This is a story of a chateau in a village in Provence.

(Scroll down for images)

The house was sold for the first time in 600 years.  It was in need of repairs.  Those repairs were made in the Provençal style.  The house is close to the Rhône and the ground there is damp all year ‘round.  So the walls were not plastered, but instead the stone masons cleaned the walls and re-point the joints between the ancient stones, using lime mortar which can breath in and out and allows the walls to live.

We took up C19th century concrete, and found C16th flag stones.  They were cleaned and the ground below them sealed, and then the stone masons re-laid the flag stones.  For the first time in two hundred years, a C16th floor once more saw the light of day.  The stone masons sung songs in Arabic as they laid the floors.  On the walls they layered plaster reinforced with hay.

The roof was taken off and put it back again - all in the old style, done by hand, with Roman tiles.  There was one old bathroom.  Seven new bathrooms were installed - using only copper pipes, and not an inch of plastic piping.  

Every window in the house was replaced - as was every shutter - all hand made by a carpenter in a nearby village.

A local blacksmith made hinges and bolts to close the doors.  The village’s furniture maker delivered 200 chairs and rows of cupboards and tables. 

The pictures here tell a story.