Our house is a bit odd. It’s tall and skinny with a round end. The entrance comes in near the top. The old town defensive wall runs through the middle. There is a long garden down at the base, with another small strip of scrubby wasteland on the other side. And, although it is a tower, there are other bits of buildings attached to it. A two-level industrial block of the former shoe factory which once surrounded La Tour Desnos still stands, clinging on to the west side of the house. Stranger still is a thin strip of two-story house which is attached to the tower and sits above our entrance. The whole property ranges over a confusion of mismatched levels and shapes, entrances and exits connected by a sprawling network of stairways which would have challenged M.C. Escher himself.
Although the tower itself was built in the first half of the 15th century, additional bits and bobs were added (and removed) as the centuries rolled on. At one point, they added an additional floor to the top of the tower. And up through to the last century there were also other houses attached next to the structure from adjoining properties. We think that the house which today remains stacked on top of the tower’s entry was added sometime in the early 18th century and then modified thereafter. But we can’t be sure about that without doing more research. When we bought the tower, the purchase included all of the remaining fiddly parts – except the separate house; that was owned by someone else. This arrangement always felt a bit awkward to us and we hoped that one day we might be able to join the two properties together. The opportunity arrived early this year. With Cherie’s sister as a partner, we acquired the apartment and finally made the property whole.
It was always in our minds that this quirky little building stacked onto the back of our tower would make a perfect vacation apartment. With two bedrooms and a full bathroom upstairs, and a kitchen/lounge and toilette downstairs, this fully independent apartment would provide excellent accommodation for people visiting Fougères and the surrounding area. Besides, we already had all of the space we needed for ourselves in the tower. What better way to put this little house to good use than to share it with others who wanted to explore the many joys of this part of France?
The apartment had been thoroughly renovated by the previous owners: new electrics, new plumbing, insulation, paint, etc. But, some of the work they did was a bit shoddy. Mostly this was cosmetic. Nevertheless, we needed to address these shortcomings before we felt the apartment was ready for occupation. These repairs, restorations and improvements took us several weeks and we were able to do all of them ourselves. Mostly. Our friend Kelson helped us get a couple of electric radiators working – apparently you have to actually turn them on (there’s a power switch in the back of each unit). Right. Umnnn … yeah. That one’s on us.
Kelson also helped us hook up the induction cooktop. For weeks we were puzzled as to why it wouldn’t turn on. The oven worked, so why not the cooktop? Finally, I dug a little deeper and discovered that whoever installed it had not actually wired it in. Go figure. That kind of wiring is above my pay grade, so Kelson very kindly offered to do it for us. It took him like five minutes to do it. Brilliant. It would have taken me all day while losing a finger in the process. Thank goodness for generous and knowledgeable friends!
While I fiddled with installing various lighting fixtures and whatever else needed to be hung from the most challenging location on a ceiling or wall, Cherie took charge of the interior design. With a little consultation by Michelle, mom Valerie, and even me (only in moments of desperation – apparently I am color-challenged), she worked up a collection of furnishings and decorations that transformed an empty shell into a warm, contemporary living space that our guests will find welcoming and comfortable.
And, finally, after several weeks of work, we have created our holiday rental apartment, ready for visitors. At least we hope it’s ready. We’ve never done anything like this before, so we are leaning heavily on our instincts as well as our years of experience staying in vacation apartments. We think it will be a fun way to meet new people from all over the world, share a part of France that we are very proud to call home, and perhaps even earn a bit of extra cash – all of this renovation work costs money, ya know.
In the hope of avoiding confusion between the holiday rental property and our house, we have given the rental a separate name: Chez Desnos. As regular readers of this blog know, the tower (i.e., our home) to which it is attached is called La Tour Desnos, so the name seemed a fitting link while maintaining the distinction between the two. If you are curious (and you know you are) and want to see more, you can check out the Chez Desnos website we have set up for the apartment and/or go directly to our Airbnb listing. And if you are interested in visiting this part of the world we would love to have you stay. Cherie has put together an extensive and comprehensive guide to the town as well as a host of options for sightseeing within a two-hour drive of the house. It’s full of ideas and we’re updating the guide all of the time. There is so much to see and do here.
As always, thanks for checking out our blog and keeping tabs on what we have been up to. We try to stay busy, without being too busy – in an active, retired sort of way. Relaxed busy? Is that a thing? Well, it is for us. And we’re getting pretty good at it. Another forty or fifty years of practice and we’ll have considered the whole enterprise a success. Here’s hoping that all of you have already found, or are soon to discover, your own preferred brand of relaxation/peace/contentment. And maybe, just maybe, a small part of it will include a visit to our lovely corner of the world and a stay at Chez Desnos. Come see what we’ve done with the place. We think you’ll enjoy it.
Finding Our France 