Converting Old Properties In Brittany, France.

I've just spent the day removing the mud fromthe inside, and "point" them on the outside so that
between the stones of our house in Brittany. Thethe whole house looks like a wedding cake. We've
mud stands in place of lime or cement mortar whichavoided the wedding cake appearance on the outside
were unavailable or unaffordable when the house- leaving the "belles pierres" to speak for themselves.
was built.On the inside we try to preserve some of the
The process gave ample time for reflection on whatunevenness of the walls and leave party walls with
should be done when an old house is modernised.adjoining houses as they are - the rest covered in
Here in Brittany it is impossible to preserve a house inplasterboard that follows the contours of the walls.
its original state if it is to be lived in. All the memoriesThe rooves were nearly always slated in Brittany, but
of those times - mostly the memories have died withthe old slates have almost disappeared. They were
the people who lived then - would be of badof poor quality for the most part, but even the
weather, mud, cramped living space, the cold andsmallest were used (near the ridge of the roof). Like
privation. Today we can avoid these things but wenearly everybody else we replace with Spanish slates.
risk losing the spirit of these old places.French slates from the Monts d'Arree or Trelaze in
Ironically one of the features that we, and others likeAnjou are only for the very rich.
us, proudly retain is the dated front door lintel. ButAs far as the floors are concerned we capitulate to
our French neighbours tell us that many such datedmodern practice, so tiled concrete replaces "terre
artefacts were actually looted from the local manoirsbattue" (=beaten earth) which was the traditional
at the time of the revolution.floor material. This lives on, by the way, in dances
The upper storey of old houses was always acalled "pile menu" which originally accompanied the
grenier - never lived in except by mice who feastedactual process of consolidating the "terre".
on whatever was stored there. These days theSo it is with water, gas, electricity and telephone: we
grenier becomes several bedrooms. They can boxedhave them all but we often think about the last
in as normal rooms or left open right up to the ridgefarming family which lived here. All four daughters
- 15 feet, which is what we have done in part."bettered themselves" and the only remaining sign of
Next the walls would be as rough as the stone thatfarming is a plough and a harrow at the bottom of
made them, but possibly lime washed indoors everyour garden..
spring to control the population of bed bugs whichHow can you reasonably honour such people who
spent part of their life in the walls. Nowadays welived such hard lives ?
insulate them and cover them with plasterboard on