History
The chateau was built between the 16th and 19th century and for the last 18 years was run as a chambres d'hotes and restaurant by Monsieur Martin, the previous owner. Before that, as far back as the 60's, it was run as a holiday camp for Algerian children. One of the wings hadn't been touched since these times and there were still dozens of beds with Algerian rugs on them. We do not know it's history before this but the earliest photo we have of it looks to be from Victorian times (from the look of the clothes of the man in the bottom left corner). Monsieur Martin would only let me take a photo of this photo hence the bad reproduction.
What was needed
When we took ownership, the chateau was in a mixed state. The main wing at the front was in good condition however it needed redecorating because Mr Martin has quite quirky taste. It also needed the 3 existing bathrooms to be replaced with new and to have an extra 2 bathrooms added to make 5 luxurious suites. Downstairs there is a huge living room and a bar, both needing redecoration. The main kitchen needs quite a lot of work because it has a horrible false ceiling and lots of flaking wall paper. What we call the Napoleon wing, (because that was when it was built), hadn't been touched since the 60's. It needs loads more work doing to it than the rest so we decided that this is where we will live and we can do it gradually over a number of years.
The chateau has an old but perfectly serviceable heating system. Gas is piped around the house to individual radiators that have their own burners. They do a good job and the chateau gets really warm. However, they are not in every room and so there are cold spots that tend to make it difficult to heat the whole place. Ideally we need to replace this before we accept winter guests.
The electrics are fine in most of the rooms but some of them are old and need replacing except in the Napoleon wing where the whole lot needs to go!
Meeting the neighbours
Emily and I feel incredibly privileged to be part of the community of Savennes. Our new neighbours have been so welcoming they are all encouraging us to develop Chateau de Savennes into a wonderful venue for holiday makers. All of our nearest neighbours came out to introduce themselves to us within the first few days after arriving.
Boris lives closest to the Chateau. He is originally from Russia but he came to France when he was 8. He must be in his eighties now and so you couldn’t find a more typical French man if you tried. He invited me into his house at 10am and insisted I drink Ricard with him. It was the first time I had tried it and so I left feeling just a little light headed.
Marie-Helene and Madeleine are two sisters that live in the house facing the Chateau. They have lived in Savennes all of their lives and must be in their eighties too. They have lots of incredible stories to tell, I can’t wait till I understand them better!
The kindest and most generous of all the residents of Savennes are Claudie and Eddine. They own a farmhouse in the village that they have spent the last 5 years renovating it from a shell. They live in Vichy so come to Savennes for weekends and holidays. We were so fortunate to meet them straight away. The news that English people had bought the Chateau spread like wildfire through the village and so they came and introduced themselves the very next day. They both speak excellent English and I have no doubt that we wouldn’t have been able to complete the renovation project by June 2006 if it wasn’t for them. They provided us with the names of all the tradesmen in the area that helped them with their farmhouse. Claudie even went as far as ringing them all up to get them to come and do estimates. Claudie and Eddine have become some of our dearest friends and to this day their continued generosity and help amazes me.
They have also introduced us to their good friend Phillipe who owns the Dairy farm on the other side of the village. He is also very friendly and enjoys reciting English phrases in an incredibly authentic English accent. We get our milk and eggs from him too. The milk is so fresh that it is still warm in the bottle and we have to boil it before we refrigerate it.
Meeting the Maire
When we first came to Savennes we knew it was really important to meet the Maire. So Emily sent me off to make our introductions. Sadly he wasn’t there, which was a relief for me because my French was so bad at the time that it would have been embarrassing. Instead I made sure that his secretary knew that I had made the effort to come to the office and greet him.
Then, in the new year, we went to Madame Peirrot’s bar in the village for lunch. The Maire was there and he introduced himself to us. He is a very down to earth man with no airs and graces. He asked if he could come and look at the chateau to see if he could offer us a grant to help with the renovation. Of course, we accepted and again we were amazed at how kind everyone was being to us. Clearly some of the bad luck we had when we were going through the buying process was now reversing and things were starting to go our way.
A couple of weekends later he visited the Chateau with the Mayor of Messeix who is the conseiller général for the area (the man that controls all the money!). They decided that we needed new central heating and new electrics and asked me to get Devis (quotes) for them so that they could see if we could have a grant.
Getting the Devis
Mr Laine the plasterer and decorator came round first. I think he was a little overwhelmed with how much there was to do at first but he came back a second time to measure up and eventually provided us with a very detailed Devis for every room. The total price was eye-watering but Claudie and Eddine had told us that he was very professional and we won’t be disappointed.
We had 2 plumbers come round. The first left within 30mins. We think he was scared of the amount of work that needed to be done. Mr Huin came 2nd and he whizzed round the place with huge confidence. We liked him a lot and though his Devis took a long time to come it was actually quite reasonable.
For both Mr Laine and Mr Huin we were very fortunate to have Amandine, Claudie and Eddine’s daughter, as our translator. She was great!
Starting the work
Once we got all the Devis finalised we went back to the bank to extend our loan to do the work. They have been very helpful and agreed to the loan. We decided that some of the rooms were simple enough for me to do myself. So it was down to me to paint the Living Room and the Bar and some of the easier bedrooms.
I came out for a weekend at the end of January, bought some great Farrow and Ball paint from a specialist shop in Clermont Ferrand and got on with it. Of course I didn’t finish it all but it was great to see that we had finally started. Now I can’t wait till I am at the chateau permanently at the end of March so that I can finish the Living Room and get on with the other rooms.
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