The couple are now enjoying retirement at their renovated home in Auvergne


La Ruine reigns! B


From a ruin with no running water or sanitation to a comfortable and stylish home... Shirley Williams looks back on 17 years of renovating in the Auvergne


ack in 2006, after selling our small village house in the Limousin, I was


looking through the property pages of my French Property News and spotted an old farmhouse for sale in a small hamlet in the Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne. We were about to make a quick trip to France to collect the last bits and pieces from our old house, so unbeknown to Dirk, I made an appointment to view it.


La Ruine (as we’ve since


named it) had none of the requirements we wanted in our next home (close to an airport, nearer to Calais, not too much work...), and after the viewing, Dirk said he “wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole”! Fast-forward 16 years and


we are now retired and have been living full-time in the now fully renovated ‘ruin’ since September 2020. We had little knowledge of the Auvergne region back


then (now joined with the Rhône-Alpes). There are many beautiful sites, including the Chaîne des Puys, 40km of dormant volcanoes, the highest being the Puy-de-Dôme at 1,465 altitude, and Le Puy-en- Velay, famous for green lentils and its magnificent cathedral perched high up on a volcanic plateau. For skiers there’s Super Besse and the glorious Alpinesque town of Besse, an area also great for walking. We are nestled between the towns of Issoire and Ambert, both of which hold fabulous weekly markets; for larger purchases, we visit Clermont-Ferrand.


60 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: March/April 2023 Shirley gets stuck in


NEW CHAPTER Back when we bought it, La Ruine had no sanitation or running water – electricity was connected but there was just one lightbulb and a single socket. The roof was in a dire state and needed to be replaced urgently, and there was an earth floor downstairs. A large attached barn had collapsed years before.


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frenchentree.com/ living-in-france


Shirley spotted ‘La Ruine’ in an FPN advert back in 2006


We were both working


full-time, only visiting on annual holidays, and we now agree that we must have been fools to think we would ever be able to afford or find the time to renovate it! We had the funds to replace the roof so we organised this while we spent our holidays clearing the jungle of a garden, sorting out loads of rubbish and tidying the site while we stayed in nearby gîtes. In 2010, we left our jobs and


home on the West Sussex/ Surrey border. Our house was let out and we became a full- time housekeeper/maintenance couple working for a HNW individual. This new chapter in our lives enabled us to save much-needed funds, and also take more time off. Two breaks between jobs allowed us to spend a few months at a time at the house, in a caravan. Sometime later, we had


the old barn demolished, the rubble cleared and a concrete foundation put in its place as we eventually wanted to add a kitchen extension.


© SHIRLEY AND DIRK WILLIAMS


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