Renovating a château in Béziers led Candy Miller and Charles Teboul to some very surprising discoveries
Behind every French property renovation there’s a story. But some are so touching that they really warm the heart.
Not only did Anglo-French couple, Candy Miller and Charles Teboul, turn a château in Béziers into a successful business, but they also made a wonderful connection with the family that previously owned it.
MEETING OF MINDS
The couple’s personal story began when they met almost a decade ago at one of Charles’ restaurants in Paris. Despite the event being an ‘anti-St Valentine’s’ party, their eyes met over a glass of wine and Cupid did the rest. Not that this caused Candy to lose her career focus, she continued to run a designer fashion boutique in Montmartre called Paperdolls.
But, as much as the couple loved living and working in France’s capital city, they hankered after a “calmer and more authentic lifestyle closer to nature” in Languedoc.
‘Franco-Londonian’ Candy knew the area well from family holidays in the picturesque village of Montouliers and she had no problem convincing Charles. So in 2020 the couple began their search, and 20 properties later found exactly what they were looking for: a small, twin-turreted, 19th-century château on the banks of the Canal du Midi in Béziers. Not only did this ‘folie Biterroise’ (Biterroise means located in the Béziers area) have plenty of charm, with its mix of architectural/decorative styles typical of French folies from this period, it also had lots of potential as a hospitality business. Accordingly, they bought it in September 2021, and soon after made the move.
Architecture aside, the literal meaning of folie in French is ‘foolishness’, but the can-do couple never had a moment of buyer’s remorse. They were very practical about their approach to the renovation from the outset and had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve. As Candy explains: “The idea was to develop a restaurant/tea room/guest house offering a wealth of gastronomic, wellness and cultural experiences, targeted at the middle to upper end of the market.” They also wanted to bring their own personality to the property, while retaining much of its original character.
Despite a leaking roof, rotten floorboards and the challenge of managing two dozen tradesmen, Charles and Candy took just seven months to complete the project. Apart from the installation of a wheelchair ramp and some minor alterations to the interior, they maintained the structure of the property. They also kept many features including the ornate, Neo-Moorish (Néo- Mauresque), decoration of the dome in the former salle de billard, now a r
