In 1963, my parents already had 10 children. To find places to spend vacations for the whole family that were not too expensive was not easy. One of my father's cousins lived with his family and his mother in a small castle in the Loire valley: the Château du Lathan.
My parents asked my uncle if we could spend vacations in the part of the castle that was not used. So, we started to spend a month there, for several years.
Later, my parents bought a big house nearby, originally a convent of nuns, built at the end of the XIIth century. In my family, it is known as "L'Abbaye du Grand Saint-Denis" (The Abbey of the Great Saint-Denis).
The house has been extensively modified over the centuries after it had ceased to be a convent.
The left part was the church of the convent. There are still some fragments of frescoes that were painted in the XIIth or XIIth century.
Here is the back of the house with the entrance on the road named "Route du Grand Saint-Denis" (Road of the Great Saint-Denis).
The "Grand Saint-Denis" is made of three houses: a farmhouse, the Abbey, and a third house in the back of the Abbey.
My father planted several trees in the 1960s. Some of them are now very tall, even taller than the house.
There are three levels in the house: the ground floor, the upper floor, and the attic.
On the ground floor, we find the dining room, the kitchen, the living room, and a half bathroom.
In the dining room, there is a big fireplace that is now rarely used.
On the right of the fireplace, you can see a small statue of a cephalophore, which is a martyr who has been decapitated and is carrying his head, that my father bought a long time ago. According to the legend, Denis of Paris, who became Saint-Denis, was the first known cephalophore.
In the living room, we can see the pictures of my father, my mother, and my sister Brigitte who died of breast cancer at the age of 43.
On the upper floor, there are five bedrooms, a toilet, and a bathroom with a bathtub.
In the attic, there were 7 bedrooms. Because the attic was not insulated, it was very cold in winter and very hot in summer.
As there are not many guests in the house, we have decided to insulate the attic and build two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a large dormitory with 6 to eight beds.
This summer, the work has started.
Here is the larger part of the attic in its present state.
And here is the other part, with the insulation that will be put in soon.
I spent 3 days at the Abbey, where my eldest brother has lived alone since 1998.
On September 27th, I went to visit my youngest sister Nicole, who lives near Paris. I spent the night in her house, then on the 28 I flew to Canada. Once again, there were multiple delays, and the duration of the trip from door to door was more than 20 hours.
-- Vincent Celier
