After buying a Dutch Barge in France in 2010, our family and friends were not all that surprised when we followed that up in 2013 by buying a house in France!

But buying a house was not all that crazy, however, as we had previously owned a house (unlike when we bought the barge!), even though we had never renovated one at the same scale as we were now contemplating.

The reason for buying a house was that one of our aims for the coming years was to bring our steelband (Pans on Fire) over for a tour of Southern France, where we could play a series of gigs in Moissac and other towns along the Garonne Canal. To this end, we started looking for a house in the region which we could initially use as accommodation for the band, and also for members of Rita's family from Switzerland, and for friends who might want to visit the region.

Having looked at a few houses in Moissac and elsewhere, we eventually settled on this house in Moissac. However, having seen the house, and the potential it offered, our ambitions were elevated. We realised that with the size of this house (6-7 bedrooms), it would be possible to convert it into a Bed & Breakfast for Australians visiting France, where we could also run workshops in a range of disciplines (e.g. steel pans, cooking, painting, Lateral Thinking etc), in addition to offering accompanied cruises on Kanumbra, our Replica Dutch Barge.

This, however, would require substantial renovation and modernisation of the house. The story of the renovation of La Maison de la Rose (The House of the Rose) is told here.

This renovation project was, for us, a substantial project, which would not have been possible without the efforts of a great team of French tradespeople, who we would like to acknowledge here.