About forty years ago I traveled a lot in Asia. My business then was the importation of wooden sculptures and porcelain miniatures. This small business being flourishing, my Thai wife and I, who lived in Toulouse, had been dreaming for a long time of buying a small plot of land in the mountains to build a holiday home. After a few months of research we fell in love with a small plot of land and an old abandoned barn above the village of Ercé not too far from Toulouse and with a magnificent view. We set up the barn there and began to enjoy the place. Little by little we bought the land and neighboring barns which were abandoned.
As I am passionate about aviation and have been piloting small microlights for years, I asked a forestry contractor in the region to dig a landing strip in the mountain to land my plane. The forester therefore arrives with a huge mechanical excavator and a bulldozer. A few weeks after the start of the disaster site: a huge granite moraine that the Bulldozer was pushing to clear the track escaped it and began to roll with terrible force towards the valley and ended up landing 200m lower on a barn that we had just bought back. The roof and 3 out of 4 walls were completely destroyed.
It was our luck because the forester had insurance who offered us to take charge of the reconstruction of the barn. At the time, we didn't have any animals. Not having any use for a barn, we added a little money to make it a dwelling house. Once the construction was completed, we found ourselves with a second house which we then converted into a gite. From the start he was very successful. We therefore started a second gîte from a barn which we had just purchased.

In the meantime, the comings and goings with Thailand never stopped. We bought elephants there with which we organized hikes in the forest and mountains. We also continued with porcelain there and thanks to the containers filled with our creations we brought back craft products such as sculptures or furniture to equip our lodges.

Today our children have taken over Thai manufacturing. They manufacture jewelry which they market under the Nach brand. As for us, we went a little green. We still go back and forth to Thailand but we spend more time looking after the lodges. We enjoy the calm and good quality of life of this little corner of paradise.

Christian