France can be a challenging country. The French themselves are a pretty gregarious bunch, leave the city and they exist pretty close to the countryside that provides their living. The hamlet of Poumeroux in the Charante where we have our Gite is a typical example of France in the middle of nowhere. Parisians refer to the area as “la trou noire” the black hole though that rather unfair, typical northerners as the locals would say.
So what do you do when faced with the historic restoration of a 400 year old peasant farm building unlived-in for 60 years? The timbers in its construction would have been planted nearly 600 years ago! That’s easy. Put it back the way it should have been had the original builders had access to cash and technology. Most important of all employ local artisans to do the work. We are infrequent visitor in their land. They live, love and die within a few small miles of the town and we should respect the pride they have. Oh and learn a little French along the way, much is just like English with the emphasis on the back of the word not the front. “l’oeil du bouf” – a bottle of good wine to anyone who works out what architectural feature that refers to.
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