REAL LIFE


“I wanted to do something nice with this building and hopefully it will look aſter me in return”


sports sector including the Intersport store chain. The building, which is three


properties knocked into one, has high ceilings, wooden beams and large airy rooms. Given its central location in the village, next to the old church, and the age of the beams, it is thought to date from the 1600s.


TAKING SHAPE “I wanted to do something nice with this building and hopefully it will look after me in return. Churchill said: ‘We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.’ I definitely have a similar belief,” says Chris. One of the biggest hurdles


Chris faced was obtaining planning permission for ‘change of use’ to convert the old barn into a home. So when he put in an offer for the property, he added the proviso that the sale would only go through if planning permission


was provided. “The French system is good and I was able to add that caveat,” he says. However, his worries were


unfounded. As the building had a fireplace, it meant that at some point it had been habitable and possibly lived in, and therefore permission for change of use, was granted. “The Bozel commune is one


of the best you could move to. The marie (town hall) knows that if they want the schools to be full, the bars used and the restaurant to be busy, they have to help with the planning,” says Chris. He paid €100,000 for the


rambling old barn, including taxes and agents’ fees. The restoration took more than four years, as it could only be done during the summer months when it was warm enough to do the exterior work. He estimates that creating the large open- plan chalet with separate ground-floor apartment and


Clockwise from main: The chalet facade aſter renovation; the building was in a sorry state when Chris bought it; the entrance pre-transformation


workroom has cost a bargain price of just €240,000. Having refurbished flats and


Chris lives half the year in Brighton and the other half in the French Alps


offices in Britain, Chris has had some experience in building redevelopment. The Alpine chalet is his fifth renovation, although his other projects weren’t as large as this. He also collaborated with local people working in the property market – including a builder colleague – and was able to save a great deal of money, as well as pick up useful tips along the way.


He joined Facebook groups


for the Tarentaise valley, (of which Bozel is a part) and Les Trois Vallées, where older high- end chalets are often knocked down and rebuilt on the same footprint, creating a lot of recyclable materials. “One lady had received a


quote of €50,000 to have her chalet demolished. She asked if anyone would like to do it for her, in exchange for keeping the materials. So I went there with a group of lads, knocked


4 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: March/April 2023 31


© CHRIS MORAN


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148