In the countryside 50km north-west of Montpellier sits a truly unique home that has evolved organically with each generation.
Its current owner Lucy Truscott, 49, grew up in West Sussex, then moved to London where she trained and worked as a piano tuner, but she has already spent over half her life in France.
The home's cosy interiorLucy Truscott
“I fell in love with this region of France back when I was 19 and I used to make regular trips down here in my VW campervan,” she says.
“On one trip, when I was 24, I met my future husband, Caradoc, in a village bar. A few months later, I moved to Saint-Privat (Hérault) and we were married the following year!”
Caradoc is British, but he grew up in France. His parents had moved to Saint-Privat in the 1970s and bought a large piece of land, living in a makeshift shack while they built themselves a house, which they eventually moved into.
“The shack, known as ‘the Cabane’, started out with just three walls and a curtain, and that is what it was like when my husband was born in it.” says Lucy.
The garden water comes from the nearby lakeLucy Truscott
“Caradoc’s older brother eventually took on the Cabane and converted it into a proper house, but when he decided to sell up and move to town, we jumped at the opportunity to buy the little place and turn it into a family home for us and our two boys, who are now 21 and 16.”
The house sits on terraced land of about 2.5 hectares and, although work on it first started in 1976, it is an ongoing project.
When the couple bought it, it was a one-storey property with a tiny kitchen and two very small bedrooms.
However, as Caradoc is a builder, they were able to add an upstairs with three bedrooms, a bathroom and a toilet, and create an open-plan living space downstairs. This leads to a bathroom and a little bureau, next to which is a small guest room, making a total living area of 140m².
“Our ground floor still has my in-laws’ original handmade bricks from the 1970s,” says Lucy. “They dug up earth from the garden here, and shaped it into bricks which were then left to dry in the sun.
“The press they used was lent to them by the famous mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, a leading figure in the creation of modern algebraic geometry. He lived here and was a friend of theirs.”
There are plenty of other quirky features too.
'Most of the doorways are supported by old railway sleepers'Lucy Truscott
“Most of the doorways are supported by old railway sleepers that my in-laws acquired when the local train tracks were abandoned and pulled up.
“The guest room is built into the rocks, so one wall is made of natural rock.”
The house is insulated with hemp, and some of the interior walls are covered with a special render that contains pig hairs to stop it cracking.
“Most of the walls are painted with natural lime paint and they are all very wonky, which means that fitting shelves or furniture is always a challenge,” Lucy says.
“Our water comes from our own spring, and the garden water comes from a lake that my father-in-law made above the land to capture overflow water from the spring.”
Other charming details include a bathroom window made out of used beer bottles, and a bedroom window from an old Citroen 2 CV.
“They are normal to us but seem quirky to other people,” says Lucy.
The property is situated in a secluded location in the woods above the village, and Caradoc’s parents live just 100metres away on the same plot of land.
Despite having been extended and improved over the years, Lucy and Caradoc’s home is still very much part of the landscape.
“Outside, we have three grass roofs – one on the main section of the property, one on the little bathroom and a big one on the terrace, which is an ongoing project.
“This is both a practical and aesthetic choice: it keeps the house well insulated and also helps it to blend in with the natural surroundings.
View of the terrace, which has a grass roofLucy Truscott
“I love our covered terrace – we use it all year round – and we have also done lots to the garden. We originally had a big above-ground swimming pool, and my husband shuttered it, poured a concrete structure around, and converted it into a solid stone pool surrounded by a flat stone terrace.”
Not far from the house is a building that used to be a bike shed for Caradoc and his brother, before being converted into a workshop for Lucy.
“For over 20 years, I’ve been running a natural soap, perfume and accessories business from home,” she explains.
“My workshop is 50 metres from the house, so I get to enjoy these surroundings even on a workday.
“I couldn’t have imagined when I first fell in love with this part of France all those years ago that this is where I would marry, bring up a family and run my own business, on this hillside overlooking the valley.”
