Opening the Doors..

I know that I am very late to the blog writing world, but in 2008 when we started our journey there was no such thing as writing a blog, and if there was, I certainly wasn’t aware of it, and I certainly didn’t have the time to write anything more than a shopping list!  However I can remember the start of the journey to restore Les Marguerites like it was yesterday and am feeling very drawn to share our story, so here goes…

We signed and completed on Les Marguerites in June 2008, but only moved here ‘ en famille’ in the August of 2008. The first time we turned the key of the huge deep-rooted wooden front door it was a warm summers day, the children stayed in the garden, quickly returning to the spot where they had started making a den on our last visit earlier that year, the den was hidden in the middle of the 100 year old box hedge maze, it was a mess of bits of wood and old fallen branches from the ancient trees that have been guarding the house their whole life.  All I could see from the steps of our new home was their little blonde heads bobbing up and down the hedging gathering more branches to add to their den, they were shadowed by those large trees who’s rustling leaves sounded like the whispers of secrets.  

I pushed through the door into the large hallway, if felt so cool in the house despite the heat of the day, walking through the house room by room I decided to open every shutter and door of our sad shabby villa.  I could see condensation running down the walls as the heat of the day hit the cold stone walls, some of the rooms hadn’t seen the light of day for almost 50 years. It was as if the house was crying, then I thought that the house was crying from neglect, but now 14 years on I realise that they were of joy, because it was time again to make new memories and she knew that.  

On the first floor on the east side of our once grand house I pushed into what is now room 5 and flung open the shutters. There is a little lane that runs along the back of the house, and as I looked out, I could see a couple walking along the lane, they looked over and waved a friendly wave and shouted up at me, ‘ Bonjour, so lovely to see the old house opened up! It has been too many years closed up!’ Merci, I replied, with a feeling that this magnificent venture of ours was going to have an impact on not just us, but our neighbours too, and in that moment I knew that a new chapter was  just beginning in the story of  Les Marguerites...
Antoinette