Château de Gudanes
In the summer, Château de Gudanes welcomes you with open arms. It will be the season of 3, 5, and 7 night experiences at the Château!
Chateau de Gudanes
Given that we now have the building permit, and restoration is scheduled to start the first week of October, the time has come to share some interior video footage. Bonne chance!
Couple who bought a decrepit French Château for $500k reveal the major lessons
Crumbling labour of love: Couple who bought a decrepit French Château for $500k after seeing just FOUR of its 94 rooms reveal the major lessons they've learned while renovating a 300-year-old monument
When Karina and Craig Waters bought the sprawling Château de Gudanes in Verdun, in the south of France in 2013, they had seen just four of its 91 rooms - and had no idea of the scale of the project they had taken on. Almost five years later the couple, from Perth in Western Australia, have published a book about their labour of love journey restoring the vast 18th century property in the Occitanie region, which they paid an estimated AUD$500,000 (£281,600) for. Mrs Waters opened up to FEMAIL about the lessons she and her partner have learned while turning the crumbling château into a working hotel.
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A cool summer night at Chateau De Gudanes
8 July 2018
This is the final dinner we had at the Chateau de Gudanes on 8 Jul 2018. It only captures a small part of our beautiful experience.
The stay was like a beautiful dream - not knowing what to expect and trust that it iwll continue to surprise and delight. The amazing team at the Chateau has made our stay so memorable. The gathering of like-minded guests was even more ineffable.
It remains as a dream that I woke up from
Perth couple restoring a beautiful French Château
Perth couple restoring a beautiful French Château
NEWS: goo.gl/a3kAcQ
'It started off as a pipe dream - to buy a French farmhouse and holiday home for their family of four to spend the summers in.
Now, nearly four years later, Karina and Craig Waters, from Perth in Western Australia, are the proud owners and chief restorers of the sprawling Château de Gudanes in Verdun, in the south of France, which the purchased for an estimated £280,000.
The couple have spent the past four years renovating the level one historical monument - which dates from the reign of King Louis XV - learning its secrets and slowly re-building their dream property.
Later this year, the couple are set to open the Château as a working hotel for visitors. Mr and Mrs Waters will also release a book about their journey in 2018, but they admit that fully restoring the property to its former glory will be a 'lifelong commitment'.
'Our property search in France began when our daughter, Jasmine, spent a month in France while she was in school,' Karina Waters told Daily Mail Australia.
'Craig was tracking Jasmine's every move on the computer, and so advertisements for French real estate began to pop up as suggestions for him to look at.
'We stumbled upon a French property blog, which enticed us with photos of French farmhouses in picturesque rural villages. Before we knew it, we were hooked on French real estate websites and the promise of another life.
'We found Château de Gudanes on the Internet just a few days before we left, and decided to include it on our viewing itinerary.'
The rest, as they say, was history.
Since the couple made the purchase in 2013, restoring and attaining the Château has been a lengthy and involved process.
Buying an almost ruined Château which was classified as a level one historical monument in a country where we didn't even speak the language was always going to be challenging,' Ms Waters laughed.
Remarkably, the historic Château, which overlooks the Midi-Pyrénées, had never been outfitted with heat or electricity prior to their ownership.
'To add to that, we had very little exposure or background in architecture, restoration or old buildings. When we put in the offer, we had in fact only seen four of the 94 rooms (most were inaccessible because there were no ceilings or floors). Trees were growing inside and on the roof!'.
However, undeterred, the ambitious pair set to work and began to update the crumbling building.
To conduct any work at all - even the smallest of details - they had to apply and receive permission from the Historic Monuments of France.
'In the first phase, our builders re-installed all the walls, ceilings and floors that had collapsed. Prior to that, they had to remove the 500 tonnes of rubble from inside,' Ms Waters said.
Next, they had to apply again to the Historic Monuments to make more changes.
'It usually takes several years before anything else can go ahead,' Ms Waters explained. 'In the meantime, we have been doing smaller tasks, and also continuing to reinstall things like tiling.
'Last year, we also milled the trees which had fallen in the Château park, and our local artisan helper, David, used the wood to create two massive Medieval-inspired tables.'
It's been an in-depth job so far - Ms Waters confessed they've put in as many hours 'as humanly possible', but she added: 'Every day counts towards building a dream, and a sustainable future for the Château'.
With regards to their highlights during their epic Château restoration so far, Ms Waters said there have been many.
'We have discovered some very interesting finds at the Château along the journey. The Château has revealed her history to us slowly.
'One example from when we first started occurred when the builders found a hole in the ground. After they started excavating it, they figured that it goes at least six metres underneath the ground.
'We think it may have been an escape tunnel to the local village. There is even a boarded up doorway on the walls around the Château grounds leading there.'
Other incredible finds from the past four years include bone, ceramics, a fresco painting and Venetian glassware.
The Château already has thousands of fans - 230,000 people follow the project on Instagram, while countless more check into the Waters' website for updates about events coming up.
'The Château is a keeper of memories, and whatever we endeavour to do in the future will be about passing on and sharing these memories, and the past itself,' Ms Waters said.
'As the restoration journey progresses it becomes clearer to us each day that we need to learn to slowly adapt ourselves to the Château, rather than forcibly demand her to adapt to us.'
While this has meant living without the facilities they had been accustomed to in the past at times, Ms Waters said the couple are fine with that.
'Life does not move fast here, and there is a definite serenity in being disconnected from the rush of the rest of the world.
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Chateau-Verdun, Ariége, France
Swiss Avenue & Chateau de Gudanes: an Experience in Restoration
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Transporting the Château to you. Prepare to be spellbound...
Available on
Château de Thillombois - Tour de France 2012
Passage du Tour de France 2012 au Château de Thillombois, situé en plein centre du département de la Meuse, à 25 minutes de Bar-le-Duc et de Verdun.
chateau-thillombois.com/
夫妻砸千萬買這座破城堡，被嘲笑買一堆沒用的垃圾，四年後他們讓所有人都震驚了
一對澳大利亞夫婦看中一棟法國18世紀城堡已經很多年，經過討價還價和複雜的手續，終於購買成功。然而當兩人搭飛機趕到城堡時，看到的內部情況讓兩人驚呆了。
澳洲夫婦的夢想：18世紀老城堡
法國古丹納城堡（Chateau de Gudanes）始建於1213年，但在1580年不幸毀於自1560年代開始的法國宗教戰爭。
1741年到1750年，最後一位古丹納侯爵Louis-Gaspard de Sales重建了這棟城堡，從那時到現在，這棟城堡一直矗立在法國東南部，靠近西班牙邊境的沙托韋爾丹鎮（Château-Verdun）。
澳大利亞夫妻卡瑞納和葛萊格·華特斯（Karina and Craig Waters）在網上關注法國古城堡已經有一些年頭了，他們夢想有一天可以擁有一棟這樣的城堡，享受古時法國貴族式的生活。
2011年，華特斯的15歲兒子在網上搜到古丹納城堡，並看到這棟童話般的美麗建築在網上已經掛售4年。
心動不如行動，華特斯夫婦當年就搭乘飛機，來到城堡查看。不過這棟城堡大門緊閉，夫妻兩人只是在外圍繞了一圈，就已經心動不已了。
Rhapsody at the Chateau
Pans on Fire playing Bohemian Rhapsody at Chateau de Gudanes in southern France.
French Chateau Documentary - Royal Castles of France - French Chateau Documentary part 3
Bourbon citadel
In the 17th century Collioure was at stake in the wars between the Spanish Habsburgs and the French Bourbons. In 1642, Louis XIII's troops lay siege to Collioure and the Château Royal. Ten thousand men including Turenne, d'Artagnan and the King's musketeers occupied the hills overlooking the town, while the French fleet blocked the port. Deprived of water due to the destruction of their wells, the Spanish were forced to surrender. In 1659, France annexed the Roussillon and Collioure and the castle passed definitively into French hands. Vauban built the bastions, reinforced the structure and upgraded Fort Saint-Elme (fr).[3]
[edit]The Roussillon war
General Dugommier
In 1793, the Spanish again besieged and occupied Collioure, which General Dugommier took back the next year. He captured Fort Saint-Elme on 25 May and forced the Spanish general Eugenio Navarro to surrender the nex
Charlies Mojo
Charlie and the Fox fete au Chateau de Gudanes
Canal 4 | Buen Día | Informe sobre los Chateau Gudanes
Informe sobre los Chateau Gudanes.
Les Cabannes
Descente rue de l'Arbre Vert vers la rue de la Cuvette.
Sortie au Parc du Château de Charbonnière à Saint Jean de B
N'oublions pas l'Ar-Drone par un si beau temps !