FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE

We venture into the hidden gem of the glorious Creuse, one of France's least populated regions

- John Whitney

Road congestion on our densely populated island is a frustration shared by many British cyclists. We can moan about it. And we do! Riding earlier, or later, or out of rush hours, is our only real solution to the problem, short of moving somewhere altogether more remote. Family, friends and work are often the major barriers to that, so we stay put - and continue to bemoan our lot on our heaving road network.

What happens, then, when the stars align, and the opportunity opens to make that escape to the country.

Lifelong cyclist Anthony Muir and his wife, Heidi, had lived in Maidstone, Kent, for decades, raising their three children and taking their work commutes on the chin - Anthony's to Cyclopark in Gravesend, where he was the manager, Heidi's at a boarding school. But with their children flying the nest and making lives for themselves in London and elsewhere, and looking for a change in their work situations, the chance to do something totally leftfield presented itself. Escape to the country? Well, that wouldn't quite cut it. Escaping from it was on their minds.

A very big house in the country

Seven hours since we disembarked our Brittany Ferries boat in Caen, a couple since last putting rubber down on an autoroute and 20 minutes on the central Creuse region's topsy-turvy single-track lanes, we pulled into the long driveway of Chez Jallot, an exceptional 19th-century French manor house, which that escape eventually brought Anthony and Heidi to.

If it looks and sounds familiar, you'll likely know it from Channel 4 property show Grand Designs.

Running for 25 years as of 2024, the house featured in a popular episode in 2003 and has been revisited several times since - focussing on British couple Doug and Deni Ibbs as they took on the challenge of rebuilding a dilapidated Chez Jallot. It remains one of the most ambitious renovations in the show's history.