Creating our gîte d’étape – step 4: discoveries
As we were about to start work on the first floor of our gîte d’étape on the Chemin d’Amadour (GR81), we were intrigued by some marks on one of the walls. Curious as we are, we decided to take a closer look.
And we were very glad we did, as it led us to discover a few little gems that only very old buildings can hide.
A « secret » passage!
Some time ago, we noticed some irregularities in a wall in the room above our garage. As this wall is shared with the first floor of the house, and before making a final decision on how to configure our gîte d’étape, we decided to go and see what was going on and why the wall sounded hollow.
On closer inspection we saw that the wall had been repaired with plasterboard, from which we carefully removed a small corner. We probed it with a screwdriver, but met no resistance… So we tried a 50 cm-long stick… Still no resistance!
At that point, we started to get a bit excited!
We decided to remove all the plasterboard, still on the garage side, and… we discovered a passageway, neatly built, 110 cm long and 60 cm wide, connecting the two buildings! On the house side, this passageway is bricked up with hollow bricks and goes completely unnoticed. We even had to drill a hole to see exactly where it was.
We’re absolutely delighted with this discovery! We feel like laughing, dancing, shouting… and to think we nearly missed it! In short, as you can imagine, it’s a real celebration!
A fireplace may hide another…
Following this initial discovery, we decided to carry out further investigations (obviously! You’re starting to get to know us…). A fissure in the wall between the bricked-up passageway and the fireplace caught our attention. We removed the plaster and render hidden beneath the yellow paint and discovered… beautiful cut stones that originally formed a magnificent, large fireplace.
Unfortunately, it had been partially destroyed during the construction of the current fireplace.
But the remains are beautiful – too beautiful to hide away. A proper restoration will therefore be in order!
A stone sink
Now, nothing can stop us!
We’re probing all the old walls, and it doesn’t take long before we make a third discovery. Hidden away in the front façade wall, bricked up (again!) with old little bricks, is a beautiful stone sink! Another little gem, a reminder of life in days gone by, which we obviously don’t want to hide away again.
Looking at our before-and-after photos, it’s still hard to believe that so many beautiful things could have been hidden behind the walls of what was for us, during four years, a simple bedroom!
So, we need a moment to settle down, reflect and adjust our renovation plans. Keep following us – we’ll tell you more in our next step.
