“Bon Courage!” – is a phrase that Yip Ward and Paul Mappley have heard a lot. In English, the closest equivalent would be ‘good luck’, but the French meaning is closer to ‘stick at it’, ‘keep going’.
To renovate one house is enough work for most people, but this couple have taken on far more than that.
They have been busy restoring La Buslière, a hamlet in Normandy that they purchased in 2019 for €26,000.
The couple, who who previously spoke to The Connexion, had been looking for property in the UK but felt priced out of the market, facing prices of £300,000 in their home region of Kent, where they worked as landscape gardeners.
A friend offered them the opportunity to purchase a cottage in La Buslière for €12,000. Instead, they purchased the whole uninhabited hamlet for €26,000, complete with a total of six cottages, two barns, a workshop, well, hay loft, functioning cider press, communal bread oven, pig shed and two acres of land.
The old stone hamlet of La Buslière is surrounded by Normandy’s vast green fields.
“Only one car comes here each day and that’s the post lady,” said Mr Ward. “It is difficult to actually convey the space and tranquillity here, which is amazing.”
Sleeping in a horsebox gite
With work on so many fronts, progress has been slow. However, the hamlet is now open to visitors who can spend the night in a converted vintage horsebox.
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The compact but "luxury" accommodation can host up to two guests and features a double bed, solid oak floors and a wood burner for colder days.
The couple describes the design as "a stylish mix of mid century meets French antique."
“We’re really proud of the work we have done on that lorry,” they said. “In the morning, when the sun is shining and we put both doors down, it is just lovely. We want to share it with others.”
The converted horsebox is already taking guests via AirbnbPaul Mappley and Yip Ward
The lorry is serviced by a utility building, referred to as "the old piggery" (la porcherie), which used to have a 30ft cherry tree growing out of it, but now it houses a private kitchen and bathroom for guests.
Paul finished re-roofing the pig barn with the help of “a few YouTube clips” and advice from a friend.
“It’s not a small task; we’ve never ever touched a roof before,” the couple said. “Laying the last tile really brought out some emotion for us."
Glowing reviews
“We opened the gite in May 2023 and it took a few months to get going but by August it got really busy,” said Mr Ward.
“People have left us lots of lovely comments and five-star reviews on Airbnb. One French guest was amazed by our gite saying that ‘rarely in France do we find this level of quality’," he added.
You can see a full tour of the converted horsebox and accompanying piggery by watching the video below.
The unique gite is parked in a private courtyard overlooking views of the Normandy countryside and there is even a chance that the four local hens, known as "the girls of La Buslière," will provide visitors with fresh eggs.
“Locals have been very appreciative, too. The farmers around here, who are all friends now, give us all sorts of advice.”
A future brocante and bread oven as cottages set for conversion
In addition to restoring the hamlet, running the gite, earning a living as landscape gardeners and learning French, the couple also feature in the UK Channel 4 series Help! We Bought a Village.
Viewers of the TV show have watched them as they carefully put the old stones back in place, fix roofs and cope with an array of potentially overwhelming problems while staying surprisingly calm.
Fans from as far afield as Sweden have come to stay at the gite.
“We aren’t paid to be on the TV show and both work clearing the land for people around here, mostly other Brits who have seen the programme, but all the money goes straight back into building. We are constantly on the lookout for materials we can buy on a shoestring," said Mr Ward.
The couple have started a GoFundMe page for anyone wishing to contribute.
Yip and Paul have renovated a further cottage, and hope to turn another two cottages into a brocante or thrift shop, while the bread oven building is destined to be a bread oven once again.
“If we looked at all the things to do it would feel like too much, so we try to just take things one at a time,” said Mr Ward.
“But most of all we feel very blessed to live in such a beautiful place with such wide-open space.”
Much work lies ahead for the couple as they continue to ‘stick at it’, ‘keep going’ and slowly but surely restore their Norman hamlet.
