REAL LIFE
no idea about Susan’s recent conversations concerning the manor, but she invited Mike and Valerie to lunch to talk through her ideas. After a long discussion, she made an offer that the couple couldn’t resist: “If you live in it, we’ll buy it”.
MAKING IT HAPPEN Eventually, after nine long years of trying to find a way to make it happen, Mike and Valerie finally returned to live in France in 2001. “The manoir needed quite a
lot of redecorating,” explains Mike, “and Susan used to come over with her husband to spend time here and do a lot of the interior work. Back in the 1960s and 70s, the manor was owned by the Breton singer-songwriter Glenmor. One of the outbuildings had been his studio, and he was one of the key figures in reviving the interest in Breton culture. He and his wife had decorated everything in a colourful hippy style throughout and that hadn’t been changed, so there was quite a lot to do!” The Smiths planned to run
a bed-and-breakfast business as their part of the agreement to live in the manor. The first five years were spent setting up, hosting friends and family of the owners. Mike also contacted Gîtes de France,
which at the time was looking for a four-star B&B in central Brittany. Its people came out for a visit and gave the couple a list of exactly what they needed to do in order to gain the rating. Setting up the business in such a way as to generate their own income, Mike and Valerie were able to stay long-term in France. “We opened in May 2007,
offering bed, breakfast and evening meals with a three- bedroom suite and a one- bedroom suite. It’s strange
60 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: March/April 2024
how things have worked out. Thanks to Susan, we became custodians of this property and started our own business in France, which in the end, is way better than my initial plan of getting a job with a French finance company,” says Mike. “Thankfully, it turns out that
I love this work, the mixture of outdoor maintenance and hospitality. It was a new thing for me to be organising work outside around the weather, and managing my week around the guests, but it’s
different every day and I just love that about working here.”
MISSION RELAX The couple hold a particular place in their hearts for pastors and missionaries who come to use the manor as a restorative retreat. “Having worked as missionaries ourselves, we know what it’s like, often living in wild places and doing outreach work that can be utterly exhausting,” explains Valerie. “Here it’s quiet and green, with plenty of space
© MANOIR DU POUL
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