The Château du Pont de Vaudry, Normandy, where the Shacklocks made their home, was previously owned by the Gallet family of perfumers Roger & Gallet


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At peace with the world W


Every house has its history, but Nick and Sally Shacklock’s Normandy home turned out to have a former battlefield in its grounds, as they tell Annaliza Davis


e lived in Warwick for most of our married life,


but our love of France goes back decades,” says Nick Shacklock. “In the 1990s, we bought a longère in Normandy, which we used as a holiday home with our family, and although I worked in the medical profession and for BT, it was my parallel career as an Army Reservist in the Royal Engineers that proved most practical in our life in France, given the construction work!” Nick and Sally decided that


they’d like to spend longer periods in Normandy after they retired, but Brexit forced them to make a choice between living in France or the UK; they chose France. “When we bought our first French house in Normandy,


it was because we wanted somewhere we could visit easily for a weekend,” says Nick. “After so many years of enjoying the area, why look elsewhere? We’re based just


outside the town of Vire, with all the facilities and services. It’s not really a place that attracts a lot of British owners, and none of our neighbours is an English speaker, which is


good for us as it makes us work a bit harder. We wanted to be part of a community; what’s the point in living in France if you never try to meet people or interact?”


BUYING A CHÂTEAU The couple already had their holiday home, but in 2018, before making the permanent move to France, they bought another property: the Château du Pont de Vaudry. “We never set out to buy a


Nick and Sally Shacklock, proud owners of the Château du Pont de Vaudry 42 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: March/April 2025


château,” laughs Nick, “we were looking for a maison de maître or similar sort of detached property, and we didn’t want to be in the middle of nowhere, so when this property came up just a few kilometres from our holiday home, we took it on as a project. “When we moved to live in France in December 2019, we


© NICK AND SALLY SHACKLOCK


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