We purchased 3 Place de la Barbacane at the end of 2006 and the adjacent wine-making cave, at 6 Rue des Coquières, in 2015. The main house had been empty for some years and the wine cave had been used as a storage space since wine production ceased in the early 1970’s.  The roof of the Rue des Coquières section of the main house had collapsed as had some of the internal walls.  The house itself has at least three sections and these were build either side of the old wall. The wall can be traced back to  the nearby Barbacane gate into the village. The parts of the house that were build within the village wall date back to the time when Villemagne L’Argentière was a major destination for pilgrims. In contrast, the newest part of the property is the wine cave and examination of the old postcards that you can see hanging in the living room shows that the wine cave had not yet been build when the picture was taken. Villemagne L’Argentière has a long and fascinating history which is summarised in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villemagne-l%27Argentière.

The initial phase of the restoration was completed in 2011 and many happy family holidays have been enjoyed over the last fifteen years.  The riverside section was originally four small rooms that have been transformed into a single, open-plan kitchen, dining and sitting area. This area has underfloor heating which keeps the room warm for visits during the winter months. The room provides views over the river and into the property’s internal courtyard. The television room, bedrooms and bathrooms were originally three levels of animal pens, human accommodation and an upper hayloft. This section of the house needed to be completely gutted with new floor levels to create upper and lower levels of accommodation. The old village wall runs between the two upstairs bedrooms and explains why the internal wall is so thick.  These rooms have air-conditioners so that they can be kept warm in winter and cool in the summer.

Under the stone arch in the courtyard, a low arch can be seen. Similar arches can be found around the village. Some are tops of doorways from before the ground level was raised by centuries of flooding.  We don’t think that our arch indicates a lower level of rooms and is probably just an old watercourse to the river. We do know that prior to the construction of the river wall, access to the river was through the arch from Rue des Coquières and across what is now our courtyard.

Restoration of the wine cave to create the new annex gite was undertaken under the supervision of Mr David Smith, a Yorkshireman who has lived in the village for the last twenty-five years and the Languedoc for over thirty years. David has been responsible for restoration of dozens of local properties and is a mine of information on just about any subject related to the vintage car restoration, the Languedoc, its geology, history and its people. The turntable in the garage is designed to overcome the lack of turning space in Rue des Coquières and allows a car to be driven into the garage, rotated on the turntable and to then be driven out forwards. However, the turntable will only accommodate small cars so if you do not have a Fiat 500, please don’t try it.  The living accommodation in the gite has zonal underfloor heating and air conditioning to ensure comfortable living throughout the year.  The only part of the original wine cave that has been preserved is the burgundy red door that is set into the living room wall. This was the door to one of the old wine cuve’s in which the grape juice was fermented.

We hope that you enjoy your stay in Villemagne L’Argentére and that you leave with happy memories.

Richard & Lisa Field