The Beginning

                                                                    'The Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step'   Confucius

Back in 2003,Whilst watching 'a place in the sun' on the television for the first time I saw a family who viewed a beautiful but run down watermill in the Charente and I was hooked on the idea of getting out of the ratrace in the UK and living in France.
I originally saw several watermills in different parts of France but they were either too small, too remote, or needed too much work doing to them to make them somewhere I could call home.
Then in January 2004 I saw a potential purchase on the web and came to the Charente area to look at another watermill which was owned by a British builder who had it up for sale but sadly it fell through before I arrived.
By chance in between viewings I popped into a local Immobiliere who had by chance just got a Mill on his books.
When I saw it I just fell in love with the sheer size and character of the place, and that was that, the romance began.
When I first walked around it I felt it's potential although it had been unlived in for a few years, it shouted out 'buy me'
The mill was bought in January 2005 and work started on the renovations in March 2005 but the project manager fell ill at this time and couldn't continue with overseeing the works and a chance meeting in a cafe led me to meet my original 'A team' consisting of a builder (Nigel) and a gardener (Mark).
The 'A team' have changed over time and various people, including family and friends have helped out with the renovations and now we have Sylvie our friend and translator, Jean Pierre and Evelyn our chef and part time gardener and our excellent artisans, our electrician Alain Audebert and son, the Plumbers Mssr Coupron and Christophe, and last but not least the Landscaper Nicolas Gatineau.
The second phase will be to renovate the two bedrooms at the east end of the mill into a self contained apartment(due to be completed in 2009)so as to provide extra accommodation for larger parties in the future to increase the capacity of the Mill to 22.
The third phase due to start at the end of 2009 is to complete our small living accommodation at the west end of the Mill, into our permanent living quarters.
That's the story so far but it's not over yet as I hope to provide additional facilities to the property in the future that can't be found in any other property of it's type in the area e.g a Jacuzzi hot tub.

I do hope you can join us and enjoy 'Le Petit Moulin'as a place to unwind and relax


Many Thanks
Steve and Manisiah