60 French Property News August 2019 http://www.completefrance.com
MONDAY
La Martine. Sounds the perfect name for a
little rural French hideaway doesn’t it? It
evokes housemartins and a tumbling brook,
sunflower fields and an invisible joy-filled
skylark. And it exists. It belongs to my good
friends Helen and Les, and was one of my
very first projects when I moved here: they
wanted an indoor bathroom.
When we first got to know each other, it
was clear we shared the same approach to the
work. We wanted to keep their holiday retreat
firmly rooted in its bucolic past and avoid
over-improvement. The draughty oak front
door remains, the rare bee orchids still thrive
under the fig tree, and the long green
driveway is grassier than ever.
Sadly, things are going to have to change.The house was broken into at the weekend
and, while there was nothing of sentimental
value stolen, the sense of violation has left
them with no choice but to replace the oak
door, which yielded to the crowbars, with
something more modern and secure. A little
bit of the soul of the house has been lost.
I had intended to write in more cheerful
vein about Helen’s recent visit to Buckingham
Palace, where she received an OBE for her
work in archaeology and UNESCO. She has
been deeply involved in proposing Jodrell
Bank for World Heritage status and tells me it
has now been recommended for inclusion in
the list, for which she is rightly proud. Les, an
angry young man turned still-pretty-angry-but-
not-quite-so-young man, was so proud he even
polished his sandals for the trip up to London.TUESDAY
Back on site today at one of my bigger projects
where the timbering for a conical tower roof is
being built. This is the focus of this new house,
sitting above a fully glazed half-timbered
gallery over the front door. Christian the roofer
has cut and assembled it at his workshop prior
to erecting it in place, and I can see why he’s a
roofer and I’m not. He’s done it beautifully
using traditional construction with timber pegs
throughout.
It’s easy for me to draw a circular space if it’s
appropriate to the building, as I know I can rely
on the artisans we use to make it work on a
practical level. It’s not just the roof and its
slating, but also the stone cladding and door
surrounds, and plaster cornicing on the inside
that need to be thought through and fitted
with the utmost care.An
ARCHITECT’S DIARY
It’s all in a week’s work for France-based Neil Vesma
The Blythes’ boar!The roof frame with its conical towerInside the conical roof towerA heavy oak door didn’t deter
thieves at Les and Helen’s home