Vignette Restoration Dramas

Recently, I was sent a petition to help save the fabulous, fairy-tale Château du Duc d’Épérnon, which is falling into decay.

Immediately, I wanted to buy the place and set to work. Alas, or thankfully as far as my husband Michel was concerned, it is not for sale.

I am obsessed with properties: castles, estates, vineyards, groves, plots that offer ‘potential’. Michel grows dizzy at the sight of me poring over yet another brochure gleaming with photographs compiled by upmarket estate agents. Although I enjoy browsing the glossies, it is the ‘ruins’ that light my imaginative fire: dilapidated properties, such as this château in Brie, that demand more than one lifetime and several fortunes to “sing back into existence”.