Up until now, Robin has been doing all of the renovation to standard building codes (he has done some serious homework and seems to be the only person around here actually following the rules). We knew we would always need a little help with one thing – knocking down the …

Replacing the steep, narrow and dangerous staircase in our house with a space-effective spiral staircase was always part of our renovation plan. We looked online at beautiful industrial era staircases from Britain and compared those to the rickety plastic structures available at the local DIY stores. As always, it was …

Shopping for Antique Patina Doors in Provence The treasure and charm of antique doors. It seems that we like to make our lives difficult; dating for 5 years long distance Montreal-London, moving to a new country without proper jobs, buying a tiny house in a rural village and now- trying …

Our Renovation: More Ceiling Surprises So we’re still stripping back to try to get to the bare bones or our new tiny house. During the past few days we’ve gone back upstairs to take down the ceiling that consisted of fake wood made of styrofoam and 2 layers of wonky …

Our Renovation in Provence: The Demolition Continues! You’re going to have to brace yourselves for a little hideousness- but we’ve started taring down the wood panels downstairs. This panelling so popular in the 70s is a form of cache misère which basically translates into hiding misery. When our real estate …

Our New House (!!!) is just the end section of this Mas (Provencal farmhouse) that is actually well known in the area as the Mas Longue (Long Farmhouse). There are even postcards of this building from 100 years ago! We are in the centre of beautiful Maussane-les-Alpilles, just a …Continue …

This article is the continuation of Annie Barker’s story of how La Breche evolved into a holiday rental and inspiring venue for artists and writers. Follow this link if you missed Un Grand Project. The trials and tribulations of buying a house in France have been written about many times …

When we were first shown the ancient former farmhouse near Uzès (in the South of France) we now call home, I rejected it firmly with a resounding ‘No’. We had agreed that we didn’t want a third project in fifteen years: its desolate state, left for months forlornly empty, with dust …

We all know that house hunting is an emotional experience and that the majority of house buying decisions is made on first impressions alone. Most house hunters will say is that a house must “feel right.” There’s nothing wrong with listening to your instinct, as long as you keep in …

Who didn’t want to escape somewhere during the height of the pandemic? Personally, going anywhere outside the confines of our townhouse was a diversion. At home in England, author Sophie Claire crafted her pandemic “getaway” by writing her latest novel, An Escape to Provence, about an unlikely love match in …