French Property News – August 2019

http://www.completefrance.com August 2019 French Property News 61

WEDNESDAY

No two days are ever the same at the office.

Yesterday’s new-build is today’s 14th-century

fortified manor house for Zac and Zara. I

raved about its solidity and bishop-like repose

when I first saw it, but now I have to adapt it

to the modern world, bring in light and open

it to the garden and, yes, put in a pool, all

without compromising the character that

attracted the Zs to the house in the first place.

For me, the first step to truly understanding

a house is to measure it up and draw it to

scale. This simple process forces you to see

the detail of the building, its qualities and

Neil Vesma’s architect’s practice is

at Villeréal near Bergerac

Tel: 0033 (0)5 53 01 74 20

neilvesma.com

THURSDAY

I should have walked round Zac and Zara’s

garden more yesterday but didn’t have time, so

I revisit it on Google Earth. The obvious

position for a pool is in the lawn outside the

servants’ quarters. There’s plenty of sun and no

neighbours, and with some judicious planting

we can separate the lawn from the box avenue

behind the house. The avenue then becomes a

quiet space for reading and contemplating

secrets, hidden away from the more convivial

and raucous pool area. I always think it’s good

to give teenagers their own space; life becomes

so much more bearable for all.

But if the pool is off to the right I need the

accommodation inside to address it, and you

can’t make a sitting room out of a butler’s

pantry as the old saying goes. Walls will have

to come out. This is the fun bit as with a stroke

of the pen/click of the mouse I dismantle a

fireplace for re-use for the second time in its

life and enlarge the dining hall into the pantry

and voilà! I make an opening through to the

lawn. A dining terrace appears outside as if by

magic with steps leading down to the pool.

I know I’ve been doing this job for a few

years now and should be able to come up with

decent ideas but this one has taken me by

surprise, it hangs together so well. Looking at

the dining room again, my first thought is to

put in a pair of French windows down onto the

box avenue, but then I plump for a small,

Alice-in-Wonderland solid arched door to keep

the avenue out of sight.

The first-floor room above has to be the main

bedroom, this time open to the servants’

quarters which become a loggia or covered

balcony overlooking the lawn and the view

beyond. Conveniently, this is also where the

sun rises.

This transformation is achieved without

touching the principal façades other than

adding a small studded oak door at the back.

I’m seriously impressed and it feels like the

start of something good. I hope I can fully

explain it all to the Zs, and I can feel a pencil

sketch coming on.

FRIDAY

As one door opens another one closes. It’s

goodbye to the Blythes, whose manor house

refurbishment was my first major undertaking

in this part of the world. Eight years on, they

have sold up and are moving to New Zealand to

retire near their family. We have become firm

friends over time, but my favourite memory of

them is the lunch they organised for everyone

involved in the renovation, nearly 40 people.

Mr B wrote a thank you speech in French so the

artisans would understand and, at the end of

the meal when he stood up, clinked fork

against glass for silence and pulled out his

notes, Mrs B cried and Mr B found he’d left his

reading glasses behind. I shall miss them. 

weaknesses. It’s clear from blocked-up

doorways and the scale of the rooms that the

servants’ areas were consigned to the lower

right-hand end of the house, so the main

rooms don’t address what would have been the

kitchen garden but is now a large lawn with

mature trees giving pools of shade. It’s also

clear that changes have been made over the

centuries, some more in keeping than others.

Old buildings keep throwing up surprises and

this is no exception. The final drawings show a

house that is mostly foursquare and a good

blend of different periods. It will be a

challenge to bring it into the current century.

The Blythes are leaving their manor and moving back to New Zealand

Refurbishing the Blythes’ home was Neil’s first major undertaking in France

Neil’s sketch of Zac and Zara’s house