How beautiful a claw foot bath would look in a bathroom, how those ancient tiled floors would scrub up. The couple couldn’t stop thinking about what that ballroom could look like if it was restored. And this story should have ended right there. But it didn’t. The searing sound of shutters being flung wide scared off a wild pig that had been the acting Lord of the Manor.Īs Sheryl and Gerald toured the castle they knew it would be too much work, too expensive. The ballroom was much loved by local bats, the ancient flagstones echoed to the sound of scampering rats as Sheryl pushed open doors and let light into rooms that had seen none for years. Sheryl says “years of complete neglect meant that the only visitors had been birds, bats and boars”. The chateau had become a wild animal den. The photos on the internet had never indicated the reality of what was really to be found inside.
Filthy dirty rooms covered in animal droppings were what lie behind those beautiful doors. The fairy-tale moment was over in a flash. Hearts beating, hardly daring to voice their thoughts, they turned the key the agent had given them and… They woke up. Almost in a daze the couple opened the rusty wrought iron gates and drove slowly up to the immense chateau doors. Sheryl says that the sight of the deserted and neglected castle at the end of a long way drive way in an overgrown park took her breath away.
Abandoned castle france full#
They hired a car, and, full of anticipation, drove up to the Chateau gates and unequivocally, irrevocably fell in love. Just a few weeks later Sheryl and Gerald Bromley flew to France and made their way to the town of Le Mung, situated on the banks of the River Charente in Poitou-Charentes. She found herself dreaming about it, thinking about how she and Gerald might be able to bring it back to its glory. However, the haunting beauty of the 800 year old chateau with its white towers and gorgeous slate tiled roof stuck in Sheryl’s mind. They were living in Sydney, Australia at the time but were looking to return to Europe to live. British born Mr Bromley turned to his wife Sheryl who comes from Wales and said “what do you think, shall we buy it?” She laughed and told him to be sensible. When Gerald Bromley saw a photo of an abandoned chateau in France on the internet in 2014 he was smitten, it was love at first sight. This is a very special, enormous and extremely challenging home improvement job. This is not a DIY job of the type that most of us would consider though many of us would dream of doing just what this family have. Chateau Le Mung is a neglected 800 year old chateau in southwest France, or at least it was until a family in Australia decided to love, honour and restore it…