The Discovery

When we discovered La Grange Des Templiers we were already hoping to buy a different house in the area, we had looked at hundreds, both on line and on site. The other house had fallen through and we had fallen in love with this beautiful area with its kind and welcoming people and peaceful atmosphere.

Driving down the empty road, La Grange came into view, it looked so alone, so abandoned.

La Grange had not been totally abandoned, only the ancient and esoteric tower part was left for the wildlife to explore and make their homes in. It was simply too costly to renovate so it had become a storage place for old farm equipment.

The bottom of the tower had a simple dust floor, on the first and second floors there were gaping cracks in the 4-5 ft thick walls.

Curiously the roof was nearly new. Apparently, centuries earlier the roof had looked very different but it had been hit by lightning, loosing its roof and two more floors.

La Grange filled with rain water and the walls became so damp they were now were now furry with white mould. A new roof was put on in the hope of selling the property.

Incredibly it was months before we discovered how different the roof had originally been and that it had even had another two floors! While this was surprising, it explained why there were so many beams that had no function we could fathom because the roof now sat on the outside walls of the tower and it’s new construction did not require so many beams. This was another discovery, this time made in the Marie’s office where he showed us an ancient painting of the old La Grange Des Templiers. He had another painting too of an old monastery close to La Grange. We are now looking for the connection between the two buildings but so much time has past, it's well before many records were kept and when the ability to read or write was not common.

This view of La Grange is from the other side. It is painted from the roadway that forms part of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.

The puzzle of the Knights Templars role here is clearer and we began to notice incredible coincidences of how we, an ordinary couple from England, stumbled upon this building, steeped in history, mystery and intrigue and it seemed to be calling to us ....