Ian and Alexa Gordon explain how serendipity led them to a wonderful home and creative business in Dordogne
The dream to move to France came from a previous version of our lives, when 30 years ago we lived and worked in Metz in the northeast of ‘l’Hexagone’. Having been obliged to return to the UK for work reasons, our fantasy of lovely weather, a different culture and a simpler way of life had to be put on hold until we were finally free to run away from home!
We eventually ended up in Eymet in Dordogne, through serendipity, having almost bought a holiday home in Cunèges near Sigoulès many years before. We knew the area from the days when homes were purchased through the glossy pages of estate agency magazines depicting pictures of fantastic rambling properties at budget prices. Although that particular property purchase fell through, at the same time we were taken around the area to see other possible alternatives. With the patience of various agents, we visited many of the local areas, but it was the fond memory of sitting in Place Gambetta of Eymet eating pizza in the sunshine that we finally fell for.
THE RIGHT TIME
So, when the time was right, in around 2012, we decided to revisit Eymet and the surrounding area and immediately found our ‘propriété de rêve’. Not for us the dream of many UK buyers who crave loads of land and lovely stone barns with ‘potential’. We were leaving a house set in a massive walled garden in St Andrews, Scotland, that had put us off gardening forever. Being just the two of us, we wanted a property we could lock up and leave without worrying.
Our new project was located in the centre of Eymet and had originally been a warehouse. Having always dreamed of living in a mewsstyle townhouse like the ones featured in 1960s TV dramas in expensive London locations, we had found a potential mews house in Dordogne in the most unlikely of places, a simple A4 sign pinned to the door signalling its availability.
Over a period of five years, we worked to convert the hangar into a lovely three-level stone house designed to our own specific needs. The exterior was kept more or less as it had been, but inside the four remaining stone walls, we created a contemporary living space with a completely open-plan ground floor and garage, two bedrooms and mezzanine on the first floor, and an open-plan studio and roof terrace on the second floor. The studio is a space to indulge a hobby passion for composing and recording music, as well as incorporating a warm winter snug for when the weather isn’t so good.
The decision to start a framing business came from a list of possible alternatives to hanging around in bars, which although tempting, w
