Château de Sauveterre-la-Lémance
This castle is one of the best preserved examples of the military strongholds built by Edward I of England in Aquitaine towards the end of the 13th Century to defend his Plantagenet empire against the French. It is also one of the last castles to fall to the French at the end of the 100 years' war.
Since the mid-1970s it has been owned and intermittently occupied by an eccentric South African, in many ways reminiscent of Quasi Modo, who has carried out piecemeal repairs. In 1996 the French Ministry of Culture, which is subsidising the repair work, and the 'Architecte des Bâtiments de France' (the state official responsible for vetting work to listed buildings) insisted that the work be co-ordinated and supervised by a suitably experienced French registered architect. The client conformed with this requirement while maintaining the "English" link by commissioning me, an architect who is British but also registered to operate in France.
An early meeting with the regional director of the Ministry of Culture and with the Architecte des Bâtiments de France helped to overcome their initial reticence about having a 'foreign' architect in charge of repairing one of the best examples of medieval castle architecture in the South West of France. With French as my mother tongue, I soon gained their confidence. The client was also glad to be able to work with an architect with whom he could communicate without any fear of misunderstanding.
