Follow our restoration journey as we peel back the layers of time & craftsmanship
Built in 1820 this Normandy gem had the good fortune to be redesigned by the designer of The Ritz, Monsieur Georges Farcy for the Bon Marché family in 1910. The chateau has been untouched since the retreating German army removed the heating system in the 1940’s. Eisenhower moved into the chateau when he was appointed supreme commander of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of north-western Europe.
Restoration Chateau is a classical Parisian design, with 57 rooms, 22 ensuite bedrooms (revolutionary for its time), 8 staterooms and 27 acres. Over the coming months please join us on a journey of discovery as we piece together history and restore this classic building back to its former glory.
Our Neigbour’s Chateau has the joy of having the worlds first ballooning museaum and so the sheer joy of early morning summer mists rising as the balloons float over our chateau and grounds silently on the stillness of the air ( until we wave and shout at them !) ... a truly majestic sight .
We also managed with a great struggle to get the third Capital onto the back of the building and securely cemented in place ...I can’t begin to tell you how heavy they are especially in this heat .
Tim and his mother having been painting the second coat of pigeon blue on all the balcony’s in preparation for their gilding .
#balloning #balleroycastle #balleroycastle #balleroy #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration #chateau #château #châteaulife #france
Aug 9
Our Neigbour’s Chateau has the joy of having the worlds first ballooning museaum and so the sheer joy of early morning summer mists rising as the balloons float over our chateau and grounds silently on the stillness of the air ( until we wave and shout at them !) ... a truly majestic sight .
We also managed with a great struggle to get the third Capital onto the back of the building and securely cemented in place ...I can’t begin to tell you how heavy they are especially in this heat .
Tim and his mother having been painting the second coat of pigeon blue on all the balcony’s in preparation for their gilding .
#balloning #balleroycastle #balleroycastle #balleroy #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration #chateau #château #châteaulife #france
Early morning at the chateau and we took the plastic protection off yesterday so you can start to see the building for the first time for over a year - gleaming away as if she had just been built ...( still working on the lower part but you can’t gain access to that until the scaffolding is down ) .....the early morning first sun starting to filter through the 300 year old Cedar of Lebanon , one of my favorite trees - and the utter stillness of the park .
There is something truly magical about this space the origins of the monastery on this site as a Commanderie ,(which was the Knights of the Templar ) date back to the 12th Century, hence the secret tunnel apparently under the garden room in the corner of this picture - not sure I’m going to be allowed to dig up the stunning encaustic tiles in the room to find it though ! Lol #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration #chateau #château #privatepark #ceaderoflebanon #knightstemplar #commanderie #balleroycastle #balleroy #bayeaux #escapetothechateau
Aug 8
Early morning at the chateau and we took the plastic protection off yesterday so you can start to see the building for the first time for over a year - gleaming away as if she had just been built ...( still working on the lower part but you can’t gain access to that until the scaffolding is down ) .....the early morning first sun starting to filter through the 300 year old Cedar of Lebanon , one of my favorite trees - and the utter stillness of the park .
There is something truly magical about this space the origins of the monastery on this site as a Commanderie ,(which was the Knights of the Templar ) date back to the 12th Century, hence the secret tunnel apparently under the garden room in the corner of this picture - not sure I’m going to be allowed to dig up the stunning encaustic tiles in the room to find it though ! Lol #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration #chateau #château #privatepark #ceaderoflebanon #knightstemplar #commanderie #balleroycastle #balleroy #bayeaux #escapetothechateau
On this v hot day the coolest place for Hachi is definitely the Hearth of the fireplace in what will be the Chinese bedroom ( It’s going be hung with an 18th copy of a chinoiserie wallpaper ) We also have the pair of slipper chairs upholstered in a delicious Chinese yellow silk that we brought last week at auction for £300 ... still can’t believe we managed to get them for that ! We’ve also managed to colour match the silk with one from @lelievreparis so we can do the curtains and bed hangings in the same ,and for all those out there with a practical bent it’s a commercial man made one so it won’t rot - but you couldn’t tell the difference) #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration
Aug 7
On this v hot day the coolest place for Hachi is definitely the Hearth of the fireplace in what will be the Chinese bedroom ( It’s going be hung with an 18th copy of a chinoiserie wallpaper ) We also have the pair of slipper chairs upholstered in a delicious Chinese yellow silk that we brought last week at auction for £300 ... still can’t believe we managed to get them for that ! We’ve also managed to colour match the silk with one from @lelievreparis so we can do the curtains and bed hangings in the same ,and for all those out there with a practical bent it’s a commercial man made one so it won’t rot - but you couldn’t tell the difference) #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration
The four ( only a pair in this shot ) Early 19th century Venetian giltwood torcheres are finally up !! We found them at an antiques fair in london and fell in love with them for the entrance hall of our chateau .
Originally designed to sit into those wooden blocks on a wall above the ‘ high tide ‘aqua alta’ waterline of a Venetian palazzo’s watergate entrance they look utterly beautifully flanking both pairs of statues in the hall now. They are also very rare first of all to have 2 pairs and secondly that they didn’t rot away... it’s also delicious to have the original faded pink / red damask still around the lower pole part ...a fabric colour and texture you see all over Venice .
It’s so exciting getting these items that we’ve spent the last two years buying finally out and up ...! It’s like Christmas everyday for us at the moment ...
Aug 6
The four ( only a pair in this shot ) Early 19th century Venetian giltwood torcheres are finally up !! We found them at an antiques fair in london and fell in love with them for the entrance hall of our chateau .
Originally designed to sit into those wooden blocks on a wall above the ‘ high tide ‘aqua alta’ waterline of a Venetian palazzo’s watergate entrance they look utterly beautifully flanking both pairs of statues in the hall now. They are also very rare first of all to have 2 pairs and secondly that they didn’t rot away... it’s also delicious to have the original faded pink / red damask still around the lower pole part ...a fabric colour and texture you see all over Venice .
It’s so exciting getting these items that we’ve spent the last two years buying finally out and up ...! It’s like Christmas everyday for us at the moment ...
In order to fix the capitals onto the back elevation they need to be bolted onto the main fabric of the building with a meter long bolt ,times 2 - that means drilling through the entire stone work of a meter by hand (twice) per capital to do this !
In these shots you’ll see what was left of the capitals ( one was missing on each elevation , these are when we first inspected the capitals and the pediment that was literally on its last legs at the time - one more year and the entire elevation would have fallen off ). Surprisingly the capitals were originally made in plaster (seriously ,what were they thinking ?, did the family know or was it a doggy builder doing something on the cheap ??) needless to say two fell off and thank goodness we had two left in which we could copy .
We took them back to london and commissioned a company to cast them in solid stone composite - these will last for ever but presented a few issues ,a) it takes five people to left one capital , b) they need to be fixed very very securely to the fabric of the building! Hence having to bolt them through the entire wall at a meter thick .( which we are doing ourselves !)
The last stage later this week will be to waterproof them before painting them with a specialist exterior paint .
Then they can be gilded with 22 carat gold leaf - lets hope its not too windy next week !
#capitals #architecture #classicalarchitecture #château #restorationchateau #chateau #chateaudiy #escapetothechateau #escapetothechateaux #france🇫🇷 #balleroy #balleroycastle #balleroychateau
Aug 5
In order to fix the capitals onto the back elevation they need to be bolted onto the main fabric of the building with a meter long bolt ,times 2 - that means drilling through the entire stone work of a meter by hand (twice) per capital to do this !
In these shots you’ll see what was left of the capitals ( one was missing on each elevation , these are when we first inspected the capitals and the pediment that was literally on its last legs at the time - one more year and the entire elevation would have fallen off ). Surprisingly the capitals were originally made in plaster (seriously ,what were they thinking ?, did the family know or was it a doggy builder doing something on the cheap ??) needless to say two fell off and thank goodness we had two left in which we could copy .
We took them back to london and commissioned a company to cast them in solid stone composite - these will last for ever but presented a few issues ,a) it takes five people to left one capital , b) they need to be fixed very very securely to the fabric of the building! Hence having to bolt them through the entire wall at a meter thick .( which we are doing ourselves !)
The last stage later this week will be to waterproof them before painting them with a specialist exterior paint .
Then they can be gilded with 22 carat gold leaf - lets hope its not too windy next week !
#capitals #architecture #classicalarchitecture #château #restorationchateau #chateau #chateaudiy #escapetothechateau #escapetothechateaux #france🇫🇷 #balleroy #balleroycastle #balleroychateau
We hung the chandelier in the Grand Salon and finished painting all the mouldings and windows yesterday- We even put the Aubusson rug down in the petit salon which you can see here in the foreground -
When they have finished with the rest of the ‘painting hang’ and step ladders ( not having step ladders on the carpets !!) we can put the main grand salon Aubusson down ...and see what they both look like together 😬!
They wont be a perfect colour match because they used very subtle vegetable dyes to make the colours and they were never designed as a pair but they have a wonderful mellowed softness which gives them their distinctive character.( which is also why the Chinese rip off ones look so bad and wrong - they use white in theirs and modern dyes ) It took us over a year to find both rugs , one from a grand palazzo in Italy the other in France - Amazingly they both have oval medallions in the corners that work with the ceiling design ( see the background of the chandelier) The Italian one has the ducal crest in it ,which we are toying with creating in the ceiling medallions .( it would be a shame not too !)
For today we are going to tackle the HUGE job of getting the remaining two capitals up onto the exterior back elevation ... which is a five man lift per capital ... but that’s tomorrow’s post ! Lol #aubusson #grandsalon #chateau #chateaurestoration #restoration #restorationchateau #classicism
Aug 4
We hung the chandelier in the Grand Salon and finished painting all the mouldings and windows yesterday- We even put the Aubusson rug down in the petit salon which you can see here in the foreground -
When they have finished with the rest of the ‘painting hang’ and step ladders ( not having step ladders on the carpets !!) we can put the main grand salon Aubusson down ...and see what they both look like together 😬!
They wont be a perfect colour match because they used very subtle vegetable dyes to make the colours and they were never designed as a pair but they have a wonderful mellowed softness which gives them their distinctive character.( which is also why the Chinese rip off ones look so bad and wrong - they use white in theirs and modern dyes ) It took us over a year to find both rugs , one from a grand palazzo in Italy the other in France - Amazingly they both have oval medallions in the corners that work with the ceiling design ( see the background of the chandelier) The Italian one has the ducal crest in it ,which we are toying with creating in the ceiling medallions .( it would be a shame not too !)
For today we are going to tackle the HUGE job of getting the remaining two capitals up onto the exterior back elevation ... which is a five man lift per capital ... but that’s tomorrow’s post ! Lol #aubusson #grandsalon #chateau #chateaurestoration #restoration #restorationchateau #classicism
The wonderful servants staircase that is still untouched that goes the entire height of the four floors of the chateau and then into the top servants corridor which runs the length of the building ... When we moved in it had the communication lines running up the staircase from the Second World War still in place .Two wires that they clipped their telephones lines to on each floor .
The two tone grey makes it feel slightly institutional but after we’ve plastered the ceiling and all the hundreds of cracks we think we are going to use a light cream and Celadon damask wall paper from @farrowandball ( we are about to try it out next week having just had it made up for the 1st floor corridor wing ... it’s really subtle and the damask pattern is wood blocked so it has a beautiful paint texture on the surface that catches the light )
We are then thinking about a club hang of pictures ( ie lots and lots of paintings stacked one above each other to get to the full height on the staircase ) #downtonabbey #servantstairs #backstairs #farrowandball #farrowandballwallpaper #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration #chateau #château #savingthelittlebighouse #savingoldbuildings #france🇫🇷 #normandy #balleroy #balleroycastle
Aug 3
The wonderful servants staircase that is still untouched that goes the entire height of the four floors of the chateau and then into the top servants corridor which runs the length of the building ... When we moved in it had the communication lines running up the staircase from the Second World War still in place .Two wires that they clipped their telephones lines to on each floor .
The two tone grey makes it feel slightly institutional but after we’ve plastered the ceiling and all the hundreds of cracks we think we are going to use a light cream and Celadon damask wall paper from @farrowandball ( we are about to try it out next week having just had it made up for the 1st floor corridor wing ... it’s really subtle and the damask pattern is wood blocked so it has a beautiful paint texture on the surface that catches the light )
We are then thinking about a club hang of pictures ( ie lots and lots of paintings stacked one above each other to get to the full height on the staircase ) #downtonabbey #servantstairs #backstairs #farrowandball #farrowandballwallpaper #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration #chateau #château #savingthelittlebighouse #savingoldbuildings #france🇫🇷 #normandy #balleroy #balleroycastle
Two years ago this August we purchased our amazing chateau , this filming was on our fist trip in late sept of that year and we began our wonderful journey .
We had no idea about it’s incredible history , or that it played such an important role with Eisenhower during the 2 world war - no one told us until we found pictures , film footage and some amazing letters / negatives
We knew it would be hard but it’s been so rewarding- the last picture after this film is her now , gleaming again and restored .
There is still a mountain to climb but we have started. In 2 years we have a wing of the internal electrical work , a new roof , a new sewage system for 22 loos , and all the drives and paths ! And she’s starting to feel like a home again .
Not bad for 2 years .lol.
#restorationchateau #château #chateau #chateaurestoration #buyingachateau #balleroy #balleroycastle
Aug 1
Two years ago this August we purchased our amazing chateau , this filming was on our fist trip in late sept of that year and we began our wonderful journey .
We had no idea about it’s incredible history , or that it played such an important role with Eisenhower during the 2 world war - no one told us until we found pictures , film footage and some amazing letters / negatives
We knew it would be hard but it’s been so rewarding- the last picture after this film is her now , gleaming again and restored .
There is still a mountain to climb but we have started. In 2 years we have a wing of the internal electrical work , a new roof , a new sewage system for 22 loos , and all the drives and paths ! And she’s starting to feel like a home again .
Not bad for 2 years .lol.
#restorationchateau #château #chateau #chateaurestoration #buyingachateau #balleroy #balleroycastle
The wonderful original encaustic floor tiles have all been cleaned , polished and sealed - gleaming again like the day they were laid in 1911.
It’s remarkable to think its had the SS jack boots marching over them when it was their HQ followed by Eisenhower and the Allied troops as their base for operation overlord ... and yet there they sit , looking as if nothing had happened .It really goes to prove the enduring quality of the materials the family used in creating the chateau .We are so lucky .
#entrancehall #staircase #encaustic #encaustictiles #chateau #château #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration #chateaurescue #operationoverlord #overlord #eisenhower
Jul 31
The wonderful original encaustic floor tiles have all been cleaned , polished and sealed - gleaming again like the day they were laid in 1911.
It’s remarkable to think its had the SS jack boots marching over them when it was their HQ followed by Eisenhower and the Allied troops as their base for operation overlord ... and yet there they sit , looking as if nothing had happened .It really goes to prove the enduring quality of the materials the family used in creating the chateau .We are so lucky .
#entrancehall #staircase #encaustic #encaustictiles #chateau #château #restorationchateau #chateaurestoration #chateaurescue #operationoverlord #overlord #eisenhower
