Chez Stoneman

We're Renting the Barn

It's been along time since I've written, I know.  One word: twins!

I have so many things I'd like to write about.  In the mean time, we're renting the barn in France more often now so we've posted all the details on the house and the surrounding area here so that we don't keep rewriting for each new inquiry.  It's raw and unedited but it's all there.  You must stay at our place if you're ever in the area!

Restored Stone Barn in Southern France

The Barn
The Barn (as we affectionately call it) has been lovingly restored over the past 5 years.  Originally built in 1782, the spacious stone home has a special feeling because we used original old and regional materials in its restoration.  The house is decorated with art and furniture from our travels in Europe, Morrocco, Mexico and the States, along with family antiques and finishings like windows and doors.  Every detail and corner of the house has a story. 
 
The main living room which has great volume with its 6m/20 foot high ceilings and long wood beams is heated with an amazing Canadian wood burning stove giving a warm feel to the room. This big open space brims with light.  The open kitchen is equipped with top of line oven, fridge and a special collection of collectible china, stemware, bowls, flatware, etc.  The big kitchen opens to the dinning room making the space great for entertaining, both facing east, getting most of the morning sunshine. The house is surrounded by north and east facing decks sheltered from the afternoon heat (in hot Summer months) and great for eating and relaxing outside.  We of course have WIFI and Internet phone, a washing machine and an office area in either the living room or mezzanine. 

Up the custom-made staircase appointed with original Moroccan wraught iron grills is the mezzanine that looks out over the main living room, along with a decadant bathroom and two bedrooms.  The bathroom has an original claw foot tub, separate standing shower with extra large shower head, original bistro doors and floor length gold-framed mirror.  Both bedrooms have comfortable double beds, views of the village, and a special custom closet in the master bedroom. 

Although not yet landscaped, the surrounding property is spacious with a few olives trees, an old fragrant rose bush great for cutting fresh flowers, and a beautiful custom iron gate at the entrance. 

Vezenobres
Vezenobres is a picturesque medieval hilltop village with just over 1000 inhabitants.  Situated in the Languedoc – which borders Provence, Camargue and Les Cevennes mountain range – the pristinely restored village is kissed with the sun almost all year and looks out over a valley of vineyards, olive trees and fig trees, the seasonal wild flowers of Southern France.  The charming village square – a leisurely 15 minute walk from our barn – has a Bar Tabac with fresh salads and tartines for casual lunches (evening live music in the Summer months) and a fine restaurant with large outdoor terrace.  We recommend lazy walks from our house up to the village, explore the entire village on foot – it’s a treasure – and finish with lunch or dinner and a carafe of rose at the Place de la Mairie (the center square). 

At the foot of the village a small commercial center with a basic grocery, pharmacy, bar, news stand and salon.  The Thursday morning farmers market at the foot of the village is tiny but a must for its regional traditional butcher and fruit & vegetable stands.  For more extensive grocery shopping, and for gas and other basics, take a 10 minute drive toward Ales.

The Surrounding Area
You're less than 1 hour drive from a lot of landmarks. If you have the chance you should check the New York Times from last Sunday which has a long article about the area.  The region is called the Gard, it's right next to Provence and feels like you're still in Provence in terms of lifestyle, open markets, vinyards, wild flowers, and the thick accent of good-natured Southern French people.  It's 20 minutes to our favorate village, Uzes, which is world famous for it's Saturday market that takes up the whole village, quite an experience for anyone at all interested in food.  You will find all the local products you can dream of. Cheeses, meet, charcuterie, veggies.... everything from local organic farms. Avignon is an important cultural and historical town with music and art festivals and great restaurants. 

It's 45-60 minutes from other great towns and cities like Arles, Avignon, Montpellier (where the beach is and the marshlands of the Camargue with wild white horses, bulls and flamingoes all around). When we want to go out for art or music we usually drive to Nimes (30 min), Arles (45 mins) or Montpellier (1 hour).  The house is also 10 minutes from a town called Ales where you can shop and do errands like getting gas and other basics.  Ales also has a great daily covered market (Les Halles) for regional meat, fish, poultry, bread, cheese and produce.  Nimes is Spanish influenced, has one of Frances' greatest Roman arenas in the center of town, lots of restaurants, shops, beautiful public garden, int'l airport, high speed TGV train station with 3 hour trips to Paris and the CDG airport.

Pont du gard is less then 30 min driving from the house. They usually have free concerts in the summer.  Orange is Pierre's hometown and is 1 hour (the NYT article talks about the opera and concert in the antique theater and we really recommend to experience it if you're at all interested in art/music. Seeing a show in this theater is just amazing).  Arles is 1 hour from the house and The Hotel Nord Pinus has a great restaurant owned by freinds so if you decide to go there at one point during your stay, let us know and we'll tell them.

Getting There
We recommend flying to Paris and taking the TGV to Nimes (20 mins from the village).  You can also fly through any major destination in Europe and then connect to Marsielles or Montpellier – the first ist a 90 minute drive and the latter is a 60 minute drive.  It almost essential to have a car in the area in order to explore and get around.  Car rentals are available at all TVG train stations or of course any airport.  Nimes – the closely city – has an international airport with frequent low-cost airline flights to secondary airports in London and other major cities throughout Europe. 

Not a Barn Any More

I'm just back from a month in France, where "The Barn" as we affectionately call it is officially no longer a barn.  Within my first week, we began to live there (I hesitate to say that we actually moved in because it is still a work site and we only brought sleeping and cooking essentials with us).  Although I returned to the States just as Pierre was about to finish the last major work (floors and counter tops in kitchen/dining room) we got a glimpse of what daily life at the barn and in Vezenobres is like...

Pierre heads downstairs while I'm still waking to open all the shuttered windows and doors, we have lazy morning breakfast on the east side patio where the sun is still mild and we discover how many new roses have opened overnight, then we start think about what projects to do around the house and what I will make for lunch.  Lunch may require a quick run to the village store for fresh bread and any staples that are missing from the house, or even better a visit to Les Halles in Ales 10 mins away for fresh foods of all kinds, I'm sure to stop on the way home on the side of the road at the entrance to the village to buy fresh peaches and melon from a local farmer whose wife sits all day in in a folding chair shaded by their truck. 

Pierre's been busily working all morning on the house, which we expect will never actually be done.  Even still at 1:00 or later when I call him for lunch he's on his knees or on a ladder, thick with dust but deeply satisfied.  Lunch is on the adjacent patio slightly shaded from the Acacia tree and cooler from the breeze, hundreds of bees and wasps stay tucked into the Acacia and don't bother us at all.  After melon and coffee, or a sweet tart from our own fruits if we're lucky, Pierre threatens to go upstairs for a siesta.  But shortly he changes the music for a new pep and goes back to work without a hitch.  I on the other hand mosey upstairs to putter and end up relaxing on the bed, which is at just the right position to gaze out the window and get lost in the leaves fluttering in a tall tree in the garden next to ours.  The sunlight that sneaks through the tree branches creates a hypnotic effect of dancing leaves.

It doesn't seem fair to be so relaxed while Pierre is pounding and lifting and hauling and sweating.  I muster the energy to freshen up and head out for a few afternoon errands -- the hardware store for Pierre, the video shop to rent a film, my Internet cafe to make contact with the office, the tourism office to check on local concerts...but by 5:00 the afternoon heat is penetrating and it's best to get back to the cool interiors of our stone walls.  Pierre wraps up around 6 or 7 by rolling a cigarette to accompany him while he waters all of our plants, oleander, roses, olives, cypress and lots of weeds.  This of course is followed by a pastis, we're back over to the first patio where the evening sun is perfectly mild and the sky light is starting to change.  All the neighborhood dogs bark as their parents come home, an almost-unfortunate soundtrack to an otherwise tranquil and rewarding part of the day.

Dinner follows much like lunch, outside if we're lucky, and always laced with some local produce.  Without much of a social schedule or the distractions of a working TV, we might take a moonlit walk if I'm lucky (Pierre's not much into walks).  On my last night before returning to San Francisco, I insisted on walking to the village for the Fete de Vezenobres, the local summer party that all villages host in their town square in late summer.  Pierre warned me that I'd be disappointed with the local fare and probably dismayed to socialize with the Gardoise villagers.  The people of the Gard or not exactly well-heeled or well-traveled.  But I was bullish about going.  The walk was dreamy -- we'd never actually walked all the way into the village, which is only a 3 minute drive.  We mounted the hillside from a street we'd never taken before, nosing around people's terraced gardens, listening to dinner conversations through windows and still, three years later, amazed at how we were the only people in the streets.  Artfully lighted at night, the village effect warmed me (as did the uphill walk).  We had cheap pizzas and bad wine at the local bar before checking out the party.  Pierre was sure that the band and road crew were eating at the long banquet table behind us, and once the musicians got up to get on stage, the roadies started to gossip about their band mates. 

In the short walk from the bar/pizzeria to the town square across the street, my heart sank.  Just crossing the street and entering the tented party area I counted at least 6 mullets, really bad exaggerated mullets.  Pierre was right.  The party crowd was a mix of local teenagers crowded up to the beer stands dressed in tight jeans and fringed shirts, and native villagers in their 50s and 60s nestling with to their partners smoking cigarettes and watching the band.  The band played a non-descript French soft rock song that Pierre mock-hummed along to, trying to get me to smile.  I wasn't amused, the entire scene brought me down a bit and I leaned into Pierre for support. 

But we stopped and took notice once the next song started.  One of the back up singers had taken over the center stage and began a string of a dozen edgy pop and hard rock songs right from my own play list, ending his set with the White Stripes!  I couldn't believe it -- good rock in my little unknown medieval village of 1200 people.  We stayed for almost the entire set as the front man busted out some pretty funky footwork and good English one-liners to cajole the hesitant crowd while the music got louder and harder.  Pierre and I only subtly tapped our feet and patted each other to the drum beat.  But inside I was celebrating my rock roots and taking pride in great American music!  We walked home, guided by the bright light of a full round moon, listening to the concert encore the entire way home as it echoed off each of the old stone houses on our path.  I still couldn't believe it.

Well, that was just one night.  Typically, we wander upstairs after loading the dishes into the sink and clearing the kitchen of any thing attractive to our family of mice.  Still a cultural oddity to me, all the shudders must be closed before we head upstairs, and there are several of them.  Upstairs we close the shudders but leave the windows open to keep a cool summer draft going.  We might start in bed with a DVD or a book, but both of us are passed out within 15 minutes -- Pierre from the healthy fatigue of a full day of physical labor and me from that relaxed didn't-do-much-today fatigue. 

I've included an update to The Barn Diary, our photo chronicles of the work Pierre's done over the past three years.  The last 20 photos are from this past month, although I included the whole diary so you could see the transformation.  Mouse over any picture for its caption.  And start making plans to visit us in France next summer!

New Barn Photos

Pierre's been in France for almost a month already and I just got my first round of photos of the barn.  As you might expect, he's there hammering out one last round of hard work to get the house in a "habitable" state.  Two years ago we thought we'd be well into the house by now, and even thought we'd have the pool and landscaping completed.  Now we'll be happy when it's merely habitable, not even finished.  We have all of our furniture gathering dust in Pierre's parents garage, and dozens of wedding gifts and treasures we found in Morocco that haven't even been opened.  We can't wait to move in and unpack this summer when we're there in July! 

Check out the photos, it's really coming along.  Pierre's working with one other guy on this trip, and his father has been helping out quite a bit too.  It's going to be so cool to have a place where every detail was our decision and made by Pierre's hands.  You must come visit some day! 

Are We Crazy?

Our barn in France still isn't habitable and we already have our eyes on another project in the area.  About a year ago, we noticed that a building in the village of Vezenobres was for sale.  Just a few  blocks down from the center of the village where we got married, a hand-written sign was affixed to the exterior of the massive stone dwelling.  For years Pierre has had a contagious dream of running a small hotel, and the idea of investing in the medieval village we now call home is burnished in our minds.  Are we crazy?

The property for sale is actually two attached buildings - one that can reasonably be called a building and the other merely a ruin.  The main building is on corner and overlooks the entire valley below the village with full southern exposure.  Today it has 4 apartments in it, only one of them habitable (for someone with quite low living standards).  The other apartments are in such disarray they have exposed ceilings, wood and stone debris everywhere, unfinished windows, no insulation...  The entire roof of the building would need to be replaced, but the orientation of the building on a steep hill with limited street access would require a courageous (if not foolish) masonry crew to complete the job. 

The ruin is an almost idyllic setting of remains that is begging for terraced patios, walled gardens, maybe even a courtyard style shaded swimming pool.  Around the corner from the main entrance to the building is a charming inset doorway to a vaulted restaurant with room for about 30 seats and an exposed kitchen.  The restaurant would be pure romance, and could open to outdoor seating underneath the ruins. 

With every turn throughout the property there is the potential for style, charm, aesthetic, beauty, historical references, lifestyle, investment and reward!  When we look back at the condition of the barn we bought two years ago compared to the storybook house that we've made out of it, we know we can turn this barrack into a jewell.  With just four stone walls and a collapsing roof to inspire us, we've turned the barn into a welcoming house with lots of panache.  The building in the village, on the other hand, has turns, vaults, views, corners, open spaces and more to give us endless possibilities for design and style. 

The sale price seems quite reasonable, it turns out the property has been on the market for at least a few years now.  The over-zealous Gardois who bought the property some years ago imaged that he would be able to restore the entire building into apartments or a hotel entirely on his own.  Really, on his own.  In a handful of years he has managed to clean off a square meter section of stones and clutter the entire building with more useless junk than at a third-rate flea market.  He completely under-estimated the job.  A few years ago an English couple attempted to buy the property but backed out once they realized the scale of the repairs required.  While the building price is in our reach, we'd have to take out a loan for the same amount for the repairs.  We're seriously interested.  Are we crazy?

Go with me for a minute...  The building could be restored into a mix of apartments, studios or hotel rooms -- each with bright sun flooding the rooms all year long, each one with its own style and charm.  Our research taught us that all gites (rental rooms/apartments) and hotels in the area are full for the entire season annually (April - September) at healthy prices.  The apartments could be rented year round, or studios and hotel rooms could be rented during the season.  Rental income from just 1-2 apartments or a good tourist season would cover the mortgage comfortably each year.

Ultimately we'd like to partner with one of our chef/resto friends who would attach themselves to this dream and take over the restaurant.  Resto/cafe/bar income would supplement the rental fees, and add to the ambiance of the property to make it more of a destination for locals and travelers.  What business do we have running a hotel and restaurant?  We have no relevant experience, all we have is a vision, a design aesthetic, an appetite for service and entertaining, and a desire to create a dream job that we can do together.  Are we crazy?

Vezenobres is by no means a highly-trafficked village, it's not like Gordes, Uzes and others that have become micro industries of their own.  But, we think within a few years it will become more that way.  Several years ago the mayor conducted a major clean up of the village and it is Peter Mayle-picturesque.  The mairie (city hall) now has an art exposition center in the building that overlooks a grassy terrace and the valley view; there are gravel petanque lawns that hang on the cliff of the hilltop village and look out over the entire valley.  Vezenobres is the French capital of figs and boules carre (yes, square balls).  There is a new highway that will make the drive to Nimes (larger city with Roman coliseum, Spanish-influence and an international airport!) only 15-20 minutes away.  Vezenobres is at the foot of Les Cevennes (of Robert Louis Stevenson's writings) which are the mountains that offer hundreds of miles of hiking, rafting, camping and exploring.  And, the village is only 20 minutes from Uzes, the village of the Duchess and her castle that has France's most vibrant weekly marche throughout the fortified town and its arch-surrounded center.  Are you sold yet?

We know we're crazy.  Take a look at these pictures of the property and you'll know it too.  But for some reason we can't let go of this one.  Isn't is a dash of crazy that all dreams of made of?  Isn't our life between France and San Francisco already filled with a dash of crazy?  We're looking for ideas, advice, partners, support, words of caution, anything you want to offer.  Pierre returns to France on January 15 for about a month to work on the barn and we're trying to decide if we're really serious (aka crazy) about starting the process of contractor-inspections and bank visits.  If you've ever wanted to have a pied a terre in France, or if you've had it with life in the US, or if you've dreamed of having your own resto/bar/cafe...join us, there's room in this dream for a few other crazies!    

      

The Original Barn Diary

2003
+  Pierre wants to buy a pied de terre abroad
+  Pie de la Cuesta, Mexico?  South of France?  We can't decide...          
+  May -- We set our minds on the South of France
+  Pierre keeps close watch on properties listed on the Internet            
+  October -- Pierre moves to Lyon and starts looking at properties

2004          
+  May -- Shannon arrives in Lyon, we look at amazing properties -- way out of our league 
+  June -- We find "the barn" in Vezenobres and everything fits -- location, price, vision
+  Jenne and Ricardo visit the barn and give it their blessing
+  We meet the neighbors -- friendly to the West, not so friendly to the North
+  We make an offer, we negotiate, we settle!
+  We enlist our friend Albert to draw up the plans, site unseen
+  July -- Maddy and David visit and we water the thirsty land
+  Fiona insists we refer to the barn as "the farm house" for posterity
+  August -- We meet with an architect to finalize the plans
+  We work for days finalizing the plans and permits, up to the last minute
+  September -- Pierre meets with artisans to bid the massive openings and roof work
+  We wait for the permits and the final sale to be approved in December
+  October -- We select Philippe Cagnac as our mason, he can't start work until August 2005!
+  Difficulties with the sellers give us heartburn
+  November -- Both our permit and loan applications are approved...Champaign!
+  December - We receive our first property tax bill, but we don't own the barn yet!

2005
+  January 7 -- We sign the deed and the barn is finally ours, now the fun begins
+  The barn is officially named Maset Madeleine in honor of Pierre's maternal grandmother
+  Pierre's brother finds beautiful tiles in an abandoned chateau that we'll use in the salon
+  With longer, sunnier days we've started to spend our weekends at the bard
+  May 1 we officially break ground -- Pierre starts bull-dozing the ground to gain 18 inches
+  A pool specialist comes out with a massive earth shattering drill to test the terrain for the pool
+  We hit the neighbor's un-reported water main and spend the weekend fixing their plumbing
+  May 10 -- Pierre has an impromtu surprise BBQ for Shannon's 35th with merguez & bubbles!
+  May 12 -- plumbing, electricity and water are officially up and running!