Robynne McTaggart loves to spend time in France, whether skiing in the alps or enjoying the summer in the picturesque villages and glorious countryside. With a business doing well in Perth, Australia where she and husband Garry live, Robynne decided to find a home of her own in 2006. She set herself a goal – to visit as much of the unspoiled, uncrowded and authentic far south west France as she could in just two weeks - and find her dream property.
“Arriving at the Vallées du Gaves in the Hautes-Pyrénées, close to Lourdes, the French capital of miracles, I immediately and instinctively felt it was where I wanted to be, and that I would find ‘the one’” says Robynne. She rented a hotel room in Pau and got to know the area. Finding herself more and more inspired by what she found she became more determined than ever that this was where she wanted to be. She already knew that her dream home was a maison de maitre, a mansion house, but it seemed an impossible task to find just one, let alone ‘the one’. By luck, as she spoke to a bar owner about her quest, some local people told her of a rumour that a family with just the type of house she was interested were thinking of selling. It was called Le Belvedere, and it was a large mountain style mansion house.
Robynne went to see the property and meet the family who, it turned out, were indeed selling their home in the village of Salles, on the outskirts of Argelès-Gazost. The 300 year old local stone property nestles at the base of the Regional Nature Reserve of the Pibeste-Aoulhet. Robynne says “the minute I went through the door, I knew I’d found my home. It blew my budget out of the water but, it was love at first sight and I just felt I had to do everything I could to make this mine”.
The Good Life in ...
The Hautes-Pyrénées