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This is the oldest building, built around 1650. The building style is known as colombage, and means it is a timber frame, with infill of baked clay and straw!  It has 4 principal rooms on the ground floor with a large inglenook fireplace in the kitchen. Upstairs is the grenier (loft), which is one large space and has only ever been used as childrens sleeping spaces and storage. There is a stable running alongside the house, and a largish barn at the back,all under one roof. This house has not been lived in for 30 years and so needs a lot of work, but it is a beautiful structure and we are really enjoying renovating the building and getting to know its personality and needs. The timber and earth construction means that the building always needs to ‘breath’ and has an ability to move and flex which more modern houses don’t normally do, so we feel rather more like we are living in a ship than a house!
It is really nice to be finally living in the house that is our home, after two years of ‘camping out’ in each gite as we worked on them! Although there is still a lot of work to do on the farmhouse, it is work that takes mostly time and ‘huile de coude’ - elbow grease as both the French and the English say! So pop your head round the door if you like and we will be very pleased to show you how we are getting on - its a fascinating place!
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