigning authority on buildings near a historic château, the Bâtiments de France. Once their approval was given for our exterior renovations, which took four months to receive, we were off and running. One of the first decisions was inspired by this photo from Pinterest:
We hope to create the same scenario, with the main house on the left, and our master bedroom annex on the right. Putting the bedroom perpendicular to the house, with a hallway to connect them, creates a perfect space for a covered patio and double doors into the bedroom, and it frames a courtyard at the front of the house.
Destruction before construction.
A lot of stuff had to be removed before we could begin to see the bones of this old house and decide how to proceed.
Some of the walls had styrofoam for insulation.
There had been a leak in the pipes which rotted the bathroom floor, so it had to be replaced.
Now the fun part.
So here we are, over a year since we made the
We’ve been knee-deep into decisions for quite a while now. Door and window styles, flooring, kitchen cupboards, appliances, light fixtures, paint colors, everything including the height of the new bedroom ceiling, was up to us. Most decisions had to be made as things progressed, and flexibility is key when dealing with such an old structure. Fortunately, our builder (who, thankfully, is a Brit so no language struggles for us) is a pro at all this, having done nothing but old house renovations for his entire career. He is there with helpful suggestions and opinions when we want them. As we are in a historic area, we were limited by the Bâtiments de France for our options for anything exterior, so that actually made it easier. They dictated exterior
Recently, it was time to select the flooring. It had been decided a while ago that the ground floor would be stone, the first floor would be hardwood, and the attic would keep the old tomettes.
I was fascinated by the origins of the various stone floor options. The brownish tile in the left photo is from India. The center photo is travertine from Turkey, and the grey tile on the right is from Morocco.
For several reasons, we finally decided on some light travertine for the ground floor. It will go nicely with the color of the stone walls. We visited a large flooring supplier and made our selection:
For the covered patio, we will use a resin board that is supposed to last forever. That’s long enough.
A bathroom too small for a sink.
I love the wonky frame around the doorway. Nothing is straight in the house and I think it just adds to the character.
Originally the house had only one full bathroom. There was also a toilet but no sink in a small area next to the kitchen. When we decided to turn the bedroom on the first floor into an ensuite guestroom, we moved the bathroom entrance back to its original location inside the bedroom. We wanted a larger shower than was there previously, and with the shower and toilet space marked off, it soon became apparent there was no room for a sink. We were standing there one day staring at the space, pondering what to do, when Bob said, “why don’t we put the sink just outside the bathroom, on an old dresser?” Bingo. A perfect solution for that space. The search began for the right piece of furniture that was 120cm wide, an appropriate height, and had the right configuration to hold a sink. Normally, it would have been fun to search for it at the numerous brocantes held every weekend all over France. But, due to the
Since I took the above photo, the old wattle-and-daub walls in that room have been covered with plaster (which is still wet in the photo) between the vertical beams, so this piece will look fine there. I may paint it later if the white is too much.
What’s ahead?
Things are starting to happen at a faster pace. The travertine floor tile was delivered to a local yard yesterday and the guys will start laying the floor next week. The kitchen is supposed to arrive and be stored elsewhere next week, to be put into place as soon as the floor is done. The final batch of doors and windows is scheduled to arrive soon. The painter is getting impatient and wants to start. There is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel.
We have decided that September 15 is our goal for moving in. This decision was made without consulting our builder, but I showed him the countdown I have running on my phone and he didn’t faint. So that’s a good sign. Stay tuned.
Well, here we are, a whole year after renovation work began
This is what we saw the first day we looked at the house.
The small cardboard sign in the upper window said “A Vendre” (For Sale)
Sadly, the rabbit hutches and chicken coops had to go, in order to make way for our bedroom addition.
Today, it still has a ways to go, but it’s getting there.
The COVID-19 virus put a halt to the construction temporarily, but the guys are now back at work and making good progress. I’ve been spending the last few weeks in our self-isolation searching for shower fixtures, wallpaper, paint colors, curtain fabric, old furniture, and anything else available online. Pinterest and I have a close bond.
I asked the painter to make large boards with the colors we are considering, so they could be moved around the house to see how they look in the different light. We want to have one color for the interior of the house – not different rooms in different colors.
We chose the second from the left.
More windows.
The menuisier came in this week to measure for the last batch of windows to be ordered. There are a couple of windows that will be in challenging spaces, so he was paying particular attention to those spots.
This window in the kitchen is at the bottom of a 4-foot deep window well outside. It will bring some much-needed light into the kitchen.
This is how that kitchen window well looks from the outside.
Next is the large window that will be in the small bathroom off the living room. Formerly, there was an exterior doorway into that area on the back of the house. That large space has been turned into a pantry, laundry, and bathroom.
Measuring again. The window is at ground level, pretty much on the road, so it will have frosted glass.
This is how that space looked on the inside before any work started. The new window will be in the bathroom at the far end, in the upper part of that door.
The attic is coming along too.
Recent work has been focused on the attic space, with the floors being leveled and the old tomettes re-laid. Next was the construction of the guest bath space. The walls have been built and the frame for the toilet installed. There was much discussion about how to fit a shower, toilet, and sink in this oddly-shaped space, but we made it work. The shower will be installed this week.
Remember the story of the bed in the attic?
If you’re new here, briefly told, we had to put our large US-sized bed into the attic bedroom space by a crane while the roof was off after we realized it wouldn’t fit up the small stairs.
The bed going into the attic.
After it was in place, the roof was completely rebuilt with beautiful oak beams and new clay tiles. Last week, we were in the bedroom and decided to measure the distance between the angled roof, which is the wall space of that bedroom. Well, much to our dismay, we realized that the headboard posts are too wide to fit in the room. It wasn’t something we could have measured before, as the roof was reconfigured after the bed was in place.
That’s the bed on the right.
So, a mild panic set in. Should we try and cut the legs down to lower the headboard (the foot posts are much lower)? What other options do we have? Finally, we decided to see if it could be moved down just one floor to the other bedroom. I sent an apologetic message to our builder, and asked, pretty please, if they could try and move it. Several days later I received a photo of the bed in the smaller bedroom on the 1st floor. They had to remove a part of the stairwell to get the bed down the stairs.
Here’s the bed in the smaller bedroom, with the headboard on its side. It will just barely fit when turned upright, but it’s going to look great against the rock wall. Whew.
The house is not the only thing that’s changed in a year.
We’ve been living here a year now, struggling daily with the language challenge (but loving it), adjusting to new foods, new customs, new people, basically new everything. Along the way, something we hadn’t anticipated has happened. We’ve slowed down, we eat less, walk more, we’re more active socially, and we’ve learned to embrace a simpler way of life. Do I miss having a giant kitchen, a housekeeper, and a gardener? Of course. But we’re richer here: instead of shopping at Costco, I’ve learned to cook with seasonally available fruits and vegetables from the
We live in the village of Le Grand-Pressigny, in the Southern Touraine region of the Loire Valley. With a population of just about 1,000 people, we are fortunate to have a few shops and services that remain open, something for which we are so thankful in this current situation.
France has been in lockdown mode since March 17th. We had been planning to fly to California a few days before that, and decided at the last minute (literally, just two hours before our flight was scheduled to depart Paris), that we wouldn’t go. It was a good decision. We might have been put into quarantine in California for two weeks, and if we’re going to be in lockdown somewhere, I’d rather it be in a little French village than a hotel in California.
So, here we are, three weeks later, sequestered in the house we’ve been renting for the past year (this week marks one year living in France) while our own house is being renovated. As most of our possessions are in storage, we are living with other people’s things, a small kitchen with basic cookware, knives that really need sharpening, and a typically small French-style refrigerator. We do have our own living room furniture here, and our big US king-sized bed, thank goodness. Everything else we own is in storage, where it has been since it was shipped from California last year. Optimistically, even with the delays this all is causing to our renovations, we are hoping to move into our house in late summer.
The self-isolation rules here in France are fairly strict. We are supposed to stay home as much as possible, and if we must go out we have to carry a form called “Attestation de Déplacement Dérogatoire,” signed and dated for that day, even including the hour we left the house, and indicating the reason we are out. We can go out to exercise, but be away only an hour, and must stay within 1km of our house. No bicycles. We must stay on roads and off hiking trails. We’ve been stopped by the gendarmes (police) three times to check for our Attestations. There are hefty fines for not carrying the form.
I’m not complaining about any of it. We feel fortunate to be holed up in this part of the French countryside, which ::: pausing to knock on wood ::: has so far seen a fairly low COVID-19 incidence rate compared to much of France. It’s surreal, isn’t it? The birds are chirping, the spring bulbs are blooming, everything looks the same as always this time of year. But there is an invisible force out there that we must protect ourselves from. So instead of planning which brocante (flea market) we’ll be going to this weekend, I’m looking forward to my next Zoom knitting group session with my California friends. And instead of making reservations for dinner out with
Henri just delivered our lunch.
We have a spacious and comfortable balcony on which to hang out on sunny afternoons.
On Thursdays, dutifully armed with my Attestation, I walk down the street to our village market, which at this time of year consists of only two things: a fruit and veg table, and a butcher’s truck. Last week I stood in an appropriately-spaced line for about 20 minutes, waiting for my turn to point at the things I wanted from the required distance. Everyone is following the rules.
After I fill my basket from the market, I walk back down the street to the Épi, our small grocery store. Along the way, I pass lines of people waiting for their turns at the pharmacy and the boulangerie. The Épi allows only four people in the store at a time, so I join the line there and wait. Once inside, and aware of the line of people waiting outside, I quickly make my purchases. The Épi is surprisingly well-stocked for its size, with a good selection of meats and cheeses in a deli case, a dairy case with our favorite local yogurt, and a section with liquor, cleaning and household items. There is also a small stand with seeds and bulbs from the garden shop a few doors down, since that shop must remain closed for now. Merchants looking out for each other.
Life here in our isolation is simple and contemplative. We can spend hours together without speaking, each immersed in our own chosen activity. We like being outside in the garden, enjoying the spring flowers. We spend much of our days here like a lot of people are doing anywhere else, reading, taking walks, watching Netflix and Amazon Prime, cooking, catching up with our friends and family near and far, and just biding our time while the world self-destructs.
From our quiet corner of France, I wish everyone good
I’m not doing this blog to gain a zillion followers. I started it so friends and family could keep tabs on what we’re doing in France (and, selfishly, so I don’t have to repeat my stories every time I’m asked how things are going). But it turns out people like seeing an old house in France being renovated, and word is getting out. So, if you or anyone you know wants to get a notice when I post something new, you can either use the “subscribe” section on every page, or use Bloglovin to follow me (and any other blogs that appeal to you).
And please feel free to comment on my posts. I like seeing your comments.
Until this week, things were clipping along at a good pace. But then, well, the world was turned upside down, wasn’t it. Like most places, France is on lockdown. I’m not going to complain about things being delayed
In the meantime, since we are housebound, I have no excuse for not posting a thorough update on how things are at the house. Grab a cup of something hot and read on.
The exterior.
It’s looking pretty great, with the new clay tile roof, refurbished chimneys, two new dormer windows, and new front door and windows. The rest of the windows will be installed soon. At least I sure hope so. The shutters will be replaced too, and even though the old ones were varnished wood, the powers-that-be have informed us that we now must have painted wood shutters, so they will be the same color as the door and windows, a medium grey. The exterior walls will be redone last, as it’s a project that will take about two months. It’s not just a matter of patching and painting, like it would be in the USA. In this world, they carefully pick off the old plaster, exposing the old stones, and then apply a new surface. No paint involved. We will have that work done after we’ve moved in.
I wish we could have saved the old doors and windows, but most of them were literally disintegrating, and there was nothing we could do but replace them.
The kitchen is shaping up.
Before, it was a mess. With a toilet.
Now, the drywall and electrical are in place and it will be ready for kitchen cabinets soon.
The plasterer worked his magic between the ceiling beams.
The pantry / laundry room.
Before, the space was dark, a bit wet, and pretty spooky. There was room to stand, but not much more.
First, the floor level was lowered by several feet to match the level of
Now that space will be bright and functional. It’s hard to believe this is the same space, isn’t it? At this end will be the laundry room. We put a dividing wall at the far end to make space for a small powder room off the living room on the other side of the house.
The room was up three giant cement steps from the kitchen (you can see the steps in a photo of the kitchen above). With the steps removed and the floor level lowered, it will be roomier and more practical as a pantry.
At this end will be my dream pantry with a back-up refrigerator, sink, and loads of shelves.
The master bedroom.
We wanted a ground floor bedroom. Who knows, someday we may need new French knees. Our guests will have to deal with the stairs. The master bedroom will have double doors (they don’t seem to call them French doors in France) that open out onto a wisteria-covered patio, and a courtyard with a view of the château.
New construction here is done with cement blocks. Because of the rules of the exterior design, the pitch of the roof is high, meaning the bedroom will have 12 ft. ceilings. The size of the room was governed by the rules which dictate that we can only add a certain percentage of the original square footage of the house. So the room is a bit smaller than we had
The final decision was to put a small bathroom on the left side. Because it is against the old rock wall outside, the bathroom will not have any
The toilet frame is there – we’re going to have fancy toilets that don’t touch the ground. Yay. To the right will be the shower.
The living / dining room.
When we decided to switch the kitchen and the living room, it meant the living room area would be shared with the dining area. It will be a cozy room (that’s realtor-speak for small), with a wood-burning stove and windows that look out to the narrow road. Because that room is actually a little below ground level, those windows will give curious nosy people a peek into our house as they walk up the road toward the château.
Before, this area was a hodgepodge of surface treatments, and the beams had been smothered with glossy dark brown paint.
Now the gorgeous old ceiling beams and stone walls are breathing again. The ceiling has been replastered. The floor will be travertine tiles, and there will be a powder room through the new opening on the left.
On this side of the room, we had no idea there was such a beautiful fireplace hiding behind that wall.
The fireplace will get a mantle, possibly made from one of the very old beams that had to be replaced somewhere else in the house.
The stairway.
Boxed-in and dark, the stairway was not very appealing. This is right inside the front door, so it will be the first impression of the house.
The closet and separating wall were removed, and the walls will be left as partially-exposed stone (the wall on the right is finished; the wall on the left will look the same way when it’s done). The oak stairs are in pretty good shape so we will keep them. The railings will be replaced.
Upstairs.
At the top of the stairs was the only full bathroom in the house (there was also that little toilet room next to the kitchen). It’s hard to understand how 13 people managed in this house with one small bathroom.
It’s been gutted, but nothing else is happening there yet, except that the doorway into the bathroom will be moved away from the top of the stairs and into the guest room.
The first guest room.
Before, it was more painted beams, linoleum, and wallpaper.
.
The fireplace has been exposed and cleaned up and most of the walls have been drywalled. The beams have been cleaned up. The ceiling has yet to be replastered.
We decided to move the entrance to the bathroom into the guest room in order to make the most efficient use of the bathroom space. I wanted a larger shower in there for our guests. Lo and behold, when they removed the plaster in
The lounge.
This room was used as the bedroom for 11 children. It had been divided into two rooms by a very thin wall.
Again, when we decided we wanted to have access to the upper level of the storage area at the back of the house (the 2nd level of the pantry on the ground floor), we were delighted to find that there was a beautiful old arched doorway right where we wanted an entrance. I feel like this house must be so happy to be in the process of being restored to its original glory.
The old tomette floor has been carefully removed and power washed, and is being used as the flooring in the attic bedroom.
The attic bedroom.
This is the room that is undergoing the biggest transformation. Before, it was a typical attic space. Dark, cobwebby, and dusty.
It’s been completely rebuilt. All those wonderful old beams had to be replaced because the new roof, made from heavy insulated panels, had to have appropriate support.
As the new roof was being put in place, two dormer windows were installed, and the work began inside.
The old
This end of the attic will be the bedroom space. The tomettes will be installed here soon.
At the other end of the attic, the tomettes are in place, ready for grouting. At this end, there will be a bathroom and closet.
So, there you have it.
We’re hanging out at home now, hoping this viral crisis is resolved soon, although it doesn’t look like it will be. We’re doing our part by following the rules and staying home. We do feel pretty lucky to be housebound in a beautiful old house with a sunny garden.
After a
Once the battens were in place to hold the tiles, the tiling went pretty fast.
This is the back side of the house. I’ve learned that this style of roof, where it goes down to almost
Drumroll, please…
Our guests will have a pretty view from the new attic bedroom windows.
That’s the bedroom addition.
Kitchen progress.
Before the kitchen cabinets can be ordered, you must have accurate measurements of the wall space. And before you can do that, you must straighten out the uneven stone walls by building an insulated wall in which the electrical and plumbing can hide.
Here are images of the proposed kitchen layout as sent to us by our kitchen designers. We are making the most of the space we have, but we also have the bonus of the giant pantry through the door in the back.
The attic is coming along, too.
Now that the roof is in place, work up in the attic can “crack on,” as our British work crew says. The above photo is the bedroom space. You can see that the bed is there, under the green tarp, and the old tomettes (classic old French floor tiles), have been removed and stacked up, waiting to be reinstalled.
This photo is the bathroom side of the attic. The floor has been strengthened and leveled, and next week the power-washed tomettes will be reinstalled. Hopefully, they will go from looking like this…
…to something like this:
There’s still a lot of work to do on this beautiful old house before we can move in, but I feel it coming to life, and it’s exciting to witness.
We’ve heard that the way we’re doing things — bringing the house down to bare bones and starting again from scratch — is better than trying to make
The menuisier (that translates to “carpenter” but I see him as our “door and window guy”) has been to the house a few times to measure and chat about styles and features. We’ve learned about and had to make decisions on window handles, closing mechanisms, and whether we wanted electric window shades on our new dormer windows. We have virtually no choice in the window and exterior door styles, and even the color they are painted. We can do anything we want on the inside of the house, but the outside is governed by the rules of the Bâtiments de France.
This photo was taken before the roof was removed and the right chimney fell off.
Remember those old varnished wood shutters? Even those can’t remain. They were pretty much disintegrating anyway so have to be replaced. But we have been informed they now must be painted wood, and our choice of paint colors is very limited: dull gray, pastel green, pale blue, or a dark red.
We’re going with this gray color that a neighbor has recently used.
The search for old doors.
We’ve been on the lookout for some old doors to use for the pantry and the powder room. So far, no luck. The rest of the house will end up having new doors, but it would be nice to have those two openings on the ground floor jazzed up by something with character.
Stepping it up.
Originally, there was a row of rabbit hutches and chicken coops next to the house. They were kind of charming and I wished we could have kept them, but as they were right where we wanted to build the bedroom addition, they had to go. In the middle of that row, there was a narrow and crooked cement stairway with a cute green gate leading to a small upper yard. We kept the gate and hope to find a place for it in the new garden.
That hodgepodge of structures and the small set of stairs has been replaced by a bedroom and a wide and rather grand stairway (which will be prettied up with tile or pavers).
The bed in the attic.
When we moved from California last April, we shipped almost all of our possessions to France. The shipping company gave us a flat price for a 40 ft. container, so we didn’t really have to decide what things to leave behind because it would be too expensive to send. As we moved from a large 4 bedroom, 3 bath house, this meant we would surely end up with too much stuff when the day finally came to unpack all that will have been in storage for a year (and that we have managed to live without in the meantime). One of the decisions we made was to bring our US-size beds. US beds are larger than European beds (to accommodate the larger Americans), so that means we will have to buy our sheets from the US. We can manage.
Our new house will have two guestrooms, and we had two good beds to bring. One of them isn’t old, but it’s a beautiful iron thing, and we knew it would look great in a 300 yr old house. Below is the only photo I have of it, but you get the idea. So, this large iron bed was carefully packed up for its new life in the attic bedroom of the house in France. One day, after we had been in France for a few months, I realized there is no way the tall iron headboard would fit through the small stairway in the house. Not through a window, either. We couldn’t get it up to the attic.
So, we got creative. Since the house roof was to be replaced, I asked our crew if we could put the bed into the attic while the roof was off. Crazy, I know. But by then they were used to my nutty questions, and they said that it shouldn’t be a problem, without even an eyeroll.
Last week the old roof and its supporting structure were removed, and a few days later the the new structure was in place. As these oak beams will be exposed in the attic bedroom, they took care to use the traditional old and beautiful way of joining the beams.
Half the roof gone here. The other side was removed a couple of days later.
In the photo above, you can see the house is missing the right chimney. It crumbled away as they were removing the roof tiles. As we aren’t planning on using the fireplaces on that side of the house, we had to decide if we could live without the symmetry of two
The new oak timbers being fitted together.
Finally, after many months of anticipation, the day for the Big Bed Caper arrived. Early yesterday morning, our favorite roofer/mayor drove his JCB up to the house and carefully raised the bed frame and mattress up to the open roof, where it was unloaded and stored under tarps. The new roof will be finished within the next 10 days, so hopefully the mattress will be kept dry until it’s under the new roof.
As a result of this escapade, we have completely cemented our reputation of being the crazy Americans in the village. There is now a big bed in the attic forevermore, and someday, the next owners of this lovely house will be faced with the dilemma of finding sheets for it.
The bed arrives at its forever home.
In the meantime, we are experiencing our first winter in Le Grand-Pressigny. There’s a bit of grumbling about the cold and wet from the folks we meet, but I really don’t mind it. I just wish it would snow.
At least we have Snowdrops in the garden.
Hello. I’m writing this post from a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The itinerary takes us from Spain and Portugal, through the Canary Islands, to the Virgin Islands, and ends in Puerto Rico. We just left Tenerife in the Canary Islands, and our next stop is Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, so we have five solid days at sea ahead of us. I’m trying not to think about that too much. Cruising between islands is not scary to me but crossing the Atlantic for five days without seeing
Fortunately,
Aside from eating, there’s a bucketload of entertainment onboard: nightly shows ranging from big production singing and dancing, to a Cirque-du-Soleil style show, to comedians and a hypnotist, and mellow piano-bar type background music. If we tire of all that, we can participate in dance lessons, trivia games, karaoke, bingo, and various other competitions around the pool (and if you know me, you know that I will participate in none of the above). It’s all a bit Las Vegas-y for my taste, but we do enjoy a cruise every once in long while when the itinerary will take us to places we’ve never been. This cruise is 16 days and has been a nice escape from the rainy weather at home.
While we’re away, our builder has been pretty good about sending us regular updates on what’s going on at our house. And there’s been a lot going on. This past week they removed the old roof tiles and also much of the structure of the roof itself. Those beams were over 300 years old and needed to be rebuilt in order to hold the new roof. He’s been sending me photos, which, at this point, look like a house about to fall down.
But we soldier on, as they say. At this point, the house has to get worse before it gets better.
right now, our attic doesn’t have a roof or a floor
the first – floor bedroom
Home now.
The post above was written during the cruise, but due to sketchy wifi on the ship, I couldn’t upload it. We are home now (yay) and just came back from visiting the house.
It’s now been 208 days since the work started
the kitchen 
the master bedroom 
the master bath 
the hallway from the kitchen to the master bedroom
And, to our surprise, a couple of the interior walls have already been “rendered,” which means they have used a cement compound to fill in the spaces between the rocks in the wall. Some walls will be completely covered, and some will show the rocks. We decided to have no upper cabinets on one wall in the kitchen because the rocks look so good.
rendered kitchen wall 
rendered living room wall
The roofing on the bedroom addition is finished and it looks great.
Tomorrow, we meet with our builder and the roofer/mayor (it always amuses me that our village mayor is our roofer). One of the things we will talk about is that we have lost one of the two chimneys on the house. It was in bad shape, and
the right chimney is gone it looked better with two
The next several weeks will involve the replacement of the roof frame and then installation of the tiles — and maybe a replacement chimney. The roofer had hoped to be done before Christmas, but it seems that’s not to be.
In the meantime, Merry Christmas to you, or happy whatever you celebrate this time of year. It’s time to relax with family or friends and enjoy the season.
I’m late in providing an update on how things are going with our house renovation. So much is happening, it’s hard to stay on top of posting pictures.
Construction of the bedroom addition has moved quickly. Being from California, we aren’t familiar with building with cement blocks, but it sure seems an easy way to put up sturdy walls.
doors and windows from the bedroom to the patio 
marking the spot for the closet wall
Due to restrictions from Bâtiments de France, the authority governing improvements to buildings near a historic monument, the size of our addition is limited to a certain percentage of the original square footage of the main house. As we also are fitting in a bathroom and walk-in closet, we’re getting creative with the placement of the closet by putting it behind the bed, separated by a wall with pocket doors on each end. For this reason, the back wall of the bedroom, where the closet will be, has no windows. We’ve expected to have to make compromises along the way, and this was one of them. That wall faces the big backyard, and it would have been nice to see the yard from the bedroom. But there just wasn’t anywhere else to fit the closet space we wanted.
the back wall of the bedroom – and the new steps going to the upper yard
a storage area above the bedroom will be accessed from the upper yard
Once the block walls were finished, the roofers moved in and built the framework for the roof tiles.
The tiles are not attached to the house but are simply hooked under the slats. Each row of tiles supports the weight of the tiles from the row above.
With the tiles on the bedroom almost done, the guys put up scaffolding on the main house in preparation for the removal of the old roof. That’s going to be a big messy job. And, of course, it’s been raining.
That’s it for now. More pictures will come soon, I promise.
Work continued on the house while we took a break to visit family in Austria and participate in a 10-day French immersion program in Burgundy.
One of the many reasons we decided to move to France was to be able to use it as a base to travel from, rather than starting with the long trek from the US. Bob’s uncle, a jazz musician, was celebrating his 80th birthday in a big way by giving a concert with some members of the Vienna Symphony. So, we planned a train trip to Austria, traveling from our nearest station, Saint Pierre des Corps, to Salzburg, changing trains in Paris and Stuttgart on the way. We also were signed up for a 10-day French Immersion course in a château in Burgundy. We fit these trips together with a four-day stop in Annecy, France, in-between.
Our train journey to Paris was an easy 60-minute ride, but as it took us to the Montparnasse train station, and our next train left from the Paris l’Ouest station, we had to jump in a cab and
After a couple of train changes, we arrived Salzburg in the evening, and wasted no time finding a restaurant for a traditional Austrian dinner.
pork medallions and spaetzle with mushroom sauce = yum
Our time in Salzburg is always fun – we’ve been there many times before so don’t have to do any of the usual tourist things. Instead, we visit our favorite spots, eat our favorite foods, and catch up with Bob’s relatives in the area. On this trip, one day we rented a car to visit the small town in the Austrian Alps where Bob was born. We also went to the Eagle’s Nest, the precariously-perched notorious hangout for members of the Nazi party, including Hitler himself, despite his fear of heights. Surprisingly, Eagle’s Nest is included in the route of the “Hop-on, Hop-off” bus tours you can take from Salzburg.
Eagle’s Nest, near Bercestesgaden, Germany
Six days later, we took the train through Switzerland and then a bus to the lovely town of Annecy, France. Four days at this magnificent old hotel was relaxing and peaceful, just what we needed.
Imperial Palace Hotel, Annecy, France
The town of Annecy sits on Lake Annecy, considered to be Europe’s cleanest lake. It was formed 18,000 years ago, when the large alpine glaciers melted.
One day we took a boat trip around the lake.
As we were enjoying the view from the hotel veranda one evening, I saw something I couldn’t quite believe. I ran down to the lake to see it up close, and sure enough, it was a man gliding past on some sort of submerged platform, playing the piano. There were two people in the water moving him along. It was the strangest thing, but beautiful and silly too.
Time for us to be immersed.
Our next journey was to get to Lyon by train, spend one night, and meet the representative from Château de Joudes Saint Amour who transported us to their château, about 90 minutes northeast. While we were waiting in the hotel lobby, we met the others who would be joining us in the French immersion course arranged by LaPont Language Centre, an Australian company. It turned out to be a fantastic group of women; Bob was the only man. That didn’t bother him one bit. Two women were there from Australia, one from the UK, one from Colorado, and one from Florida. We were the only participants who live in France. We immediately got along well and became fast friends.
Château de Joudes Saint Amour
Gerard and Martine, our château hosts, enjoying some vineyard time
verb conjugation can make your head spin
Our 3-hour daily French lessons were challenging and fun, and although we knew we wouldn’t make any great improvement after just 10 days, we left the experience with a few more tools to use in getting along in our new language and country.
In addition to the French lessons, we enjoyed delicious meals prepared by the château’s chef, excursions to various events, restaurants, and places of interest in the region, and had some free time to explore the beautiful area that was our temporary home. Several outings included private tours arranged for us. One day we visited a vineyard in the Burgundy countryside, and the winemaker, who was the 10th generation to operate on the site, gave us a tour of his vineyard and shared his passion for growing grapes and producing wine.
the winemaker explaining it was more about the leaves than the grapes
After the tour, his mother prepared lunch for us in the winery. What a fabulous lunch it was! This vegetable terrine was the first course, and it was so good I immediately started searching online for a similar recipe.
who knew a vegetable terrine could be so delicious?
Another outing was to the town of Louhans, about 30 minutes northeast of
Louhans Monday market
locals catching up on the day’s news
Just a block away from the market, we toured the Hôtel-Dieu et Apothicairerie, a 300-year-old hospital
The men’s and women’s wards – separated by a beautiful iron gate – used an ingenious curtained bed arrangement, with the medical staff using a corridor on the other side of the beds to treat the patients with privacy.
some of the original vessels in the apoth i cairerie
Our experience at Château de Joudes
our immersion group enjoying a French pique-nique