One of the most distinctive landmarks in our neck of the woods is the Château de Mauvezin. The huge tower dominates the main road between Lannemezan and Bagnères de Bigorre and you can see it from the far side of the Baronnies. It is within an hour's walk from home and is the first place we like to take visitors. The view from the top is rather good, especially in the winter. This was taken in early December.
When we first moved here, the tower was a rather sad affair, with what appeared to be only one side in good order. Over the years the walls have been cleaned and, I guess, redressed. January this year, we thought it looked rather good, no longer a ruin and saved from further disintegration.
So imagine my surprise to look out of the window in October and see a crane rising above the tower. More renovation we thought...
Until further investigations with binoculars revealed a suspiciously pointy roof-like structure going on. Wow! This is not management of an ancient building in a way I learned about during my time as an archaeologist. So different from the preserve it in aspic as it is today approach I'm used to in the UK.
Walking up the hill towards the village, the roof is going to take bit of getting used to. And given that we've not yet been inside to walk around the paprapet to see if we can spot our house in the distance, have we now missed the chance?
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