A 15th century Manoir or Tower house near the medieval hill village of Cordes-sur-Ciel in the French Tarn region…
.. which belonged to Angela & John Goodwin, was our home for a few days while we shoot in this area – and what a magnificent place it was too…
.. like something you’d normally only expect to see in a fairy tale book 
THE STORY:
The couple went out to find and refurbish a wreck but ended up with a readymade home which one friend said was like something out of a fairytale. By immersing themselves in the French way of life they are now fully fledged Francophiles enjoying a home which is the epitome of rustic manor house living.
First impressions?
“Ironically, this isn’t the type of property we’d usually go for. Our previous two homes in France had been ‘projects’ and indeed so had our last home in Devon before we moved here permanently 16 years ago. We’ve always really enjoyed the challenge of doing up a property and putting our own stamp on it – but when we viewed the tower house all the major work had already been carried out. We just couldn’t resist the wow factor we know France well – we’d holidayed here for 20 years before John took the chance of early retirement and we moved out here – and we knew this particular area in the Tarn region very well as a previous property of ours had been on the south-west coastline. But once we discovered and fell in love with the quaint little medieval hill town of Cordes-sur-Ciel, we knew this was where our next move would take us.”
Their favorite room – and mine too – was the living room…
.. with its double height, overlooked by a gallery – and centers around this huge fireplace…
.. which they light in winter because it does actually get quite cold here it seems.
Talking about lighting, that was a challenge for sure, as capturing the atmosphere of this wonderful old place…
.. was for me, what it was all about.
This wonderfully romantic four poster bed is the centerpiece of the master bedroom, which was bought locally and the rest of the room is furnished with a range of antiques sourced in nearby Albi.
Marie, on the other hand, was more concerned about how the table setting looked…
.. before Angela stood in…
.. to showed her how it was done 
Anyway, we stayed in what we referred to as ‘our wee cave’ – which was underneath and right beside the swimming pool…
.. which was just amazing – but this was the other option…
.. which was in the tower section – with its own spiral staircase which leads to a glass-floored mezzanine level above.
Stunning or what ?
And this is why I love shooting homes abroad so much, as you not only get to see things like this – which you just wouldn’t see back in the UK or Ireland – but you also get to meet the truly amazing people behind all it too.
And Angela & John where definitely two of those amazing people – who even went to the trouble to set-up this final shot…
.. to complete our story of how they had made their dream come true…
.. and what a dream that was too !!
Which just leaves me to say: Thank you from Marie & me to you both – as this one fairy tale we will never forget.
Featured in the October issue of BBC Good Homes magazine the following year…
.. and in Templeton Robinson‘s Property Life magazine…
.. titled ‘Living the dream’ the year after that – plus in Northern Ireland Homes & Lifestyle magazine the year after that too…
.. on pages 46 to 54.
All of which looked stunning and was lovely to see – as it is like seeing our fairy tale each year come true again as well
(Added Note: We are always on the lookout for such homes by the way – so should you happen to know of one and the homeowners are up for it, please do get in touch – as we’d sure love to feature their dream).
Anyway, that’s it from Marie & me in this real life fairy tale, set in the beautiful Tarn region of France – which we have returned to and plan to do again – but that’s another story for another time, which one day I’ll write about too
Cheers,
Ashley
www.ashleymorrison.com
