Hi there,
Welcome back and bienvenue to new subscribers – it’s lovely to have you here!
This edition is a little different to my usual fare…as it’s our fifth anniversary with Madame, so I took a moment to reflect…
A reminder: all editions live on the Adventures & Ateliers website - as an existing subscriber you simply create a one-time login to access the full archive.
Let’s begin : )
Alethea x
September
Here, it’s still summer… except with a few crunchy leaves! It’s been the perfect kind of summer weather: cool-ish mornings - enough for no ridiculous early-start dog walks - lovely temperatures and sunshine, and then, shock, horror, slightly cooler evenings that you can sit outside in without boiling!
I’m back from visiting my Dad in Greece, while Romy had her own holiday here with a pack of friends staying. Daily reports suggest there was a lot more activity going on here than on the island, where I was perfectly happy taking in the quieter September vibes and endless blues.
Other random things:
Beautiful walks by, and in, the river - facilitated by less tourists and therefore less chance of a Romy-to-the-rescue lifeguard scenario : )
The Albizia seems to have survived the summer, unlike its predecessor. Hurrah!
I was recently bitten by a dog, not mine obviously, which wasn’t fun and necessitated a hospital trip. It did, however, give me more of an insight into why anyone who’s ever been bitten, especially as a child, may have some fear of dogs.
Safari in Dordogne! Listening to stags sing during the full moon was so cool – video, here.
Club Canin has returned after the summer and the excitement of all the dogs was quite something, mass zoomies and happy faces : )
It’s looking like a good walnut harvest this year!!
Need a peaceful rural retreat? There’s still some availability for La Petite Maison in October – when it’s still lovely and warm and the colours are fabulous!
La Petite Maison is also available for longer term Winter rentals, up to three months, between November and the end of March, perfect for anyone house hunting, writing or just needing a change of scene.
My fifth anniversary with Madame!
September 2021, five years ago, I collected the keys to Madame. This seems both yesterday, and about a hundred years ago! So, it felt like a good moment to take stock of all that’s happened since with a little anniversary indulgence… if you can’t do a mini navel-gaze after five years when can you?!
Funnily enough life here breaks down into (almost perfect) eighteen-month chapters…
Chapter one - the first 18m: shuttling
For the first eighteen months, Madame and France weren’t completely home, I was shuttling between my life, home and work in The Hague, NL and FR. Frequently driving a well-worn 1,000km route between the two whenever I could, gradually transporting ever more belongings south until I really couldn’t ignore the pull any longer.
- I’ve written about that before, here.
However, even while I was up north renovation work here began. First up La Petite Maison was given an overhaul, a small refresh which as all these things tend to do, morphed into a rather larger mini renovation than anticipated. Out went the runway lighting, old kitchen and odd bedroom layout until our little house was light, airy and ready for guests the following summer.
Some highs and lows from this period:
😃 The sense of excitement on reaching that last 45 minutes of the drive south, windows open, small country roads, Romy’s nose out of the window, until Madame came into view.
🙂 Returning to The Hague, and having a proper bathroom with hot water, all the conveniences of the city, and a house ‘that worked’.
💩 Miss Romy’s upset tummy at our hotel in Dourdan resulting in the (one-and-only) time I had to scrub poo out of a hotel carpet at 6am. Non-bon.
💃 My French paperwork being approved!
🤔 The lists! Too many to count, things I needed to organise for when I wasn’t there, things I needed to book, order, take, and all the plans and scribbles of what our new life and business was going to be : )
🛠 The new kitchen built for La Petite Maison.
☘ Returning to Madame when the fences had been put in, such a relief that dog-proofing the property had begun.
✋Starting to find my ‘tribe’ in France.
Chapter two – the next 18m: settling & major renovation
I finally moved to France full-time in May 2023. Leaving The Hague, my home of almost twelve years, was quite the wrench, but by then Madame had been tugging me south for eighteen months and it was time to commit and stop living the half-and-half life.
September always feels like the new year to me, and so once I’d sort of established myself (paperwork!), and done endless planning, that September the major renovation began. I’m not sure that settling in a new place and undertaking a major renovation at the same time are the best bedfellows! It was expected to take nine months, I moved myself, my office and Romy and Digby into La Petite Maison for the duration.
Let’s just say, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Nine months dragged into eighteen months of madness, building dust and of course, the eventual transformation of this grand old property.
Yet, when I look about at what we (me, the maître d’oeuvre and a team of 102 artisans) achieved, I am delighted with the results. Throughout, Madame threw us plenty of surprises and challenged us on a daily basis, but in the end, I think she’s happy with her ‘new look’ – she remains herself, just with plenty of hidden updates, and a more functional set-up and perhaps just a little more contemporary ‘mode’! She was finally beginning to look like the house I’d been carrying around in my head : )
In numbers, I wrote about Team Artisan before - read, here.
It’s a mixed bag of memories, some great, others less so, of those eighteen months. This is just a top of mind snapshot:
🙂 Evening strolls though the chantier when everyone had left, seeing the daily progress and feeling the excitement of transformation.
😡 The frustration of the three-month shutdown, following the firing of the original maître d’oeuvre and his cronies.
🥐 Early morning coffee with the team, full of enthusiasm at the day ahead, with Romy’s seagull swoops on croissants!
🐾 The dog’s surgeries, relationship, and ultimately Digs moving to Germany – it still makes me well up, even though I know he’s happier and doing brilliantly.
🤩 Disbelief in all the activity taking place, the toy chest worth of heavy machinery scrambling about, and the simultaneous amount of extreme change underway - but in a good way!
🤗 The amazing work of the team, and the support and ideas from my new maître d’oeuvre.
💫 The kitchen, such an incredible space and everyone did such an amazing job, truly the heart of the home.
👩🎨 Coming back from Romy’s successful surgery in Bordeaux to a completed ‘Folly’ – I knew it had been finished as a surprise to cheer me up and wow, did it! That was the moment I knew it would be ok; there’s something about seeing your ideas come to life, and work!
🛠 The five-month top floor-saga was an emotional and financial drain. Three teams, three floors and a whole lot of stress. For three months, I refused to venture up there such was the scale of the nightmare.
😃 The abri, after months of preparation, this incredible building went up in one day - and when the solar panels were also activated, that was a big moment.
😻 Claiming back the dining room as my office, only to find Nala and four kittens in the grange the same day : ) Obviously, It became a kitten nursery for three months but they were so cute and provided endless comedy moments.
📖 Les P’s first media: the main bathroom being featured in Martha Stewart.
Here’s some of my favourite transformations:
Buanderie / laundry room
Bedroom #2
Kitchen
Main bathroom
Chapter 3 – the third 18m: tedious recovery
Just as I was about to move fully from the renovation into the business side of Les P, life threw a curveball that defined the next eighteen months. Seriously, just don’t fall down a hill!
At the end of January 2025, back from a trip to Zim and SA, and ready to move forward life took a little tangent, courtesy of rocky terrain whilst signing for a delivery of wood, and a slight fall led to a broken sterum, ribs and a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Fun. Suddenly, all my grand plans for here, work, travel, life...anything, came to a grinding halt.
At first, I wasn’t a patient patient! Quelle surprise! And I pushed recovery which, of course, backfired. Doh. My head injury had other ideas, and eventually I had to learn to do as ‘it’ said. Highly tedious, frustrating and boring. It seemed I’d swapped one demanding mistress - Madame - for another, the TBI. Madame, for once, would have to wait and sit still with me.
Every time I thought I’d improved, it would pop up to remind me: uh-uh, nope, I’m in charge here. Think you can work? Nice try. Screens are out, here’s a three week migrainous status to remind you. Pull weeds? Absolutely not, unless you fancy passing out again into that wall. My list of jobs went unattended to, weeds grew, boxes remained unopened and it felt like life was going on without me.
It also explains why so many of my stories here, and visual content elsewhere, became little observations - flowers, dogs, seasons and everyday life. My world had become smaller for a while, and observation and nature became a huge part of the healing process.
During this period there were small flashes of normalcy and progress: the newsletter launched, (though, for quite some time, I dictated my newsletter content due to screentime being a major obstacle), and La Petite Maison vacation rentals reopened, and went from strength to strength thanks to friends who helped keep it running. There was also a lot of time spent asleep, or in pain, or huge frustration - so the small wins were important.
Other highs and lows from this chapter include:
❤ The incredible support from F&F here, near and far – not a trite observation, it means everything.
🐾 The days when I was unable to walk Romy, a ‘taken-for-granted’ highlight of my day and when that happened, I felt extremely low. My relief at having such kind friends who would step in and help.
👪 Friend and family visits, which both removed pressure by ‘looking after me’ but also provided some good comedy moments: chauffeured round all the sights of the Dordogne in three hours, step out the car, snap, onto the next : )
💻 Not being able to work much. Governed by my TBI, I would snatch brief moments wherever I could, be it mid-morning, or midnight.
❄ Air-conditioning! The heating and cooling system were by far the biggest investment in this property, huge gulps were taken, but crikey, am I glad I did.
😒 Not being able to do all the little things on my list - the finishing bits to the main renovation, that were firmly in my camp - and literally, stopping the team in mid-flow finishing the abri, and the stairs. Seeing this stuff around me on a daily basis and being unable to do anything about it was initially a challenge.
👩🎨 I did eventually manage to paint the buanderie / laundry room, a small job that would usually have taken me a day stretched over two weeks via small 30 minute segments. But the sense of achievement was epic.
🩼 Adding crutches to my catalogue of invisible injuries, with a missed step and ripped ligaments, funnily enough at least people then know you have an injury!
💉 The three-monthly neurologist treatments. Not going to lie, the travel, the treatment itself, and the following down-time were rubbish.
👏 My new neurologist in Toulouse, who added a further six strands of treatment to the main one, and it’s definitely having a positive impact.
Now, just over eighteen months later, while TBI recovery unfortunately remains a part of my life for a bit longer, it’s not as all-consuming and incapacitating as it has been. Whilst I know I can’t jump headfirst into things as is my usual modus operandi, I can pace and start petit-a-petit again.
Chapter four? The next 18m…
So, as September 2026 comes to an end, I’ve found myself taking stock. Five years of re-imagining Madame, updating her, then sitting with her, contemplating her, and now I’m once again working on what comes next.
For the first time in a while, I’m allowing myself to get excited about plans again. Not charging at them like a wild-eyed badger but actively picking up from where I left off and moving forward with the business ideas.
Madame was never meant to be simply a renovation project or even just a home. The plan was always to build a life around this place, merge life and work through the property, landscape, ateliers, guests, writing, food, creativity and whatever other slightly hare-brained ideas made it onto one of my many lists.
The TBI rather pressed pause on everything, but while I couldn’t always do, read, write or tolerate a screen, I did have an awful lot of time to think. Ideas percolated – some disappeared, others changed shape and a few stubborn ones remain intact, haha!
Some things cooking once again:
The Ateliers ‘27, starting with plein-air painters.
Les P Exclusives, more on these soon:
The January truffle week(s). A foodie feast week, taking in the Perigord Noir’s famous black truffle fêtes, truffle-hunting and more, all while staying in a warm, and cosy, fully catered Les P.
There’s still availability on one week, email for details
The Summer Season.
The Renovation Companion – my upcoming book based around the trifecta of emotional, physical and financial elements of a renovation.
You can download a free taster here.
So, that’s chapter four… no grand reinvention, just starting ‘to do’ again. Petit à petit, obviously. I have learnt something!!
*For newbies, Madame is the name I give this grand old dame of a property.
More Snapshots of the Domaine Les Plonges ‘journey’ next edition.
Possibly you found your way here via Instagram? @domainelesplonges? If so, an extra Bienvenue! You’ll already know I love a good visual…
📸 Yup, now she can walk on water - haha! The Dordogne sans tourists…
📸 La Petite Maison garden…
Perfect for a book & a view!
📸 Leaving Antiparos… pretty blues : )
📸 Miss Romy…
…Perfect pose!
As a fan of a good list (!), and as a former beauty PR, now living in rural southwest France, I thought I'd share a collection of the French pharmacy products I use, love and happily recommend.
The Compendium, French farmhouse essentials
A growing collection of the tools, gadgets and everyday essentials we use here.
With definite opinions on what makes life better, here’s Romy’s everyday essentials for comfort, travel and play!
NB: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Love the illustrations peppered throughout these newsletters? I do : ) They’re the work of my talented friend, Lara, you can get in contact with her here for cards and commissions.
Looking to start your own newsletter?
If you’re interested in the tech I’m using for this, it’s Beehiiv. I did a LOT of research on platforms and I’m happy to explain why etc in more detail, just ask. They’ve also given me a partner link, and this gives anyone using the link a 30-day free trial and 20% off your first three months on any paid plan. Note, it’s an affiliate link and I may receive commission on any purchases made through it.
A note on adverts & affiliates
This newsletter receives a fair number of advertising opportunities, most of which I reject because they simply don’t fit. However, where I’ve liked the brand and thought it may be of interest to others (ie, you lovely people!) I’ve said yes.
Adverts such as these also pay this newsletter for any clicks which in turn helps me pay for the software (and time involved!) in creating this newsletter. So, if you’re even vaguely interested, please do click through on an advert and have a look - there are no requirements to subscribe, shop or register any details - and you may just find something of interest as well as helping Adventures & Ateliers along the way!
Occasionally, I will also have the odd affiliate link. Again, I’ll only include these if it’s something I already use or was going to mention anyway. Affiliate links simply mean that I may receive commission on any purchases made through it.
Subscribe
Whichever way you subscribe, your support and readership is thoroughly appreciated and I’m delighted to have you along for the adventure! 💛
Ps: If you discover Adventures & Ateliers is simply not your thing you can unsubscribe easily and anytime via the link in footer below.
Disclaimer: If big life stuff happens, I’m giving myself permission to deliver this newsletter a day or even a week late!