Bonjour from Château de Gudanes,
We are very excited to share a New Year's update about the recent happenings at the Château.
Snow has already begun to fall upon the mountaintops, making its way deep into the valley. Each morning clouds creep slowly by the Château and frost glistens upon the last remaining flowers and greenery of the gardens.
The day offers little reprieve from the cold and the Château animals, who usually enjoy fossicking about the grounds, stay curled up warmly and cosily in their beds in the kitchen...
Despite the inhospitable weather, consolidation and restoration work is continuing at the Château. The last few months have been a flurry of plasterwork and painting in preparation for laying the antique timber flooring...
The last week before Christmas, the plasterwork was finished in the Chambre du Parc. The damage in this room was the most significant of all the front bedrooms, as when we purchased the Château the floors and ceilings had fallen over four levels in this area. And so, the work in this room has taken a little longer as all of the original moldings had to be cast and recreated...
Meanwhile, we begun installing reclaimed antique Versailles parquetry and this was installed in all of the rooms upstairs before Christmas. After the wood has had a chance to settle into its new home, and the weather is warmer, it will be oiled and waxed in Spring.
We weren't quite able to finish all of the priming and painting before the installation of the parquetry began. Installing the parquetry is a six month process (including the oiling and waxing) and so it had to take priority.
The priming and painting will resume after the flooring has been finished. As this progresses, in the foreground there is always the necessity to find a balance that respects the past and history of the Château as well as the present and future. It would be heartbreaking if the Château looked brand new and seemed as if this work was erasing the Château’s long history and aged patina. And so, after the parquetry has been finished it will be important to take some time and a pause to consider how to best proceed with the continuation of the restoration and the painting work.
When we purchased the Château it was classified as a ruin. This in reality has meant that in each and every room there are layers and layers of continual consolidation and restoration that needs to be undertaken. The work we have achieved in these rooms last year are just another layer of almost endless layers ahead.
In our previous update we mentioned that this further layer of consolidation of the first floor and the flooring would be mostly finished by end of last year and we are thrilled that, although there have been many challenges, we were almost on schedule!
And in the Spring, we are hoping that fittings and furnishings will be prêt a porter, just in time to dress the Château for our Summer Stays and Tours.
So far, we have ordered some discrete and beautiful pastel halo light fittings from Anglepoise. For many years now Anglepoise has supported our endeavours and generously assisted us in installing light fixtures. Anglepoise is a British lighting company which offers classic designs and they have even collaborated with the National Trust.
One of the biggest challenges we will face this year to continue the restoration of the first floor, is reprinting the original Château wallpapers to fill the areas of the walls where wallpaper is missing. We don't plan to wallpaper everywhere, just in the areas where larger parts have been lost. Smaller areas will be left without wallpaper to keep a sense of patina and history.
With this final news our latest update from the Château draws to a close. We look forward to keeping you up to date and soon sharing more about the restoration work that is in progress. In the meantime, from our home to yours we wish you a loving and safe New Year.
With our best wishes,
Karina, Jasmine and the Château Family x
