Veyresailles gite vernaculaire
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Welcome on the site of our vacation accomodation in Perigord, a beautiful rural part of the Dordogne in south west France about 200km east of Bordeaux. Following the impulse to a different approach in the dialogue between light and matter, surprising premises were created in this farmhouse from the 16th century. Spending a few days out here might slightly change you.
The house, partially at least, stood already while the Bastille was burning. In this rural part of France, houses from the 16th century are massive: thick stone walls, heavy oak beams, old tiles, dark rooms.
During the gentle renovation of the premises, we followed our own ideas, so that the house's interior has a character, which in many ways is quite different from the typical regional style.
Our dialogue with the house went on for years and we had a lot of gorgeous moments, confronting it with modern and foreign elements. Our professional antecedents, Ursula as a stage- and costumedesigner, Marc as physicist, artist and allround-technician, have helped us a lot in this venture.
Light was a central aspect. Through new apertures, we have created light- and look-throughs. Another aspect was visual simplification. We favored complex material combinations and were able to defy the attraction of straight lines and right angles in a very unconventional manner, without squiggling. We have preserved the old, when we found it pleasant, not for restaurations sake. The chosen path, often was the more wasteful. No regrets!
The holiday domicile ist part of a big country house and lies atop a hill on the ridge of a small picturesque hamlet. On the sunny house side there is a big tree in the garden, and below it a seating/eating place with a stunning clear 180° view towards west over fields, woods and meadows.
At night the hamlet has no street lights, and a fantastical starry sky displays on new moon with clear weather. The milky way is quite rarely seen so beautifuly in central Europe.
Through the westwards oriented windows, the view over the hills is omnipresent even inside the house. The sunsets, in direct line of sight, are very beautiful, and become even unforgetable when suddenly a deer shows at the edge of the forest.
Not far from here the river Vézère serpentines between karstic roc cliffs. There, between Montignac und Les-Eyzies is located a renown prehistoric centre know as "vallée de l'homme" (valley of man). Homo Sapiens has left here, evidence of uninterrrupted settlement over the last 40000 years.
Sunny location
(engl. vernacular architecture) Traditionelle Architekturform entstanden aus der pragmatischen Anwendung handwerklicher Traditionen zur Befriedigung eines akuten Raumbedarfs. Sie ist beeinflusst sowohl von lokalen Gegebenheiten wie Klima, Umweltbedingungen, verfügbaren Baumaterialien, regionalem Baustil und der Gesellschaftsform, als auch vom Horizont der Bauherren und ihrem Geschmack. Die Realisierung erfolgt nicht selten durch Laien oder Gewerbefremde unter Anwendung von multidisziplinären Verfahren und Mischtechniken sowie dem Einsatz von recycleten Materialien.
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Old and new
La vallée de l'homme