Why do these stairs only go halfway up? Was this interior door once an exterior door? Patrick tries to figure out what’s up with our weird, very old (maybe 18th century) house in Amboise, France.
Near the back of the house between the salon and the kitchen is a funny little utility room with a half door and a mini staircase that leads up into an attic but you want to know where that little door goes don’t you well it’s our little wine Celler that sits just below
Ground here’s some footage that we took uh when we were visiting with the realtor when there was still stuff in it it’s Ved has a dirt floor and the previous owners were nice enough to leave us the wine rack needs a little clearing cleaning some nice fresh gravel on the floor Maybe
Maybe some cool brick or tile who knows okay back to the attic we go we notice that the space which sits over the newer part of the house shows what is very likely the rear of the original townhouse but it’s not clear what’s going on here there’s clearly an old lentil and
Doorway that’s half covered as you can see and the carpentry on those old Timbers looks pretty old one of our viewers mentioned that it looks 18th century probably and I agree the insulation and plumbing that you see leads to a part of the house that has a 1950s bathroom which we’re in
The process of uh planning to renovate I’m super thankful that we actually have easy access to the plumbing which is not often the case in Old buildings like this wait don’t leave me in here alone after considering the age of this part of the house and that we’re
Standing in a utility room that was clearly built in the 20th century I realized that the cellar was probably originally outside and that this door was an exterior door you can see that it had an old sturdy lock on the door and vents to allow for air flow
All of that’s been removed or blocked up but look at those chisel marks on the lock cutout and inside the hole where the lock used to be are two wed up pieces of newspaper let’s get them out see what Secrets they can tell us terrain or as we would say
Terrain is the greater region around the larger city of tour it’s about 25 km away so this must be about the local news of that area let’s see Friday February 8th 1955 umis well that’s our town and this must be the local newspaper then the previous family who owned this
House has graciously offered to pay us a visit this summer and tell us some of the history of the place apparently they actually know the entire history of the place which is exciting we can’t wait to learn more and share it with y’all
13 Comments
Lucky you to have a wine cellar! Looking forward to learning the history of your home.
They left the wine rack, but not the wine? Rude!!! Lol!
Wow! That newspaper is three weeks younger than I am!
Lol, my goodness! That illustration from the town paper is soooo 1950's. What fun to discover all these little tid-bits of your French home's history.
Exciting finds. Will you be putting the newspaper in a frame? What an awesome path y’all are on.
Too bad you missed the 1955 carnival masquerade ball in Amboise ! 🙂
Its was a cool room, not made for wine.
The Attic was storage of goods and foods.
A 2 way pantry, next to the kitchen. 🤗
the small screened-cabinet on the left side of the cellar door is where you can stock cheese to mature and some saucisson (^^,)…just an input.
I had to stop before continuing to watch to say… Shaggy… spot on!
French person here! I was born in Tours and once I’ve heard that caves were sometimes not aligned with the ground because of all the restructurations of street levels that have been made because of Loire river’s many floods. I think january 1955 happened to have an important flood of the river, maybe this is why you found newspaper cuts from that year in the door? The previous owner securing the door in case of another flood? The newspaper is probably ”La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest“ you can ask for the exact issue in the local library. And I think it’s worth to ask a few locals about this! But alors it’s probably more a cellar than a proper underground cave.
I live in Paris now and I am almost jealous of you two settling in Amboise, it's such a lovely place! I stumbled upon your channel just by chance, can't wait to see how your « chantier » will evolve.
In one of the other remodeling vlogs of an old chateau in France they reinforced many old wooded beams as well as the old window frames they were able to still keep with a wood hardening/strengthening liquid of some sort that they just brushed on. Might be a question to ask at your local hardware store there if there are beams that are still strong but look like they could use some TLC. Just an idea.
I'm watching eso Argentina and my english ir not so good…so my France… I think that you must call a carpentier to sea the ética. I am waiting for your work at the renovation! Amboise ir so pretty.!!!
Are y’all treating the wood for wood worm?
The little room above the half-sunken cellar is called 'opkamer' or 'vaute' here in Belgium. Lots of older farms and houses have one. They were used as an extra bedroom, or as a dry storage and they are the result of the half-sunken stone cellar beneath, which is called 'melkkelder' or milk-cellar. That was basically the fridge for the house, mostly for milk, cheese and cream, but also for wine no doubt 😉 I'm sorry I don't know the correct names in French, maybe @bilobette knows.
You seem to have some reclaimed wood in that roof. It had an other function before it was used in your house. Interesting! and who knows how old it is!