When and why did you first move to France?
I moved to France in 1975 because I did a silly thing: I had a lovely wife but I sold my marine business in England and ran off with another woman [they split up soon afterwards]. I packed my bags and went off to Saint-Raphaël (Var) where I had a boat and started a new life down there.
When I first came to the southern coast, I had a little run-in with the mafia. I had supposedly docked my boat somewhere I was not meant to, and was being asked for quite a lot of money as a form of racket. I went to the police but they told me that unless they had actually done anything to me, there was nothing they could do.
I was put off the coast by that and a friend then told me he had a watermill for sale near Bordeaux. I agreed to buy the property, located on a canal near Castets-en-Dorthe (Gironde), and launched a charter business on the canal. I also renovated the mill and started a lovely restaurant with water flowing through the middle.
Then, another friend told me he had an opportunity for someone who loves old buildings – in other words, myself. He had just bought a derelict chateau at auction, named the Château de Commarque in Sauternes (Gironde). There was nothing inside because the previous owner had cut out all the main timbers before leaving. All that was left were the walls and roof. I fell in love with it, so I sold my watermill and charter business and bought the chateau for €60,000, including its 20 hectares of old vineyard.
How did the renovation go?
I found four English boys who were doing the vendanges [grape harvest for wine] in the area and took them on, giving them a bit of money and a place to stay in return for helping me out. Together we put all the beams back using lorry loads of second-hand timber I bought from a demolition yard.
One complication was that I was waiting for money to come in from my marine business sale in England, but it never did because the buyer went bankrupt. I had to start all over again with £5,000 in my pocket, but you just have to get on with it.
I cleaned up one of the bedrooms first and stayed in there, and then worked night and day to get the rest done. It took five years.
Once it was finished, I opened a restaurant. It was great fun! Next I planted the vineyard, so I was kept very busy.
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Was the objective to sell the chateau eventually?
No, it was purely for my enjoyment, but when I planted the vineyards it got to the stage where I either had to invest a lot more money or sell it and go. I got a good offer from another English chap so I decided to sell and start a new project.
The next chateau was near Sarlat (Dordogne), the Château de Veyrignac. It had been empty for several years. The owner could not sell it because the local mayor had put a droit de préemption on the property [meaning the mayor had first right to buy].
I asked the owner to put me in as a locataire and said I would fight the mayor. I was eventually able to buy the property for €130,000. I started a bed and breakfast and opened up my first museum for my armour collection. It took about eight years in total to do up that property.
What prompted the eventual sale?
I had a few financial problems with people owing me money that I would never receive. I also had a headache with a local, corrupt lawyer who threatened me.
I decided to move out. I had bought a chateau, the Château de Rigaud, for a friend near Saint-Émilion (Gironde) but he was unable to pay me for it, which in the end suited me quite well as I moved in instead.
It was a lovely old property and I put five or six years into it, doing a lot of work. After it was completed, a Scottish man was interested in buying it but the day before signing the papers, he backed out.
I was choked up about it, so much so that I put the price up by another hundred thousand – and sold it 15 days later! It went for about €800,000. I had originally paid €120,000-€130,000.
And did you move straight to your next chateau?
Yes, I did. This was a large property with six or seven cottages and 85 hectares of ground, named Château de Razac in Thiviers (Dordogne). I got it up and running after a few years but there was no place to install my museum.
This chateau did lead to my main negative experience in France. I had a lousy tenant in one of my cottages who did not pay any rent in two years. When I finally tried to get him out with a tribunal, he told police that I was smuggling diamonds from South Africa.
I travelled fairly regularly to South Africa for business, and much to my surprise when I arrived back in Paris after one trip there were four policemen waiting for me off the plane. They held me for four months while they looked into my affairs.
They found nothing, of course, and eventually let me go. It was a strange experience being locked up with all sorts of undesirable characters, but everything went well. To keep my mind occupied I started writing a book.
Returning to the chateau, the locals thought I was a bandit and put an article in the newspaper about it, exaggerating what happened.
I did not like staying in the area after that, so I decided to sell up and move. I sold it to an English lady, who put a hefty deposit down but asked for a three-month delay to pay the rest, as she had to sell her property in the UK.
It has now been 15 years and I am still waiting – the bank seized her house because of debts.
As a result, I was forced to stop renovating my new chateau, Château de Vieux-Fort in Mas-Saintes-Puelles (Aude), and go back to work. It took me around two years to get back on my feet and restart the renovation. This chateau is where I currently live.
Were you always excited to start each new chateau renovation?
You are a little bit foolish when you buy these properties out of passion, and you pour your heart and soul into restoring them, and usually run out of money at the end of the day. At that point, the best thing to do is to sell up and start again.
However, I have enjoyed every one of them. They were in different parts of France and you get to know the local people and all the ins and outs. It has been quite an education.
You have a few ups and downs but it is worth it at the end of the day. And I have always loved restoration, from cars to houses. In my teens, during school holidays, I worked for a builder, helping to restore lots of things. I never thought that experience would stand me in good stead for later in life.
Is it easy to turn a profit on these renovations?
No. On every one I have at least doubled or tripled my purchase price but it is hard work. You cannot pay a building company to help – it would be ruinous.
When you do this sort of thing, you either have to be very rich or a bloody good handyman. I had to learn how to build swimming pools and that sort of thing.
I would always keep an eye out for local people looking for work, and then we would tackle it together. It is the only way to do it because a chateau will eat up your money if you are not careful.
Would you encourage others to take on a chateau renovation?
I certainly would. I hate to see a lovely old chateau dilapidated and falling to pieces. I always jump in with two feet and try to figure out how I can make it pay – not to turn a profit, but to make it financially viable.
If you can manage without finance for the most part, even better. So many people borrow large sums of money and then have to close before they get things up and running.
What’s next?
I am in the throes of selling my current property in order to buy another chateau. I want one with a large enough building to display my armour collection to turn into a nice museum.
Geoffrey Kenyon-May has written a book, France Sunny Side Up: A Breathtaking Rollercoaster of a Memoir, with more details of his fascinating life.
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Chateaux in France
There are an estimated 45,000 chateaux in France, with 11,000 having protected heritage status. Generally, they sell for between €700,000 and €2,500,000, with the cheapest going for €300,000 and the most expensive going for upwards of €30,000,000.
There is no precise definition of what a chateau is and it varies depending on estate agents. Generally speaking, a chateau was historically the residence of a lord, duke or king, is located on several hectares of land and has outbuildings and dependencies. They are similar to manors but the latter are smaller, were ow noblemen and have no defensive characteristics.
All chateaux used to incorporate some form of defence, such as moats and towers, in their design. However, from the end of mediaeval times comfort was prioritised instead.
