Chris and Micki’s breathtaking Brittany bolt-hole aſter the work was done


the growing of flax for linen and canvas, much of it destined for sailcloth for the French Navy. Our house was built to provide the food for the merchant’s family and was also apparently occupied by nuns. So, it became both a religious and pastoral community, and the driving force behind farming and food production for the big house, as well as for our smaller house. The nuns ran a school (at the end of our courtyard) for the linen merchant’s children and those of residents living in surrounding hamlets. And don’t get me started on


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Great Brittany W


hen we casually tell someone that we are travelling the next week


to spend a month renovating a house in Brittany, one that we bought for just £16,000, all inclusive, we are regarded with shock. It’s as if we’ve dropped in from another planet rather than just sunny Worthing! No doubt they have a mental image of such a place; perhaps


a forgotten, edge-of-village, terraced house, with no roof, no land and everything to do from the ground up. But that’s not quite how it


was for my wife Micki and I. It feels strange remembering our first viewing trips to Brittany. We ended up with an 18th- century farmhouse on a three- quarter-acre plot with three barns, a well and an ancient bread oven and smoke house.


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the spooks, the phantoms, the strange phenomena, plus the barn owls and pipistrelles in the barn (it’s been a real hoot), not to mention the buried ‘treasure’ in the courtyard.


A little bit of blood, a few tears, but no sweat… Chris Slade looks back on 25 years of renovating his and his wife’s home in Brittany


Voila! Yes, of course, there were holes in the roof and 10 years’ worth of overgrown land, as well as woodworm and a touch of dry rot taking hold, but it had such an interesting history. ‘Ker Leroy’ was originally


built as a ‘tied’ house, 100 metres behind the property of a successful 18th-century linen merchant in the heart of ‘canvas country’. Here, much of the land was dedicated to


FINAL FLOURISHES Fast forward 25 years and here we are travelling once again to add some of the, by now, ‘non- essential’ finishing touches to the place – as well as to enjoy many of the wonderful aspects that Brittany has to offer. We hope previous Ker Leroy owners and occupiers would approve of what we’ve been up to. We have learnt such a lot along the way. Micki used to keep a diary.


One entry reads: “Today we planned to work on the house in the morning and go off on an excursion in the afternoon. That was until Chris put an axe through an electrical cable. Chris is OK, and so are the electrics – now! We will go out tomorrow!” To be fair to me though, the cable was buried in the wall and I was taking out a doorframe. Note: you can buy,


Chris and Micki have no regrets about their 25-year love affair with Brittany Ker Leroy in the early days of the couple’s ownership and renovation work 52 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: March/April 2025


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