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Our lovely neighbours are coming for a BBQ tonight - good food, good wine and lovely company at our little petit chateau. The perfect end to a productive week. I’m so looking forward to being open for business and having an excuse to set pretty tables every evening. Bon weekend à vous. X
The driveway is like our own private country lane - the banks are full of flowers and dandelion clocks which glow magically in the early spring morning light. Everything has that beautiful fresh green luminescence that only April can bring. The sunlight filters down through the new leaves and the air smells honey blossom sweet. I woke up so grumpy this morning after a night of broken sleep spent worrying about skirting boards and cornices (of all things). But all it took was five minutes walking down my country lane to remind me what a privilege this new life of ours is. And that the struggles to restore this old house will always be worth it because it truly is a magical place.
A misty, blossomy sunrise across the lake this morning. The forecast has sun and blue skies in it for the next week (say it in a whisper in case you jinx it). Have a lovely day everyone.
You can’t beat crisp white sheets and a sparkly chandelier.
Early morning sunshine across the cow fields along the drive. Long may it last. The sun makes everything seem possible, even our mammouth to do list, which today has “cut the lawn” at the top. Bon weekend x
I love our very old sign. It sits at the top of our very long, very potholey drive and it’s the only indication that there is a house hidden here amongst the trees at all.
ONE YEAR - one year ago today we first saw this house. Spring was a few weeks further on than it is today and everywhere was green. I remember our slow trundle down the drive and my first glimpse of the gate to nowhere. I knew I was in trouble then. I tried not to love it. I tried to convince everyone that they didn’t love it either. But it’s just too magical a place and it grabbed hold of our hearts one year ago today and we just couldn’t let it go. We’ve been living here for seven months now and there have been some tough times. The winter was hard and the pennies are dwindling. But we wouldn’t change anything. I love that we were brave enough to take this leap and make this petit chateau of ours our life’s work. Thanks for following along on our journey it means a lot to us to have everyone’s support.
We took down some old diseased pines in the garden (two down, one to go) and now when the sun comes up in the morning the salle de chasse is flooded with light. Whole days logging trees and raking up pine cones were definitely worth it.
I know we still live in a building site but the only way we could really store this chandelier safely is by hanging it up right? I call it renovation chic.
It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day today. The air has the lovely grassy smell that only happens on early spring mornings and the air is full of birdsong. Special times. Have a gorgeous day everyone x
The back lawn is covered in aconites, cowslips and tiny purple violets and it looks beautiful. In a few weeks though the ground workers are coming in to dig an enormous hole in it for our new fosse septique 😳! No doubt the flowers will be trashed by the diggers - but at least we’ll have a working septic tank and we’ll be able to get the lake cleaned up because the run off from the fosse won’t be draining into it 😝. Keep your fingers crossed for dry weather so the mud isn’t too catastrophic.
Friends arriving soon - making up for the dust and general chaos with some cherry blossom and daffodils from the garden.