The house “Dieulefit” was built over a ten-year period and is still not completed, and probably never will. New ideas provide new insights and new challenges, and every year something new is added. The name itself is related to a road sign we once bought in Holland at a fair, and only recently we found out that Dieulefit is actually a town near Valence. But the name – “God made it” – is quite fitting.

The project started in 2007 when we found the terrain that had a stunning view into the valley and beyond, in the direction of Nevers and, some 350 kilometers further, Paris. The view made us fall in love with the place immediately. The valley in which it stands is part of the Montagne de Madeleine, in the Bourbonnais region, a low mountainous terrain with the highest peak – the Loge des Gardes – at 1250 meters. The house itself stands on an altitude of 350 meters.

Apart from the view there was not much, actually. There were some 100 small acacia trees, weeds at shoulder height and, what we didn’t now then, a farm-house that had collapsed decades before and of which the stones were strewn all across the territory. Wherever you went you found stones, big and small. In short: it was a horrible mess, a jungle one could hardly traverse.

What was left of the farmhouse was a ruin of the stable not even one floor high, overgrown with hedera, and some walls of the original living quarters. Apart from the view there was actually nothing attractive to the place.

In the course of the years, we cut virtually all of the acacia’s, got rid of the weeds and developed a totally new garden with pine-trees, redwoods and sequoias, some fruit trees, sakura trees, bamboo, and lots and lots of other plants. And a lot of roses…
The garden has now reached adolescence and is well on its way to becoming a young adult. Of course the pine trees will take years to grow to the desired size, and the redwoods and sequoias several decades, but the contours are clear and the garden has already the air of an oasis for relaxation.

The house itself also took a decade to complete. The first stone floor of the stable was reconstructed and a wooden house was placed on top, surrounded by a veranda overlooking the valley and a large terrace on the garden side.

The house has two bedrooms and a bathroom downstairs, a living with a sleeping couch, a kitchen and a bedroom upstairs, and an attic room which is for private use. The veranda makes it possible to sit outside even when it is cold or raining, with open or closed windows, and there is a small sitting corner on the terrace with a rocking chair where you can look out across the valley or read books. Everything for your comfort…

Behind the house is storage for terrace furniture. In the garden itself, now hardly visible because of the vegetation, a large sauna was built, with a wood-burning stove, and all over the territory there are areas to sit and relax.

On the side of the house where the car park is a large stone staircase leads to the first floor and the veranda. Above it towers a Japanese gate, with on both sides a Japanese granite lantern standing on top of the stone wall. Indeed, the house has a Japanese air to it, purposely, a style that we very much love. It is no coincidence that the garden has four big sakura trees that blossom beautifully in spring.