La Maison du Jardinier

It seems like yesterday that we arrived in Morlaix, and yet so much water has passed under the bridge that it is  difficult to remember what and when things happened.

La Maison du Jardinier ~ before works

We have taken lots, maybe thousands, of photos of most of our adventures here.  If like us, you are pretty chaotic about labeling and categorising the good photos and dumping the bad ones then you will realise that eventually you just have to do something.

We have just started to scratch the surface of this task and have put all of our photos associated with La Maison du Jardinier in one electronic album.  It was looking at the photos that reminded me  what a rush it had been to create this gite.

The oak frame has been errected

Think of the TV programmes “So you think you want to live in France”, or the “Grand Designs” one.  These are the programmes where things go wrong, dates and costs go awry and guests arrive to stay as you finish the last coat of paint on the front door.  I thought at one time that the programmes were a wind up.  Now I am not so sure, it happened to us when we converted La Maison du Jardinier into a gite.

La Maison du Jardinier ~ now

It all started with the builder not starting on the date agreed.  Two months later, at the beginning of April 2006, he had still not started, so we cancelled our arrangements with him and decided to go it alone.  We had already taken bookings for the end of July and most of August!.  The local suppliers and sub-contractors, family and friends did us proud and in the event we were only a week late.  It would be a considerable understatement to  say that the last week and particularly the last night was a bit frantic.  It is history now, of course, and many happy famillies have enjoyed their holidays in the cottage.  Ah memories, and all stimulated by lots of photos!

Living room colours

Why don’t you click here and see the building develop  from start to finish.

Thinking about the style and colour schemes for the little cottage was enormous fun.  The  building is fairly old and possibly dates from when the house was first built in 1805. We think it was a gate house to the estate as the road ran up from Morlaix through what is now our back path, before the route de Paris was built and the new entrance made to the estate. We were told that the previous owner and his wife allowed an elderly man to live there and in exchange he did sone gardening. Thus the name, La Maison du Jardiner was an obvious choice for the little house and it gave Jenny a good basis for some interesting interior design.

WW II murals