3.4K
[blank]
[blank]
[blank]
When I showed you pictures of Brittany yesterday, I promised to tell you about a wonderful place to stay.
Le Manoir de Kerledan is more than just a beautiful stop over, it is also the story of how a talented couple embarked upon a huge and daunting project to create this haven of peace and beauty.
[blank]
Today Kerledan is all about sweeping gravel drives, manicured gardens, sumptuous bedrooms and fine dining, but when Penny and Peter first found the property it looked …….
more like this …….
and today’s beautiful façade looked like this!
It took them years of clearing rubble and bulldozing land to create the picture perfect home and gardens that they own today.
The garden has been created around ‘rooms’ of colour with hornbeam hedges, a potager, a topiary garden, a croquet lawn and a rose garden, as well as the parkland and walnut garden. Central to the planting scheme, this rather wonderful wild boar presides, keeping an eye on the perfectly trimmed alleys and lawn.
[blank]
Indoors, Penny and Peter have created an exceptionally elegant home. Peter served for many years in the British army, and Penny learnt from their 13 moves how to single handedly furnish and decorate each new home. They have two children who came to Kerledan with them and who were part of the renovation project, and who today are starting out on their own exciting lives.
The kitchen plays a central role as Penny prepares wonderful dining for their guests.
[blank]
Guests to Kerledan are welcomed with open fires,
and stunning bedrooms furnished with French antiques and fine linens
[blank]
Downstairs there is place to relax before dinner, or read the paper after breakfast
[blank]
or maybe stroll back outside to check on the boar!
Le Manoir de Kerledan is situated in cenral Brittany and provides a fantastic base for visiting the region. If you’d like to know more about staying there, just drop Penny a mail, and she’ll give you the details.
all photos thanks to le manoir de kerledan,
37 comments
It's just so stunning.
What an amazing job…inspiring!
We haven't decided on a holiday destination for this summer. Perhaps it will be Brittany. Thank you for such inspirational posts.
Anna
OH MY GOODNESS – That garden is SO beautiful!!! What an incredible place, and what an incredible amount of work they've done. I am absolutely and totally in awe. As I sit here battling in my mind with where to plant my 6 new rose plants, I am utterly chastened by the enormity of their project – and how gorgeous the end result is. I vow to shut up, stop complaining and just 'dig' from now on! Thanks for sharing. x
Thank you Sharon for this beautiful post and sharing with us such a wonderful place.
We have made reservations for October.
Oh, I wish I could be there tomorrow!
You're absolutely right, it really does look like a fabulous place to stay!
Now this is my sort of place. How I would love to keep the boar company for a turn of the garden!
Well, thank you, Sharon, for that exceptionally lovely post; you just made my morning. Like "Mrs. Sutton" (see above response), I was sitting here…blankly wondering how long, this morning, I could delay forging out into the garden to begin tackling what, after reading about your friends' work, seems a completely undaunting list of small chores. I was also sourly contemplating how much "help" I'll be needing if we move next month to the much larger, 18th century house and garden we're apparently buying. your posting reminds me that any "problems" I have are enviable ones.
What a lovely place….My first thought, looking at the front facade, was "VERY Tess of the D'Urbervilles".
More importantly (and I hope that other folks will follow the links to Kerladan's website, which features articles written/published about
your friends and their house)?…
Oddly enough (or maybe not), I know three "ex-military couples who, in their patently latter-middle-age years, have successfully taken on the IMMENSE project of opening and running a B&B.; One of these couples also raises cairn terriers (which is how I met them; my latest terrier is from their kennel).
In all three cases (four, if I now include your friends, Penny and Peter), I can't help immediately recalling Jane Austen's portrayal of the Admiral and his wife in "Persuasion" (the relationship is wonderfully portrayed in the 1995, BBC movie).
The Admiral's wife, having married young and chosen thelife of "military wife", has spent all of her picking-up and moving house and making the best out of what she's been given….and generally developing a formidable talent for being productive, adaptable, and (consequently) quite happy. she and her husband ENJOY each other's company….and they like to keep busy, just as long as they can do it with each other.
As has been widely noted, theirs is possibly the only marriage which Austen, in all of her novels, portrays in unequivocably approving terms.
The owners of Kerledan, from what I read in the articles, seem to have a similarly productive and happy partnership. It's an encouraging/inspiring thing to encounter.
Well…reading your blog this morning has served as my vitamin-pill-for-the-day (a saying of my grandmother's).
thanks for the fine inspiration,
David Terry
http://www.davidterryart.com
This place looks very lovely. Your photos are beautiful. I am in the market for a new camera. What kind of camera you use for the photos that appear on this blog?
This place looks so lovely. I have been admiring your photos on this site for a while. If you don't mind be asking, what kind of camera do you use? I am in the market for a new camera.
Wow, what a beautiful place! But I am certain yours is just as special!
Stacey
This looks amazing. Thank you for sharing this beautiful spot with us! I hope to visit someday.
Now David has me itching to either reread "Persuasion", try and find the movie to see again (Ciaran Hinds! Swoon-worthy!) or both.
Thank you for this wonderful, inspiring post, Sharon. Who doesn't love "they saved it!" stories? Especially when the result is so utterly fantastic.
Oh, yes, Heather ("Lost in Provence")….THAT's the actress's name…."Ciaran Hinds". The woman can simply convey such a capacity for joy in her acting. She's simply stunning in those few scenes from the movie in which, smiling ever so gently or ironically, she's trying to let the heroine know that there ARE, indeed, second chances….and here's how it's done….
—-david (who needs, I know, to mail that "Happy Zen dog" picture to you)
Absolutely stunning inside and out! Thanks for the tour, Sharon!
XO,
Jane
I will look at this a hundred times!
Wow this is a dream. Makes me want to get on a plane. RIGHT NOW!! You have a way of having this effect on my Sharon on a daily basis!!
Oh my goodness! How beautiful! How I would love to spend one night there. She certainly has wonderful taste.
In my family history, I have ties to Brittany and in fact named my eldest daughter that long before the name took on popularity and before I knew about the connection, so for sure this part of France is on my bucket list! What a gorgeous spot – I'm going to bookmark Kerledan for that future trip!
Idyllic, I love it. Beautiful inside and out.
Nancy
Powellbrowerhome.com
Thank you for such a nice post and wonderful pictures. I would love to live there.
Betsy
This is increadible! The vision they had, I can't believe what a ruin it was before. Would love to have a project one day like that myself, to create such a beauty as they did! Thanks for the tip for a visit, I will try realy hard to get there one day ((:
hugs Z
That is truly amazing. How much fun and hard work went into all the efforts. 🙂 Jenny
WOW – nice place to stay – we will have to keep this one in mind.
Gerrie
Looks and sounds heavenly!
Thank you for the tour – it is really lovely!
I wonder if they would adopt me? 🙂
You know, my husband and I did a whole-house renovation of a 1920s-era bungalow, but it's small. I can't imagine taking on a place the size of this "manor house." They've done an incredible job and, oh, how I would love to make a visit. I'm tucking this info of it into my Dreams-To-Make-Happen folder!
Beautiful and so French country! I would live to stay there. I am new to your blog. I am about to embark on an adventure in your blogs. Looks like there are lots to discover! 🙂
Wow. Those are some of the most dramatic "before and after" photos I've ever seen. My 1919 Craftsman bungalow-style house was in pretty rough shape when I bought it, and the remodeling of it just about killed me. So I completely admire a project like this.
These are fantastic! Thank you for sharing. Very inspiring.
I love the boar statue, there is a similar one here is B.C. Canada in a place called "Butchart Gardens".
Oh, this place looks perfectly dreamy! How amazing!
~ Clare x
I am currently renovating a very similar property not far away. Though I am still at the 'Black and White' photo stage. However, your beautiful and inspiring photos have once again given my poor sagging sails a new wind… So thank you for the inspiration folks. From one artist to another… Truly first class work.
Best wishes et peut-etre a' bientot
Nigel Carren http://www.nigelcarren.com
What a wonderful story to tell. Thanks for the beautiful pictures and the wonderful message in this blog.
Lots of Love from Sunny South Africa
Sandra
De Oude Huize
http://www.deoudehuize.co.za
what are the tree balls IN the hornbeam allee? are they clipped hornbeam standards too?
VIP cheap Sabres jerseys from china