Original State

The outdoors area is exclusively on the southern side of the house, fronting the Canal de la Garonne. The future main entrance to the house will be in this area, with the old front door on Rue Gambetta becoming the back door, but remaining the main postal address. On the southern side of the house is a Verandah, Garden and Garage (with sitting area above the garage) as shown below.

OUTDOOR AREA - OLD

The outdoor area was initially dominated by the profuse plantings of roses, which was what originally attracted us to the house as we cruised by on the barge. However, many of the plantings were very old, as evidenced by the size of their roots, and were either dead and woody or in very bad health. It was obvious that the rose garden would need to be thinned out and trimmed back in order for it to survive and flourish. The roses were also growing over a metal archway running the length of the path from the back verandah to the gates on Quai Antoine Hebrard. However, the metal in the archway was very rusted and in generally bad shape. This structure would need to be replaced it we wanted to keep an archway over the path as a feature of the new entrance. All the garden areas were fenced off from the pathways by metal hoop fencing. Since there was no longer any need for this fencing, it was planned for it to be removed to open up the garden areas and allow easier access to them.

The back verandah was an area about 2m by 10m, with a stone floor, and a low brick wall separating it from the garden areas. It provided access to the Rear Hallway and to the Storeroom. It was covered by a reinforced glass roof, which was slightly damaged in several places, with a ratten blind under the glass to provide shade from the overhead sun in the summer months. Two air-conditioning units vented onto the rear wall under the verandah roof.

The single-garage fronted onto Quai Antoine Hebrard, with a side-door opening onto the path to the verandah. It also had a seating area on top of the garage overlooking the Canal, surrounded by a low concrete & tile wall on which numerous terracotta pot plants were (randomly) arranged. A high fibreglass wall on the western side of the seating area was covered in ivy (during summer) and gave some privacy from the seating area next door which was on a higher level. The seating area was accessed via a (shaky) metal staircase from the side garden.