I am looking for and failing to find the post to quote in which one of you delightful people says, philosophically, wouldn't we all be better off if we let the chateaux die a natural death and crumble away -- or just blow them up and replace with modern manageable affordable housing?
I think ETTC has a preponderance of hideous 19th c. nouveaux riche faux chateaux -- of which Strawbridges, Stephanie, Pethericks, Fleuries, et al are chatelaines.
Then there are some really old places nicely preserved for the future, with ambition or intent to serve again as community centers in very rural France. I think Marc and Amy talk about that, reviving vineyards, habitat, and other important infrastructure for rural France. They're the only ones I'm aware of. I've heard Erin and JB mention this -- becoming the heart of the community again -- without much giving back in evidence so far. I think it's significant that in both cases one of the chatelains is French.
But this thing of getting fat in Belle Epoque white elephants hosting hermetically-sealed Brits-only drunken weekends in your bargain-renovated venue is pretty colonial. Neo-colonial.
About restoring old things.
As an old thing myself, I have to say the thought of young people living artisanal lives and replaning 150-year-old clapboards to upcycle on their modest but beautiful Greek revival dwellings in civilized little upstate New York towns brings me to tears. Clara's friends talk about learning traditional dry wall masonry to restore their modest ruin. That whole The Repair Shop emotion -- respect for the worker who went before me, ploughing the perfectly straight furrow, making this clock, hewing this timber, cutting the pattern for this teddy bear. There's two powerful vibes: invocation of the ancestors and resurrection ritual. I'm for it. If you can make a living doing it, which seems doubtful, god bless. Otherwise, like gentleman farmers, you need somebody in the family with rather lucrative a day job.
Not feeling it so much for those French robber baron MacMansions.
I was looking at the restoration of one of the truly old chateaus I'd rule worth saving for the future, and thinking how beautifully the various 13th c rooms have come up as hotel rooms. But those people have a ton of money and had professional workmen repoint the stones and polish the lime render. I doubt it's been restored to historical specifications, which I don't really care much about for useful, living buildings. Aesthetically it's a win, but also earning money off the customers' Knight Templar/Holy Grail/Da Vinci Code etc. fantasies.
I think I like best the parador system, where the government of Spain actually restored patrimony buildings for tourists to stay in. You didn't have to worry about whether or not the host was going to stop drinking/faffing with the fairy lights/shopping and hoarding/ long enough to make sure the sheets were clean. The standards were professional, not expat beach bum.
As for whether or not we'd be better off letting them rot, I don't know. I like to think young people like Dan and Annelise can get a toehold in the housing market restoring a modest village dwelling, and bring something wonderful of themselves and their children' future back to empty, wonderful, rural France.
Marie, why not save time and run them over with a lawnmower?
