Next March I will be heading to France to the Loire Valley with several of my writing friends for a week-long writers’ retreat. We’re looking forward to many writerly chats, boosting our word counts and getting in a bit of sight-seeing too.

One of my fellow writers asked if we would be anywhere near my French chateau and it turns out we’ll be just an hour away, so we are going to organise a trip. Jean Gill who is one of my partners in crime has even bought a share herself in the chateau and plans to do a photo shoot there as she is also a talented photographer.

So you own a great big chateau in France, Mrs Money Bags? you ask! Actually, me and tens of thousands of my closest friends – I understand including M et Mme Macron! I merely own a €50 share. I joined a crowdfunding exercise in late 2017 to buy the chateau. Since then there have been several further crowd funded exercises to raise more capital as we undertake repairs and expand.

You can watch a video here, from the BBC documentary series The Travel Show.

The shareholders voted not to restore it to a habitable building but to keep it in its magical fairy-tale state with trees growing out of the walls and windows! It is a truly beautiful example of nature reasserting its hold. Even so there has been a need to make the building safe and prevent further collapse.

The chateau is called La Motte Chandeniers and the original castle was built in the thirteenth century and destroyed during the French Revolution. The current structure is a more recent creation. Built in 1809 it was destroyed along with its contents including a library of rare books, precious tapestries and furniture, by a fire in 1932 when a new central heating boiler was installed. The family decided to abandon the place and nature took over.

I visited La Motte Chandeniers not long after I made my purchase back in 2018 while holidaying a couple of hours away. The pictures here were taken then so it will be interesting to see how it has changed next spring. It’s open to the public and is often used for fashion and music shoots as well as concerts and events. You can also buy a share too if you fancy! It’s now €79…