Turning left at the top of the street around the corner of the house we climbed up 3 typically French concrete steps and entered the "school room". Why this extraordinary name you may ask. There was little evidence to suggest it had ever been used in this way apart from a faded paper list pinned to the back of the door, and one or two other remnants of paper which may well have been left by children at some time, although there was little evidence throughout the building that children had ever played there. This room is sandwiched between the garden room below and the straw bedroom above in a section which seems to link two halves of the house and is still the "school room", but the other notable feature here are the two enormous beams which support what is thought to be a typical Louis XIV ceiling with grooved rafters.
The final door took a little while to open mainly because the lock had clearly been installed the wrong way round and Francoise had difficulty until she realised it was necessary to turn the key as if to lock the door to open it!! This led into what might loosely be described as the garage. In one corner was an even larger "cuve" or "barrique" which this time really did look the business, because alongside it was a wine press with all the necessary bits and pieces, all of which looked as if they had been used until quite recently.
In addition there was the usual assortment of rubbish and a wooden staircase leading to a similar sized room above which became the "studio". Both these rooms had a network of wire fastened to the ceiling, which we were told had been used to dry tobacco, another important product grown in the region. The stairs, which we mounted with caution, were covered with old and very dusty straw, which made it almost impossible to see the treads, and there was a great deal more in the room above.
At the rear of the garage was a wide opening leading into the "cart room". Another large room filled with the remains of a cart, two sets of very large cart wheels and an assortment of agricultural machinery, rakes, ploughs and all the usual gear found the the average down beat French barn, together with a pile of logs for the fire, old barrels and a huge assortment of hoops, bicycle frames and wheels, and yet more rubbish, and would you believe it, another room above this which was literally piled up with straw, the only place in the building where it almost seemed logical to use it for that purpose! The roof and floors in this part of the building were decidedly suspect and in need of repair. There was one more part of the building which was of the same order as this and was the "cellar" beneath the cart room.
Apart from exploring the pig sty, which was on two floors, presumably with chickens on the first floor, judging by the netting wire closures at the front and the internal perches, we had completed our "viewing" and were left with some pretty serious thinking to occupy our minds on the return journey.
Who in their right minds would have even given it a second thought? If first impressions were anything to go by, then the visit we had made on the previous evening should have been sufficient to warn us off. What we had seen during the afternoon merely confirmed these first impressions ; and yet, perhaps there was a huge potential here for some adventure, an experimental playground, a challenge, an opportunity to purchase a little bit of France for silly money and really embark on a project which would last a lifetime.
That, I feel, is exactly what happened.
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