Settling in France after decades of globetrotting: Real Life

After decades of globetrotting, Justin Wescombe finally settled in Saumur in the Loire Valley. He tells Annaliza Davis why…

When you find yourself unexpectedly in a new town in France, it’s natural to go exploring; it’s a little more unusual to fall in love with an historic home and buy it, but that’s what happened when Justin Wescombe found himself in Saumur in 2019. “I’d been living in Geneva, but after my marriage fell apart, I didn’t want to stay there. I’ve always had an affinity for France and loved the Loire so I started looking in Nantes, although it quickly became clear that the suburbs of a city weren’t for me.

“One Saturday morning, fed up with househunting, I caught a train to have lunch in Chinon. Once on board, I realised that it was quite a trek and I’d have to change trains. Laziness took over and for no particular reason I got off in Saumur. I walked into Place St-Pierre to find that it was market day, and I was hooked. Sitting on the terrace of the old Café St-Amour (now Café de la Ville), I asked the patron if she knew of any property for sale, and she pointed to a house a couple of doors away. I checked into a local hotel, viewed the property and that was that. By Monday, I had started the buying process and was looking forward to moving to Saumur.”

The property that Justin fell for sits just beyond the market square, and dates from at least the 1400s. Built from the pale tuffeau stone quarried locally, it still has countless original features, including ancient oak doors that have been intricately carved by hand and vast oak beams that are centuries old.

In the main living space, there are two fireplaces that seem to date from when the property was built 600 years ago, and Justin has since learned that his home was closely connected to Château de Saumur, a gleaming castle with an iconic silhouette that overlooks the town. “I’ve been told this was originally the greffe de la sénéchaussée, which means it was the property from which the day-to-day management of the nearby château took place,” says Justin. “You can still see parts of the original town walls connected to the house, and the two turrets apparently would have been used as lookout posts for the gates to the town, so it must have played a key role in protecting the château and the town itself.

“Along the staircase, there are several blocked-up entrances and on each floor of the house there are doorways that now lead nowhere but must have connected to other buildings at one point. There’s another house nearby that has wooden walkways attached to the outside walls, and I suspect this house used to have similar outdoor stairs to access the upper floors. There’s a talented architectural artist named Marcus Deakin who has a house in Saumur, and a couple of years ago he gave me a wonderful sketch of what the house might have looked like with its original external walkways. Given that this was a public building back in the day, those outdoor thoroughfares would make sense, as it would have given access to different areas without people being able to get into the living quarters.”

The thick stone walls and high ceilings certainly give the impression of grandeur, while the stone spiral staircase that winds its way up to the turrets lends a fairytale air to the everyday act of going upstairs. “When you live in a place with such a long past, you certainly have a sense of the continuity of history,” says Justin, “and you can’t help wondering about the lives of all the people who have passed through here. Whose hands touched the door that you are opening? Who carved those intricate details into the oak panels? Who scratched their initials in the cellar walls, and why? What was going on in their lives that meant they had the time to scratch on the walls in the deepest cellar?”

It has been many years since Justin’s home was a lookout for the château, and these days it has a practical layout that works well for a modern family. As you come in off the market square, the ground floor leads to a self-contained, three-bedroom flat that is ideal for visits from Justin’s grown-up children and their many friends, giving them independence whenever they come to stay.

Up on the first floor is the main hall – a grand living space with windows overlooking both sides of the town and the kitchen, which is far more modern than its period setting. Finally, on the top floor, there are two more bedrooms, a study, a bathroom and a spacious roof terrace ideal for apéritifs and summer barbecues. “I have to confess that when I first bought the house, I didn’t even realise that it had this outdoor space,” laughs Justin, “so that was a very pleasant surprise when I moved in!”

In addition to the three storeys of living space, there are steps leading down to the cellars, perfect for storage, utilities and laying down the odd bottle of local wine. Saumur is, after all, surrounded by vineyards and produces Bourgueil, Chinon, St-Nicolas de Bourgueil and Saumur-Champigny, as well as the sparkling crémant for which the town is renowned.

“Even though I found the house on a whim, Saumur suits me and I think of it as a Goldilocks town – not too big and not too small. I am a complete townie. The only criteria I have when choosing a house is that I have to be able to walk to get a coffee and here I can take my pick. “At its heart, Saumur is a medieval hub with the requisite market, restaurants and independent shops, and on the outskirts are all the big-box retailers for gardening stuff and home renovation. It helps that the Loire flows through the town, because a walk by the river clears the mind better than any self-help courses.

“There is a romantic side to living in the Loire Valley with the beautiful châteaux, wine, superb restaurants and all the pretty villages. I love the layers of history. Twenty minutes away at Fontevraud is the necropolis of the Plantagenet dynasty, an hour away at Amboise is the burial place of Leonardo da Vinci and several churches in the area have a plaque showing Joan of Arc’s fateful voyage through this area; indeed, her famous meeting with the French king took place in nearby Chinon.

“One of the most amazing stories of the town dates from 1940 and concerns the famous horse-riding Cadets of Saumur. Approximately 2,500 new trainee officers at the town’s Cavalry and Infantry School, along with a number of regular soldiers, held up about 40,000 German troops for three days along the Loire between Gennes and Montsoreau. It was an incredibly courageous act, and there’s a plaque that commemorates their bravery displayed in Les Invalides, near Napoleon’s tomb.”

Justin is clearly passionate about his adopted hometown, although he has lived all over the world. Born in New Delhi, India, he lived for 10 years in Asia, 10 more in Australia, the Middle East, Somalia, the USA and Geneva and also spent five years living in La Celle-St-Cloud near Versailles. Given his track record of globe-trotting, this historic building may not be a forever home, but Justin certainly appreciates the advantages of living in the centre of Saumur.

“On a practical level, the rail connections are great, the nearby A85 connects the town to all of France and I’m only a three-hour drive from Normandy or from Paris. “There are events all year round, amazing local restaurants and about 450 vineyards, and the town is not overrun by expats, although I have plenty of English-speaking friends here. My French is not the best but it can still take 20 minutes to walk across Place St-Pierre because I stop to chat with so many people. All I can say is that since finding this house, I smile more than I frown.”

For someone who bought a property spontaneously during an unplanned visit to the town, everything has certainly worked out very well for Justin in his historic Saumur home.

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