I am now over 75 years old. About forty years ago I travelled a lot in Asia. My business was then the manufacture and import of wooden sculptures and porcelain miniatures. This small business was flourishing, my Thai wife and I who lived in Toulouse had long dreamed of buying a small plot of land in the mountains to build a holiday home. After a few months of searching we fell in love with a small plot of land and an old abandoned barn above the village of Ercé not too far from Toulouse and with a magnificent view. We converted the barn there and started to enjoy the place. Subsequently, we bought other barns and more or less abandoned plots of land. As I am passionate about aviation and a pilot, I asked a forestry contractor in the region to dig a landing strip in the mountain to land my plane. The forester arrived with a mechanical shovel and a huge bulldozer. A few weeks after the start of the disaster site: a granite moraine that the bulldozer was pushing to clear the track escaped from him and began to roll down the slope towards the valley with terrible force. It ended up landing 200m below right on a barn that we had just bought. The roof and 3 out of 4 walls were completely destroyed.
We were lucky because the forester had insurance that offered to take care of rebuilding the barn. At the time, we had no animals. Having no use for a barn, we added a little money to turn it into a house. Once the construction was finished, we found ourselves with a second house that we did not need. We then converted it into a gîte and from the start it was very successful. This motivated us to start building a second one from a barn that we had just bought.

In the meantime, the comings and goings with Thailand have not stopped. We bought elephants there with which we organized hikes in the forest and the mountains. There, we also continued to make porcelain miniatures and thanks to the containers partially filled with our products we brought back craft products such as sculptures or furniture to equip our cottages.

Today our children have taken over the Thai manufacturing. They make jewelry that they market under the Nach brand. As for us, we have gone a little green. We still go back and forth to Thailand but we spend more time taking care of the cottages. We enjoy the calm and the good quality of life of this little corner of paradise.

Christian