Innholdsfortegnelse for French Cottage 2017 i Victoria

Don’t Forget For even more inspiration for gracious living and gardening, visit our website, victoriamag.com. You’ll find photos, tips, and how-tos on our social media sites, so follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. If you are enchanted with France and the lifestyle of its people, this will be a musthave magazine for you! This special Victoria Classics edition gives a peek into historic maisons and castles filled with the tasteful furnishings and charming accessories cherished by Gallic culture. The dwellings represent a variety of locales, and most have stories of significant origin that have been translated into the cozy charm of a family home. From the rough-hewn beams to the stone floors, each will provide endless inspiration. History is ever-present in the residences showcased in these pages. Timeworn,…

Floral designer Ita Bourcier remembers the moment, more than thirty years ago, when she spotted the cottage of her dreams in Auxerre, a capital city in the Burgundy region. Traversing the French countryside to search for a new home had become a weekly ritual for the Netherlands native and her husband. One day, their realtor had not selected any listings but encouraged the pair to peruse his files. A single image immediately captured Ita’s imagination. “There it was: a photo of this wonderful house, surrounded by lots of trees and looking so pretty,” she recalls. Established circa 1880, when winemaking was prevalent in the area, the estate included wine cellars, horse stables, gardens, and a farmhouse brimming with charm. Despite Ita’s instant connection to the property, several obstacles stood in…

Dominique Delalande and Henk Lokhorst call Amsterdam home, but spend holidays in a cottage in a small village located in the Burgundy region of France. Henk is the decorator, combining heirlooms and antiques with elegant upholstery and brocante finds. And the home already held plenty of treasures. When Dominique’s mother moved there permanently many years ago, he says, “She took the complete contents of her Paris household with her.” The house was packed. “With furniture,” Henk says, “copperware, crockery, paintings. Wherever you looked, there was something standing or hanging on racks, shelves, in benches, dressers.” When Dominque returned to the cottage, its décor, furnishings, sixties-era carpet, and even scents, awakened his memories. Even so, the clutter had to be cleared out, and antiques dealers were invited to the home. Not…

When the owners of the elegant La Garance en Provence invited Susannah Cameron of Chez Pluie to style their magnificent home, she leapt at the opportunity to decorate it with pieces from her beautifully curated collection of antique, vintage, and artisan décor. The structure, situated in a village between historic Avignon and antiques treasure trove L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, was built in the seventeenth century as a postal relay station. The owners had restored the building using period materials and, in a more recent renovation, added an en suite to each of the six bedrooms. The newly refurbished home is open as a chambre d’hôte, or bed-andbreakfast, during the summer months and serves as a private home throughout the winter. Awe-inspiring views of the surrounding fields and an…

While in search of their new home, a couple from The Netherlands stumbled upon a charming old farmhouse in the countryside. They discovered the sprawling rural property quite by chance from a picture at their real estate agent’s office. “We liked the authentic character of the house,” says Meine Fernhout, an author and a former art critic, teacher, academy director, and exhibition designer. “It wasn’t spoiled by modernization.” Meine’s wife, Marijtje van der Horst, is a fashion designer, a visual artist, an author, and former director of the Dutch Fashion Institute. “The building had a certain standing,” she says, “an appearance resembling a manor house and a farm at the same time.” When the couple arrived for their first tour, it looked picture-perfect, with its old stucco, white wooden shutters,…

An inspired French couple with a rich pool of talent between them—Bénédicte Leuwer, a fashion stylist and designer, and Pierre Gautier, an antiques dealer and chef—make their home in Uzes, a quaint village in the south of France. Their residence, which dates partly from the twelfth century and partly from the eighteenth, is just a halfhour drive from their antiques shop, Depuis Toujours, situated in the charming artist’s town of L’Isle-sur-la- Sorgue in Provence. Bénédicte’s world travels have g iven her an opportunity to see many magnificent houses that have influenced her style. When she and Pierre moved into their home three years ago, her exquisite eye guided them to create distinctive rooms filled with age, warmth, and character. They painted everything white, and removed all the doors to let…

Doing what most people only dream of, Hubert Bettan and Isabelle Dubois-Dumée said goodbye to their busy lives and careers to start over in a new home with a more peaceful environment. With three daughters in tow, they left Paris and bought a small castle nestled within the sprawling countryside of south Charente in eastern France. There, they rediscovered life. Hubert was working as a software engineer for a company building digital television solutions, and Isabelle, the proprietress of her own interiors brand, Les Petites Emplettes, was working at publishing house Gallimard Jeunesse designing books and magazines. After spending a summer vacation at Aubeterre-sur- Dronne, in south Charente, they decided to start looking for a second residence. When they visited Château de Dirac, they fell in love with it. “The…

Dutch artist Janna Spil remembers the day in 1995 when she and her husband, sculptor Sjaak van Rhijn, first saw the old stone edifice. “It was hard to imagine anyone could live in it,” she says. “The windows were broken; the shutters were gone. Owls and other birds had made the house their own.” Despite its lack of charm, the house did have some positive qualities. Built as a convent in 1817 and later used as a rectory, it was of sturdy construction, built on a rock foundation, and retained some authentic elements, such as pine floors and beams, a chalkstone chimney, and a wood and wrought-iron staircase. But it was the adjacent building, its time-brushed exterior exposing the stone and mortar beneath, that spurred the couple to buy the…