About us - the story of La Belle Vue
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We (Matt, Elena, our daughter Georgia, aged 11, and our 2 dogs (Lottie & Bonnie) arrived in August 2013, ready to move into our newly renovated traditional french farmhouse. The builders who were frantically sorting out the last bits and pieces, panicked when they saw us. According to them we had arrived 2 days early. The removal company then called to say that due to unforeseen circumstances they would be 2 days late. It all worked out in the end and we moved in on the hottest day of the year. We wanted hot weather, and boy, did we get it!
After a summer of unpacking boxes, entertaining our first visitors, admiring the view, unpacking a few more boxes and trying out a few vineyards, we sent Georgia off to start at the local French school and we started on phase 2: turning the barns into La Belle Vue.
There were 3 barns next to the main farmhouse where we are now living. All the buildings were built into the rock face behind, all were on different floors and of various sizes. It took me ages, probably due to my poor spacial awareness, to figure out which room was where and on what level. This was not helped by the fact that part of the roof had collapsed a week after we bought the farm buildings and some floors were too dangerous to walk on, making parts of the building inaccessible - we had to imagine it and drawing up the plans was very challenging. After much deliberation we decided on one large gite, with a lot of flexibility for either a large family, 2 families sharing, or for a group of friends holidaying together. This meant spacious bedrooms, a large kitchen and dining area, a games room, a living room and lots of bathrooms. The plans were approved and on 1st September 2013 the work commenced and the brilliant artisan team and their machinery arrived - there was a lot of heavy equipment!
After a summer of unpacking boxes, entertaining our first visitors, admiring the view, unpacking a few more boxes and trying out a few vineyards, we sent Georgia off to start at the local French school and we started on phase 2: turning the barns into La Belle Vue.
There were 3 barns next to the main farmhouse where we are now living. All the buildings were built into the rock face behind, all were on different floors and of various sizes. It took me ages, probably due to my poor spacial awareness, to figure out which room was where and on what level. This was not helped by the fact that part of the roof had collapsed a week after we bought the farm buildings and some floors were too dangerous to walk on, making parts of the building inaccessible - we had to imagine it and drawing up the plans was very challenging. After much deliberation we decided on one large gite, with a lot of flexibility for either a large family, 2 families sharing, or for a group of friends holidaying together. This meant spacious bedrooms, a large kitchen and dining area, a games room, a living room and lots of bathrooms. The plans were approved and on 1st September 2013 the work commenced and the brilliant artisan team and their machinery arrived - there was a lot of heavy equipment!
Cranes, diggers, trucks, bulldozers, cement mixers and a manitou. It was a little boys (and big boys) paradise. Rotten floors and beams were ripped out, old thick walls had original openings re-opened for windows, and the roof was dismantled. It took 4 men all morning to dig out and haul the old enormous wine barrel out of the wine cellar. This room is now the living-room. The whole of the inside of the barns was soon on the outside.
Months followed of heavy building work. Floors, pipes, beams, windows, walls and wires were being added. Some weeks flew by in a hive of activity and results were impressive. Other weeks we would be left wondering if our builders were actually going to make an appearance. Not always successfully we learnt to be patient, when to stamp our feet in protest and when to scrub the mud off our boots and sit on our terrace with another bottle of Gaillac red simply enjoying the view.
However, through out those winter months there was real progress:
The outdoor dining area came together.
The outdoor dining area came together.
And the kitchen.
Bedrooms and bathrooms appeared.
However, the most exciting phase was of course the big hole that was being dug in the what used to be the old vegetable plot.
Our pool was being built!
Our pool was being built!
In the beginning of May, Georgia was the first to swim in our pool even though the water was only 16C. It definitely was time to celebrate! The pool was full of water, the summer sun was shining and the building work was finished. We invited everyone who had been involved on the site for a celebration lunch. Twenty builders with their wives, girlfriends and children came to have a look at what we and they had achieved. In less than a year the old ruined barns had been transformed by true craftsmen into a stunning holiday home.
Now it was our turn to roll our sleeves up! We cleaned, scrubbed, painted, landscaped and decorated throughout the glorious month of June. I had brought a few pots of the lovely Annie Sloan chalk paint with me from England and was pleased to be able to set to work painting all the furniture we had been collecting over the year at flea-markets, brocante shops and vide-greniers (yard sales) into lovely pieces for the bedrooms.
Matt turned old doors into tables, shutters into plant holders, ruined byres and mangers into towel rails and generally tidied up the large amounts of rubble. Brother Tom arrived and together they dug up the little old ruin at the entrance of our property and we installed the old farm cart, or 'chariot', which we had saved from the builder's bonfire.
By the end of June 2014 our first guests arrived. We were up and running!
By the end of June 2014 our first guests arrived. We were up and running!
And when you see the blue chariot, overlooking the valley, you know you have arrived at La Belle Vue!