Using census records When I ponder about the history of our French water mill, I guess one of the things that immediately comes to mind is the people who lived and worked here. One of the old post cards that I had managed to find shows a couple standing outside the mill. The figures are … Continue reading Tracing the history of our french home – Part 1
From the initial exploration of the fabric of the building, it didn’t look as if our home was more than a couple of hundred years old. However, one quite important thing to know if you own a water mill in France is what droits d’eau, water rights you have, if any. As Colin was quite … Continue reading Mapping the past
When we bought our mill I was hoping to receive a sizeable pile of old deeds which I could study when whiling away the grey winter hours by the log fire with a glass of wine. I was rather disappointed therefore when it appeared that the old documentation had somehow been ‘discarded’ during the most recent changes of ownership. So I'm on the hunt...
Although sitting doing nothing isn't normally in my nature ( I drive Colin mad by endlessly compiling and working my way through self-inflicted lists of 'things-I-just-have-to-do') I did spend some time this Christmas just kicking back, reading books, catching up on interesting websites I'd bookmarked about the local area and I fell to pondering. This … Continue reading Part of history
