La Belle Vie

THERE'S GREAT ROMANCE IN RENOVATING an old French chateau. In finding the centuries-old marquetry flooring buried under layers of dirt, delicately stripping away years of dust from original plaster walls,
polishing up old chandeliers, all the while sipping Puligny Montrachet picked up in the local village for a song.

And then there’s the reality. When Calgarian Dave Furnaux bought this 180-year-old wine baron’s estate in Olonzac, a town in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France, the floors were covered in a half-
metre of garbage—but there wasn’t exquisite tiling lurking below. (The floors had been sold off years before by previous owners.) The kitchen grease that blackened the ceilings obscured whatever plasterwork once existed. And while the pantry was stocked with local olives, hanging legs of jambon and crates of salted fish, the best-before dates were a good 40 years prior. The stairwell had also collapsed on itself, thoughtfully taking the surrounding walls with it.

Yet Furnaux saw great potential and convinced eight other Calgarians—among them Cookbook Co. Cooks owner Gail Norton and architects Jeremy Sturgess and Lesley Beale—to become part of the epic four-year project. Sturgess and Beale, who had worked with Furnaux on their own architectural projects over the years, were the first onboard.
First, Furnaux convinced Calgary architect Lorne Simpson of Simpson Roberts Architecture that relocating to France for the project was a good idea. The two started refashioning the 8,500-square-foot chateau into a mix of public areas and nine self-contained suites, one for each of the owners. Furnaux restored the grand hallways, revealing ceiling details
that had been covered with grease and soot, and reconstructed that troublesome stairwell. When restoration wasn’t possible, he went to
Spain to source replica tiling for the kitchens and tracked down authentic
period flooring to replace those sections that had been sold off years before. The whole endeavour took three years.

For Sturgess and Beale, who opted to design their top-floor suite on their own, karma was on their side. Because the storage loft had never been lived in, they were unencumbered by preservation guidelines—the perfect opportunity to mix their contemporary style with vintage surroundings. “We really worked with Dave to make sure we hung on to the character
of the space,” says Beale. “It was a rough, raw space, and that’s how the suite looks now. What really appeals to us is that mix of contemporary design with all the character found in that beautiful old structure.”

Refinishing the walls in a traditional stucco technique known as crepier, Sturgess and Beale employed bold, Mediterranean tones throughout the suite. A brilliant ochre on the walls, just a few shades darker than the one chosen for the exterior of the building, is picked up in colourful Maison fabrics from Kenzo on the Mah Jong sofa from Roche Bobois. They share their suite with three couples, and everyone had their say on which fabrics would be on each pillow—the order of which changes according to who
was last in the suite. “The worst problem was that when it was delivered, we spent way too much time rearranging the cushions,” laughs Beale.
“But that’s part of the charm—everybody arranges the furniture the way they want when they’re here.”

The eclecticism of the sofa cushions is mirrored in the disparate dining chairs from European design haven Habitat, which has an outpost in nearby Toulouse. A wood stove opposite the dining area features a traditional surround wrapped in steel, tarnished to a bold shade of orange from a salt rub carefully applied by Furnaux. The steel has a practical as well as aesthetic side: in the cooler winter months, it continues to radiate heat from the stove long after the coals have died down.

Beale and Sturgess spend up to two months at a time in the space now, and admit to finding it tough to leave. “In a city the size of Red Deer, you have a dozen amazing food shops, fresh markets and cafés,” says Sturgess. “Honestly, it’s the lifestyle. The aesthetic environment is so beautiful, the natural and historic nature of the villages and the way people live. It’s about drinking a glass of wine at 11 a.m. to get ready for your big lunch.”
Furnaux has done them one better—he’s moved full time to Olonzac. No longer possessed of fanciful ideas about French country living, he’s been brought by the renovation into its reality—where he’s happiest. He plans to soon start work restoring the outbuilding, where no doubt une bonne surprise (or two) will be discovered. wl

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