The first stage of the work began with reinstalling the floors, walls and ceilings and ensuring that the building is structurally stable. A Catalonian construction team travelled from Barcelona and twelve men rebuilt the Château over twelve months, working in all seasons and even through snow.

Today, we are at the restoration phase of work…

To give you some background, the Château is a Class I Historical Monument. This same classification is held by the Palace of Versailles and the Eiffel Tower. And so, any and all work that is carried out first has to be applied to and approved by the Monuments Historic of France, which is a government-led organisation that monitors changes to historic buildings. And, before the relevant documents may be submitted months and months of work must go into recording, investigating and outlining in meticulous length and detail what work is planned. This process applies for all work no matter how small.

In keeping with this, the Château Restoration Team must also be overseen and include members of the Monuments Historic in capacities such as architects, artisans etc. In tandem with the Monuments Historic the Château Team is then comprised of professional restorers from France, Italy and England.

We (the Waters family) also work alongside these restorers in order to learn their techniques and processes, so that we are able to gain more knowledge and insight into the important philosophies and theories of restoration, conservation and preservation…