Renovating Property In France

We first saw an attractive, but derelict, house in the Charente Maritime on the internet. A few days later we were viewing it. In dull, overcast weather the extent of the renovation daunted us. That night we stayed in a B&B that had been wonderfully renovated by the Musseau Brothers, a local team of artisans. Suitably energised we revisited the house in glorious sunshine and promptly bought it.

We found a semi-retired British architect living nearby, who enthused with us about our ideas for renovation. He shared our vision of retaining the best features whilst modernising the rest. He agreed that the roof beams, with which we had fallen in love, should be retained as a focus upstairs and that en-suites were essential. The initial plans convinced us that he shared our vision and we returned to the UK, happy that we had a good man on the spot. Unfortunately, we had completely missed the omission of the en-suites!

Eventually, the detailed plans arrived and we found that the project was now in the hands of the assistant architect. This young lady was the very model of a demure, recently qualified French architect, right down to her gimlet glasses. However, we guessed that her true passion lay in designing award-winning suspension bridges or sleek steel tower blocks. Why renovate when you can demolish? We probably would not have hired her, initially, but we felt that she was the right person to write the specifications, organize the necessary permissions, and keep everything up to scratch. Our British architect tiptoed off the scene. We were now in French hands.

We were soon to learn that properly qualified French professional architects have little time for amateur clients who have no proper French professional qualifications in architecture - therefore clearly having no right to challenge decisions made by properly qualified French professional architects. Indeed clients can jolly well wait until the aforementioned French architects get round to dealing with their client’s piffling concerns in their own good time.

Our first show of French intransigence came over the issue of the roof timbers. Our French architect and her team of carpenters could not understand that we wanted to keep the beautiful old beams exactly as they were. They advocated a more modern arrangement. We refused. They couldn’t understand why anyone in the 21 st century would want to display such ancient woodwork. We appealed to our British architect and won the day. But this was only the beginning. As it dawned on us that we had overlooked the lack of en-suites, we had to try and negotiate their inclusion. The take-it-or-leave-it proposal from the French side was to chop out a corner of each well-proportioned bedroom, thus producing both unsatisfactory bathrooms and ruined bedrooms. We worked hard on the design of solutions, which finally got the go-ahead.

We had to wait for the Musseau Brothers to complete other projects but when admirably organised by our French architect, delighted to be working with people who knew the proper order of things, they saw the project through to a very satisfactory conclusion. She now advertises her renovation expertise to British home owners in the Charente.

Would we renovate another house in France whilst living in England? Well, we have a strangely shaped barn which one half of our marriage thinks is ripe for a Kevin McCloud style makeover…