Thousands of people dream of buying a chateau in France like the Waters family from Australia who bought the Chateau de Gudanes, a crumbling 94 room building in the Midi-Pyrénées. Very few of us are able to fulfil such an enormous wish but just sometimes a dream can come true…
This is Chateau le Mung in Poitou-Charentes. Neglected, abandoned and very unloved it lay hidden away in a park for decades. Only wild animals enjoyed the spendour of this magnificent 800 year old chateau.
That is until one day, a brave and bold family came along and fell in love with this fairy-tale castle and decided to risk everything to save it after seeing it on the internet whilst in Australia. (Read the full story here).
They cleared out the filthy rooms, flung open the shutters and opened doors that had been closed for so long nobody even remembered what the rooms had been for. They climbed the spiral staircases, lovingly cleaned the original tiled floors and uncovered centuries old graffiti. They discovered a blacksmith’s workshop complete with tools and old carts, they found a beautiful old china cabinet. In the grounds were even more surprises, an old water tower, summer house and even a Chapel.
They discovered a beautiful Dovecote and were amazed to find that birds flocked to it once it was cleaned and restored.
They opened the doors to one of the many outbuildings and discovered stables that looked as though they had been untouched since the 18th Century.
Wild deer looked on in amazement as the Chateau renovation took place.
Read the full story of the inspiring and extra-ordinary restoration of the Chateau Le Mung.
