A man and his house...a French story

As I have mentioned before, I come from a small village in France where older women still sport moustaches and most men drive their tractors and the houses may have charm...from the outside. My parents befriended a young man who had lost his mother at a young age and whose father, as most men in the area was a farmer. His name is Eric. An incredibly smart young man who could fix anything, kind, generous quick as a whip. He came to visit me in Connecticut with my parents and he was my "fix it all angel"...from the crumbling stone wall, to leaking faucets, rotting roof ...his magical hands could fix almost anything...Having left school, he had taken an apprentiship as a brazier (ironsmith).
I left France at a young age, as this country and culture does not embrace nor promote entrepreneurship. Eric's story is a success story whereas a young man, despite all difficulties, he embraces risks, take chances and becomes one of the most successful entrepreneur I have met in the SouthWest of France. He now lives near Toulouse with his 2 young children. This man is filled with passion, cannot sleep at night as his head is filled with ideas, and succeeds at everything he touches.
But this story is about his house....or his castle I should say. Just outside the beautiful red city of Toulouse, he found this ruined chateaux whose back wall was supported by steel pillars. Eric did not go to architecture or design school, but he had a vision and took on the challenge of bringing back this splendid structure to its prior beauty and glory....entirely on his own!!!

He currently lives in the caretaker wing while working on the interior of the chateau

As we walked through the interiors, Eric was describing down the last detail how each room will look, he also excavated for what will be a beautiful indoor pool together with spa. The outdoor pool will be a 150ft foot lap pool....

Eric designed and fabricated the gate and the wrought iron fence himself in his iron shop

Eric lined the long entry driveway with 1000 year old olive tree that he found in Portugal and trucked back to Toulouse

The dog house...I don't think that even Martha Stewart does not have such fancy abode for her dogs

He built a play house for his two sons, as well as a huge vegetable garden, chicken coop where one could actually live in

a man has to have a few toys

my dad drooling over the bikes...assorted kids motorbikes as well, 4 wheelers, side cars, antique motorbikes... all make great week end fun with the boys

He purchase an old farm and transformed the main house into his office, produces his own wine from the vineyard and is restoring the  farm building to turn them into a restaurant, an event space with outdoor cafe

Future restaurant

By the way, did I mention he is single.....