Tag Archives: France

Cast to Last

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An interesting feature of many old houses in France is the wonderful ironwork, railings and metalwork decorations used in houses.

The last big job (almost) I plan for Villa Roquette is the front terrace to, what will be, our new front ground floor apartment – this project took a big step forward this week when I finished the brickwork and concreting. it is now ready for the wall and railings.

Terrace for ground floor apartment - a picture window will be fitted next week

I decided to make two short pillars and then insert some two meter panels of old railings. When I went round the secondhand builders materials places I discovered that prices for good ornamental railings are high – some over 1,000 euro a meter for wrought iron railings. What I was looking for were the 19th century cast iron railings which many larger houses had.

We are lucky, the first floor of our home at Villa Roquette has a balcony of cast iron railings with a vine leaf decoration running the length of our house and I thought it would be great to find something similar, but that I could afford.

After a long search and a lot of negotiations I found the perfect pieces.

Cast iron 19th century railings from the South of France

Cast Railings with a chestnut motif

I found two complete balconies in the corner of a field, covered in weeds – in fact I found a treasure trove of railings and balconies – the ones I chose have a Chestnut design of leaves and fruit and are fantastic – they are complete, but need a little repair, but I was once taught how to weld cast iron and plan to put them back to the way they were over 150 years ago

Apartment in Languedoc number six

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Inspired by Christo, I have decided to wrap up our home in blue plastic – I only had enough to do about a tenth of the front of the house, here is a picture of Villa Roquette gift wrapped for you……

covering for the work on apartment number six, due for completio by June 2010

Villa Roquette Gift Wrapped

It is covering the opening for the work on out front ground floor apartment, the big advantage is that I can now make this accessible for a wheelchair and I am planning the interior to be easy to access.

Villa Roquette Apartments

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Since moving to Languedoc; in the South of France, over 15 years ago, Carole and I have offered b&B and apartment rentals, firstin out home in Nizas and now in our home in Montblanc near Pezenas and Agde.

When we sold our Nizas home and bought our home in Montblanc, we were able to use the years of experience and feedback from our guests to adapt our new home for visitors. For the last two years I have been building and constructing the new services for our apartments and I have made them so we can arrange the accommodation to suit a wide variety of demands.

There are four main double bedrooms, four bathrooms, four kitchens and three living rooms which can be put together in a wide variety of combinations, all living rooms can also accommodate two more people in good double or single beds, so we can, in total, comfortably have 14 guests staying with us. We also have our own home with four bedrooms which is carefully integrated, yet insulated and isolated from the guest accommodation.

Getting the heating, air conditioning, sound insulation, private access, dishwashers, washing machines and all the paraphernalia of a total of seven complete family units with parking access to the swimming pool and yet maintaining privacy and a calm environment – has been difficult – fun – but difficult – yet I have done it and I am blogging today to give myself a small pat on the back.