Welcome to “In the Shadow of a Château”, where I share my experience as an American in rural France, renovating and rehabilitating centuries-old buildings in and around a UNESCO cultural heritage site.

I’ve been at this renovating in France thing since 2010, so I’ve got some insights to help you help yourself while renovating either on-site or from a distance.  I’ll also pepper in some lifestyle blogs as well, so there should be a little something for everyone.

If you’re just here for the before and after, there’s plenty of that, too.

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Projects

The OG. My home. It’s short for the Old Granary, not the other thing. But whatever brings ‘em to the barn, I say!  Speaking of barns, in August of 2023, the barn conversion was completed and is now included as part of the footprint of the OG, connected via the cute and rustic old chicken house.

The Ramparts Project.  Being a serial renovator, you all know I was going to need a new project to put my energy towards.  So I got another fixer.  No. “Fixer” is too mild of a term. Let’s just stick with “Project” with a capital “P”.  Whereas the OG is small and only 150 years old, this Project is big and some of the main structure is more than 500 years old. (Talk about wonky beams!) It is located within the ramparts of the same medieval village where I live. It even has the remains of a round tower wall inside!

The Moat Garden.  When I bought the OG, it came with a large unbuildable piece of property across the street that the previous owner had turned into a productive orchard and potager. using the boundry wall to espaliered fruit trees.  I learned years later that this garden was actually the former moat of a long-gone château.  It used to be a beautiful and productive piece of property, but was left to become a jungle of brambles and saplings.  I’m on a mission to turn it into part permaculture food forest and part flower farm.  Over the past two years, I have planted eleven replacement pear and apple trees.  I’m hoping to build a greenhouse and eventually get to the point where I can reinstate some of the now defunct espaliered trees along the moat wall.

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Follow along while I pursue my passion of making things work and making things pretty, one old stone at a time. There will be some satisfying discoveries, lots of head scratching, and some big design decisions over the next few years.

Join me, won’t you? Who knows, we might even learn some French along the way 😉

You can also follow the (mis)adventures and engage with me on FB and IG via the following links

facebook: In the Shadow of a Château

Instagram: shadowofachateau

Instagram: the_ramparts_project

email: contact@intheshadowofachateau.com