Period Living Room Ideas
the chateau’s situated in the northern dordogne which is called the perigord vert – in deep countryside – agricultural land with beautiful villages around it, and it’s just a special tranquil place with a beautiful setting. and it’s just a total rest, relaxation anda recharging of the batteries, and i think that’s why a lot of people come back yearafter year, because it’s a destination of relaxation. i was working as a lawyer in america and itwas time to make a significant change – come back to europe, change of lifestyle, get outof the big cities. i had a medical management company that ihad owned for 30 years, so when we started
to look for a property here it was just thenext step of retirement more or less. it was a new chapter. there was something about the magic of the layout of the property, the pastures and the riverrunning through it… it was right next to the village. in the chateau we’ve got five bedrooms – ensuitebedrooms – and then adjoining we run essentiallytwo self catering houses – one within the grounds of the chateau… and one just a little bit further away whichhas access to the chateau gardens.
the summer house is a two-bedroomed, two bathroomfacility. it has a very nice deck or terrace on thefront of it which is lovely for outdoor dining and outdoor living. for us it's just heaven on earth. the accommodation, particularly this yearbecause we have been self-catering, just like all the rooms in the chateau, it's so luxuriousand of course, at 5pm there's nothing better than cooling down in the pool. it's absolutley superbly equipped - it haseverything you would need to live, both in the kitchen and the shower room and bathroom- it's all beautifully decorated and equipped.
les sabots was a building that hadn't beenlived in for a hundred years so we thought we could make it into something if you wanted to, you could live in sabotsand make this a whole operation from the chateau to carriage house, which is now a privateresidence. the main appeal of this property when we werelooking was that unlike most chambre d’hotes we could make a separate residence for ourselveswith a separate private garden for us and our dogs and our friends to come to stay;and we converted the old carriage house. we also didn’t want that it would be a hotel,we made it feel more like people were coming to a house party.
we want people who come to stay here to bea part – to use the library, to use the bar, to use the pool and sit in the loungeand then make yourself comfortable, because it becomes their house - it's not our house,it’s their house, and that was the whole idea. guests will have a wonderful time no matterhow you run it. they’ve got a heated pool, they can dineon the terrace in good weather, they can breakfast on the terrace, they can have dinner insideif the weather’s not good – in a beautiful restaurant inside. it’s the attention to detail, the attentionto guests – always putting them first – always making sure the place is as beautiful as wecan make it.
guests don’t really appreciate how stressedthey are until they actually have the ability to unwind; so they would book for twonights, and the next thing you know they would ask if they can stay, and they’d be herefor a week. you’re really coming to the heart of france. you're coming to small villages that have music, festivals and markets… where you can go out biking and walking and run acrossdeer and wild boar. it’s a very tranquil part of the land infrance – very green, a lot of water, a lot of old buildings, a lot of history. you’ve got chateau puyghuilem that you canwalk to, an abbey boschaud you can walk to, the grottes de villars with cave paintingswhich you can cycle to.
villars is a living entity even though it’sa very small village with only about 450 inhabitants. one of the things that is great is that wehave a license – a liquor license which allows us to serve all kinds of alcohol. so the person that is coming in wanting torelax they could have their wine, they could have their drink so they don’t have to worryabout driving. we’re open from wednesday to sunday lunch. we started a new concept this year of doinggourmet burgers on wednesdays. and we’ve been overwhelmed with people cominghere… particularly to dine on the terrace. this is a healing, beautiful place to comeand stay and my main memory that i always
have at the end of every year is the smilingfaces and the laughter always – stays with me always. yes it’s been 10 years – we’re gettingolder. i think it’s a sensible thing to do in yoursixties to make choices that will carry you through the next ten years and so it’s timefor us to find a smaller project… to find someone who will be as enthusiastic aswe have been in looking after this beautiful property and making it their home and theirlifestyle choice. whomever buys this can create the kind ofbusiness they want to create – they can run it more intensively than we have, theycan be open longer in the year, they can run
a larger restaurant, they can run a restaurantall of the days – there is the ability to do that. we would stay on as long as they need us – tobe a part – to make sure they were successful… to support them to make sure that the peoplethat are coming back are coming back for the same reasons. i had never done this business before - it'san experience that i would never have missed out on. we have had people who have come back everysingle year… and it’s very gratifying that we’ve madea little piece of somebody’s life.
people walk away, and they walk away witha smile.
