Back in the mists of time, well 2002 we purchased Les Reches. Set on the side of the mountain just below Les Arcs and Vallandry, this old "Chalet d'Alpage"was in a pretty poor state of repair.
Part of the roof had fallen in and one of the main walls had followed suit shortly afterwards. The rest of the roof was pretty precarious and it was perhaps more by luck than judgement that the building remained standing during the 6 months of the winter of 2001/2002 that it took for the purchase to go through.
One entire face of the chalet had collapsed, leaving a huge pile of stone and old lime mortar blocking the public right of way that leads walkers from Le Villaret on up to Les Charmettes.
Over the next couple of months we cleared away this debris, saving the old lime mortar to use as agregate in our new mortar, and rebuilt this main wall. We were able to recover the original timber door and frame and with the help of old photos leave openings for windows and balcony doors in, as close as we could guage, original positions.
We had a number of friends and family helpers come and aid us in our works that first summer, with sometimes just 1 or 2 people working and other days there were half a dozen souls on site.
piece of history (still) in action. The dunny. Plans are afoot to install a septic tank over the summer, so be quick if you want a chance to use the dunny.
piece of history (still) in action. The dunny. Plans are afoot to install a septic tank over the summer, so be quick if you want a chance to use the dunny.
