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00:01Many Brits have made the journey to foreign shores
00:07to find the perfect home.
00:09It's rather delicious.
00:11But a rare few are deciding to take a path less well-trodden.
00:15Believe it or not, there is quite a large building under that.
00:19They're embarking on a bold mission
00:22to preserve the past and save Europe's lost villages.
00:27800 years of history is a lot to be responsible for.
00:32Sawyer coming to help!
00:33In this series...
00:35Keep clear.
00:37We step into the forgotten villages...
00:40On this beam here, there's some medieval writing.
00:43...to meet the brave new visionaries...
00:46This is gonna be fun.
00:48...and seasoned saviours...
00:50On top of the world.
00:52...who are fighting to bring these abandoned settlements back to life.
00:56We're just trying to pick up the pieces, really.
00:59And hope they somehow go back together.
01:01As they turn ruins into homes...
01:03...and rubble into extraordinary businesses.
01:06And you can just lay down and sleep under the stars, literally.
01:10But will they buckle under the strain?
01:13One way to get it out!
01:15Or find the strength to see it through?
01:18That weighs a ton.
01:20As they restore the past to build their future.
01:25I can't believe it.
01:26I bought a village.
01:27Today, two of our most experienced village saviours battle heroically to rescue their ancient village.
01:43I wanna flip it over so there's no screws hanging out.
01:47As it crumbles before their eyes.
01:49It feels like we're letting Le Bouliaire down.
01:54We just feel that we're failing.
01:58In Italy, a thousand-year-old village ravaged by earthquakes finds a British saviour.
02:04There is something about the charm of it being just completely abandoned.
02:11But her renovation plans are running into trouble.
02:14I've been trying to find a builder to give me an estimate for, well, since the end of last year, really.
02:20And a couple who discovered a French ghost village on the internet...
02:24I think this vegetation, isn't it, I'm just gonna have to keep on top, I'll...
02:29...fight to reclaim its secrets from Mother Nature.
02:32I can stand back and look at that and think, wow, we've actually started to save something that could disappear forever.
02:39Terry, you ought to come and have a look at this.
02:42Ah!
02:55Europe is littered with ghost villages.
02:57And to bring them back to life takes a passion for history, as well as patience and determination.
03:04It also takes deep pockets.
03:07And 60 miles east of St Malo, two of our most experienced village saviours, Paul and Yip, are struggling to keep up with Le Bouliaire's financial demands.
03:16It can be terrifying when we think too much about what needs to be done.
03:23Most of the jobs here need to be done now.
03:26Until Le Bouliaire was abandoned decades ago, it was a bustling farming community.
03:33But it could have been lost forever if these landscape gardeners from Kent hadn't fallen in love with it.
03:38Paul and Yip had never been on the property ladder before and paid just £22,000 for the village, moving into the only habitable house and becoming custodians of four more cottages, two barns, a hayloft, a bakery and two acres of land.
03:56That first year, 18 months, we got loads done. Manual labour, wasn't it? It didn't cost us anything.
04:02And then as more jobs came in that we'd need to go out and buy materials for, it felt like the pace slowed a bit as the money ran out.
04:11Since 2021, Paul and Yip have worked tirelessly to breathe new life back into Le Bouliaire.
04:22To help pay for the project, they've rebuilt the old piggery to create a facilities room and turned their horse box into a glamping van for holiday makers.
04:32There you go.
04:34Oh my goodness, that's incredible. The views are just gorgeous.
04:38They are, aren't they?
04:39The accommodation has had great reviews, but it's seasonal and only brings in a trickle of cash.
04:46And now Paul and Yip have more money worries because they've had to borrow 17,000 euros to buy a missing piece of their jigsaw.
04:561774, 200 years before I was born.
05:00It's a house that's been uninhabited since the 1920s.
05:04So when we bought this row of cottages, unfortunately that house wasn't with us. We were gutted.
05:13When it unexpectedly came on the market, the couple couldn't pass it up.
05:17All we kept on thinking about was the worst case scenario of having nightmare neighbours. That could ruin things for us here.
05:24Definitely, yeah.
05:25So that was bought out of a protection for this business and for this project as a whole.
05:30I like that window.
05:32Yeah, I do.
05:34They're still waiting to get the keys.
05:36But as soon as they do, they'll be one step closer to putting La Boulière back together.
05:41That's as long as the rest of the village doesn't slip through their fingers in the meantime.
05:45Not long ago, the old barn collapsed.
05:50Whoa!
05:52And the roofs and walls of all the properties are deteriorating rapidly.
05:57In particular, the middle cottage.
05:59Every week, another stone falls out.
06:02We're expecting a collapse.
06:05It's imminent.
06:06It feels like we're letting La Boulière down.
06:12We just feel that we're failing.
06:17Aren't we?
06:27It's May in La Boulière.
06:29And today, Paul and Yip are focusing on the precarious roof of the middle cottage.
06:37Where we're standing now, this has got, in big red letters,
06:42danger written all over it.
06:45This huge beam is moving.
06:48It's got to be maybe a couple of turn up there.
06:51If that came down, that would be it.
06:53It would be a nightmare.
06:55Paul and Yip are following in the footsteps of the original builders
06:59with a rudimentary scaffold tower
07:01and using just their bare hands to get the job done.
07:07Let's just get up there and have a look.
07:09Exactly.
07:11Nearly 30 feet up at the roof line,
07:14the couple can properly assess the damage and come up with an action plan.
07:18It's looking dodgy up here.
07:21This wall should start underneath this tin
07:25and go up, right the way up to the ridge.
07:28Yeah, you should see stone all the way up there.
07:30The first step is to carefully remove the wooden chevrons
07:34without dislodging the fallen stones.
07:37Yeah, just make sure you're well out of the way of it.
07:40Oh, hang on. Oh.
07:42There we go.
07:46I saved you.
07:47Well done.
07:48It saved your life then.
07:50But with so much loose debris,
07:52the job might be more dangerous than even Paul and Yip realised.
07:56Shall we just keep trying?
07:58Try, but you're going to have stuff falling on us.
08:01I don't really want that.
08:02Over the course of its history, the region of Basilicata, in southern Italy,
08:18has passed through the hands of a multitude of conquering civilisations.
08:23From the Greeks to the Romans, and from the Moors to the Normans,
08:27each has left its mark here.
08:28And the ghost village of Rabatana sums up the legacy of the past perfectly.
08:34It sits above the modern town of Tursi
08:37and can trace its roots back to an Arab invasion in the 8th century.
08:42It could only be accessed by three drawbridges.
08:45Rabatana's narrow streets once resonated with the traffic of people and animals
08:51and a cacophony of languages echoed from its walls.
08:54But today, the mountaintop village stands eerily silent.
09:01Mass emigration, earthquakes and landslides have left it in a perilous state.
09:08But there is a glimmer of hope.
09:11I love this look, you know, the half-open door and no roof.
09:18But there is something about the charm of it being just completely abandoned.
09:29Martine, who's from Norfolk and once worked criss-crossing the globe as a wine merchant,
09:33fell in love with this abandoned town on a holiday in 2006.
09:39I came here and I was just completely blown away.
09:43The houses were, as people left them, there were still things on the table.
09:48There were toys in the corner on the floor.
09:50They just basically kind of walked out.
09:53I've never seen anything like it in my life.
09:54Her holiday ignited a passion to learn more about the past here and to find out how an earthquake led to Rabatana's final demise.
10:09They created a new part of the new town down here.
10:13It was a lot easier for most people to just say, right, OK, they're giving us a new house down there.
10:18We'll just move out and we'll leave this old one.
10:20Martine started exploring the abandoned homes.
10:24This is rather lovely, isn't it?
10:26The family would live here with the fireplace and the animals would be at the back here, behind a curtain maybe.
10:33Quite normal, not anything strange about it at all.
10:36It's a really good example of what you can buy.
10:39As her love for the old town grew, she decided to take the plunge and start saving the empty homes.
10:46She has five now and is on the lookout for more.
10:50I'd had enough of living in England.
10:52Whenever I came here, I didn't want to go home.
10:55And I just thought, do you know what, I'm just going to sell everything.
10:58And I did. It was ridiculous, really, in hindsight.
11:01But I just thought, what could go wrong?
11:03It's time now for the once lost homes to pay their saviour back.
11:10Martine has spectacularly transformed them into holiday rentals to create what's called a diffused hotel.
11:18It's a concept that originated in Italy in the 1980s and spreads rooms across multiple buildings to give guests a more authentic local experience.
11:27Perhaps Martine's greatest achievement is the Mandarin Suite, built from the ruins of one of the most beautiful houses in Rabatana.
11:36Not a stately home, but an important home, a noble home when it was built.
11:41And yeah, I did fall in love with it when I saw the arches because it's just so romantic apart from anything else. Just beautiful.
11:50After fixing the non-existent roof, Martine has created two stunning apartments, one of which she lives in and one she rents out.
11:59She's also discovered some amazing historical features in the process.
12:04There's a stone here that's obviously been inside the wall since the house was built.
12:10And with like this carving of an olive branch, which might mean this house is slightly less old than the convent, which is like 1350 maybe the convent.
12:21It's just amazing. The history is incredible.
12:24Martine's unique sense of style is now present in every detail.
12:29I think Americans find it a bit strange having a bath in the front room, but basically I'm inviting people into my home to live how I live.
12:35But nowhere embodies Martine's creativity more clearly than the former living room of the house, where she's decided not to repair the roof at all.
12:45You can just lay down and sleep under the stars literally. You can just look at everything that there is up there and feel very small. And there's a fireplace too. So in the winter you can light a fire, sit in front of it, drink mulled wine.
13:01Needless to say, this has become one of Martine's most popular rooms to let.
13:05And the swallows zooming over in the morning. It's just gorgeous.
13:12She may have built a fledgling business from the ground up, but Martine's work is far from over. There are dozens more unloved homes in Rabatana and she dreams of reviving them one by one.
13:24I'm forever looking at other properties here. As I walk around, I'm just thinking, Oh my God, that could be amazing. That could be lovely. But I know it's going to cost a fortune. I mean, my only form of income is, is my rentals.
13:37With the tourist season now about to begin, can the homes that Martine rescued generate enough income to preserve more of this incredible heritage?
13:53Coming up, a couple prepare for the worst as they return to their French village after half a year away.
13:59It's definitely looks like it's been abandoned for a bit. Six months is a long time to leave a house in France.
14:06And at La Bouliere, Paul and Yip are still up on the roof.
14:10Ready below? Yeah.
14:15You can do just wobbling bits off.
14:20Come on, let's go.
14:22Let's go.
14:36The ghost villages of Europe whisper their secrets to the wind.
14:41Forgotten histories suspended in time.
14:45And the ancient settlement of Chicheville in Western France is no exception.
14:49This tiny hamlet in the department of Deux-Sèvres was once a thriving farming community,
14:56home to 600 people with its own village school.
15:04I think they want us to feed them, don't they?
15:07But the empty stone buildings could have been lost forever
15:10if Tony and Terry from Gloucestershire hadn't found them on the internet during lockdown.
15:15For us, it's very important that we're protecting part of France.
15:22We're saving something that might otherwise disappear and basically become a pile of stones.
15:27And there's so much history, so many families, so many people have earned a living here over the generations,
15:32that I think it's a shame to see that go.
15:34Tony and Terry are furniture restorers by trade, but they were looking for a much bigger renovation project
15:43when they spotted Chicheville for sale on a French property site.
15:46I just thought it was a beautiful place. I know there's a lot of work to be done on the inside,
15:53but the actual house and the grounds and where it is was just beautiful.
15:58We were really pleased with what we were looking at.
16:01The couple have paid around 60,000 euros for three cottages that date back to the 1800s,
16:09and a variety of outbuildings rapidly disappearing under ivy, bushes and weeds.
16:15We've got a pigsty, we've got a barn, we've got a row of outbuildings along the road.
16:21We've even got a little wood now as well.
16:23To finance the restoration, the couple have put their house in the UK on the market.
16:29And when it's sold, it'll give them the cash injection they need.
16:34But for now, their finances are stretched, and they can only do the basic repairs and maintenance required
16:40to stop Mother Nature reclaiming Chicheville for her own.
16:44Other than credit cards, we haven't had a lot of spare cash to spend on it.
16:48It's been a difficult time in the UK.
16:49Our business in the UK, which we thought would be helping to spend doing the work, has been slow unfortunately, so it's not been easy.
16:57You know, with the cost of living crisis and everything else, it's put us under more pressure.
17:01So, yeah, I don't know. Would we have not done it? Would we still want the pressure?
17:08I think we're enjoying the pressure.
17:11It's October 2024. Work commitments and visa restrictions mean Tony and Terry are returning to Chicheville for the first time in half a year.
17:25It's a lot longer than they'd have liked, and they aren't entirely sure what they're going to find.
17:30It definitely looks like it's been abandoned for a bit. Six months is a long time to leave a house in France.
17:41The vegetation might be running riot, and the weather has done its best to batter the roofs into submission.
17:47But at first sight, the damage hasn't been too bad, and the couple can breathe a sigh of relief.
17:52It still looks good, though. I love it. Yeah, it's still lovely to see, isn't it?
17:56It's just amazing, really, I think. Yeah.
17:59In its previous life, the main cottage would have been at the heart of the village,
18:05and several generations of farming families would have lived on the ground floor, with the hayloft above.
18:11Tony and Terry have some work to do, but as a matter of principle, their renovations will be entirely in keeping with its traditions.
18:18We don't really like some of the methods that, you know, people use when restoring houses nowadays,
18:25and we just want it to look how it would have looked before.
18:29Tony and Terry intend to focus their renovations on the main house to begin with,
18:35but the outbuildings have already revealed some fascinating secrets.
18:40Barely a year ago, that lintel was still in place, and two-thirds of the way up, built into the wall, was a terracotta jug.
18:48We were hoping it was full of gold, but if it was, it's gone.
18:53Between the 16th and 18th centuries, terracotta objects were traditionally embedded into the walls,
19:00as part of a superstitious practice to protect against evil spirits.
19:05Maintaining the history of the place is very important, definitely.
19:08Yeah, it is.
19:09Especially with buildings like this, we'd love to rebuild it now, but we just don't have the time or the resources.
19:15The house and the other buildings have to take priority over this.
19:18Pleased not to have discovered any signs of new damage outside, the couple can now head inside,
19:24hoping they'll be lucky enough to find the rooms pretty much as they left them six months ago.
19:28Back in northern France, Paul and Yip are still bravely taking down the crumbling roof from the middle cottage in La Boulière.
19:43I'm going to flip it over so there's no screws hanging out.
19:50Yeah?
19:51You catch any debris.
19:53Hang on, because there's going to be quite a lot coming down there.
19:55Yeah, I'm just doing it a little bit at a time.
19:58Any time there's a bit of movement, we'll stop.
20:00Try not to lift the other bits.
20:03Yeah.
20:04Get that for me.
20:10Well done, you're nearly on the floor.
20:11There you are.
20:13I'm leaning that against there, yeah?
20:17That's chevron number one.
20:20Only another eight to go.
20:24Paul doesn't have a head for heights,
20:26so Yip has volunteered to do most of the work along the roof line.
20:30This is the worst building at La Boulière, this is.
20:34If we can successfully do this without injury or collapse or anything like that,
20:39then it really is the worst bit out of the way, I think, here.
20:41Yeah, I think so.
20:43You're cracking on there, aren't you?
20:46An hour later, Yip's fearlessness is paying off,
20:49but the job is still a long way from finished.
20:52The outside scaffolding, we've reached across
20:54and we've gotten as many timbers as possible.
20:57We now need to get up on the inside scaffolding
21:01to tackle the rest of the timbers from there
21:03and then it feels like the safest point, doesn't it?
21:06Yeah.
21:07Let's crack on then.
21:08Good luck.
21:09Thank you, aren't you?
21:10Stay safe.
21:16Well done.
21:17Ready?
21:18Where am I chucking this down?
21:23In the doorway, maybe, or just over this side.
21:26That's it, like that.
21:27Just slowly but surely.
21:30That's all we're going to do.
21:32It's very grave.
21:34I'm not sure I'd want to be up there.
21:36Ready below?
21:37Yep.
21:38It's mad that they've, rather than battens,
21:43it's like feather boarding.
21:45Yeah, they just nailed to that, didn't they?
21:47No, this is back in the day though, isn't it?
21:49Could do with just wobbling bits off.
21:55Mind that stone.
21:56Paul and Gip have had this roof on their to-do list
22:00ever since they moved into the village,
22:02so it's a relief to finally be making some progress.
22:09This is like Ka-plunk.
22:13The next stage will be to remove the top half
22:15of the front wall stone by stone.
22:17Got it?
22:18Yep.
22:21Well done.
22:23It will definitely be a two-man job.
22:25So with most of the timber stripped,
22:27they decide to build a platform
22:29to help Paul overcome his phobia of heights.
22:33We've put a temporary floor in,
22:35a really temporary floor,
22:36so we've used some roof timbers
22:38and some boarding that we had about.
22:40So, A, I can't see down, which is great.
22:45B, it's a lot more sturdy
22:46than the wobbly scaffold tower,
22:48so it's perfect.
22:50We can now think about doing the stonework,
22:52which is desperately need, you know,
22:54there's really some serious attention needs.
22:56But I can get on with that now.
22:58Now I feel safe up here.
22:59It's all systems going.
23:02The couple finish stripping the final bits of the roof together.
23:06Well done, yeah.
23:07Well done, yeah.
23:08We've got that done, haven't we?
23:12But seeing the scale of the work up close
23:14has been a reminder of how far away they are
23:16from earning an income from any of the cottages.
23:20So they've come up with a plan to earn extra cash
23:22by letting out their own home to holidaymakers
23:25and moving into one of their other unrenovated cottages.
23:29It makes complete sense that we should maximise on our income.
23:36We have become used to having hot water on tap.
23:41Paul and Yip spent three years renovating their home.
23:44It's been re-plumbed, re-wired and re-plastered.
23:47They've installed a new kitchen, a vaulted ceiling in the bathroom
23:50and a granite fireplace in the lounge,
23:52so it'll be more than comfortable enough for guests.
23:55So it is a little bit of a sacrifice.
24:00Yeah, stepping backwards a little bit to go forward.
24:02Yes, but we're definitely going to be moving forward as well, aren't we?
24:05So...
24:06Small price to pay.
24:08The cottage they'll be moving into couldn't be more different.
24:12It's been used mostly for storage since they bought La Boulier.
24:16Number three, La Boulier.
24:18And with their finances already stretched,
24:20they'll have very little left to spend on sprucing it up
24:23before they move in.
24:25So our bed could come off of this wall, couldn't it?
24:28Yeah.
24:29A kitchen under the window.
24:30Over here.
24:31Our pipe work needs to be on the outside wall,
24:33so maybe if our toilet, possibly a shower area, was here.
24:39Because it only has to be a temporary installation, doesn't it?
24:44Living in this unrenovated space is going to be a challenge.
24:47But if it helps fast-forward their village restoration,
24:50Paul and Yip are willing to slum it.
24:53This house here, actually, apart from the big hole in the floor
24:56and the leaks in the roof, isn't far away from...
24:59LAUGHTER
25:00from our house, is it?
25:03When we first moved into that.
25:05No.
25:10Coming up, in Rabatana, Martine needs help,
25:13but she's getting nowhere fast.
25:15I've been trying to get builders to come and give me an estimate.
25:18At the moment, I'm still beating my head on a brick wall.
25:20I've had about seven come and I haven't had one estimate yet.
25:22And in Sheeshville, Terry and Tony's house is slowly crumbling away.
25:27Instead of a lime or a cement mortar, it's just mud.
25:31You dig up out of the ground.
25:33Your house is made of mud.
25:44In southern Italy, it's June,
25:46and our village saviour, Martine,
25:48is heading to the very first house she bought in Rabatana
25:51over 15 years ago.
25:53It's now one of the cosiest of the rooms
25:55in her diffused hotel, and she calls it The Stack,
25:59named after an old variety of Italian orange,
26:02said to be so big it could feed a family.
26:05It looks almost like she hasn't been here.
26:07Martine's last guest checked out this morning,
26:09so she now needs to do a changeover.
26:12I love doing the bathrooms.
26:13I hate doing the beds.
26:14They're just exhausting.
26:16But we're now at a point where
26:18we don't need to have the duvets on there anymore.
26:20It's the duvets that are really, you know,
26:22can be heavy and awkward.
26:25In the 400 years of its existence,
26:31the house has been through some real highs and lows.
26:34This was once the servants' quarters
26:36of a lavish 17th-century palace.
26:39Members of the noble Le Tronico family
26:41lived in luxury upstairs,
26:43while up to 20 of their servants
26:45shared the ground floor with their children.
26:47Years of decadence followed,
26:50but as the Italian aristocracy declined,
26:53so did the upper floors.
26:54And in a complete reversal of fortune,
26:57it's only the servants' quarters
26:59that are thriving today.
27:01It didn't look anything like this when I bought it.
27:06So I had a lot of plaster taken off of the walls,
27:10and then there was kind of this bulge,
27:12and I kind of investigated, you know,
27:14tapping the render off.
27:15And I found the archway with the original window in it.
27:18Oh, and there's this amazing symbol on this beam.
27:24They're just beautiful, the beams.
27:27And this Palazzo 1600.
27:29Finding things like that, that's what it's, for me,
27:31that's what it's all about.
27:32If Martine is going to save any more abandoned buildings,
27:40she now needs to expand her business
27:42and boost her income.
27:44She's decided the best way to do that
27:47is to renovate the cellar
27:49of the building she calls the Mandarin.
27:53So, this is a cantina
27:55that's underneath the terrace upstairs.
27:58Sleeping Under the Stars terrace.
28:03So this is a dream for me to finish this part of the project
28:07because it means that just about all of the house
28:10will be renovated.
28:12Around 15 years after her first renovation,
28:15her latest one will be in a space traditionally reserved
28:18for storing wine or cured Italian meats like salami,
28:22although Martine believes it was later converted into a living area.
28:27This cantina under here, nobody's been here
28:30probably since the 60s, I don't think.
28:33I've got a complete vision of how I want it.
28:35Just this lovely rough white plaster
28:37and these lovely tiles are going to be quite pale.
28:39And then above that as well, instead of leaving it open,
28:42I'm going to have a flat roof.
28:43It'll just be beautiful because you have a 360 degree view.
28:46It will be stunning.
28:48I think it's rather delicious.
28:51Martine may be at the dawn of another awe-inspiring rescue mission,
28:59but it looks like this project is set to test her
29:02more than any other so far.
29:04It is a big job.
29:06There's a lot that the architects found
29:08that really needs to be consolidated
29:10before we can start doing this.
29:12I've been trying to get builders to come and give me an estimate
29:15for the work and it's just at the moment
29:17I'm still beating my head on a brick wall.
29:19I've had about seven come and I haven't had one estimate yet.
29:22If we can do it, it's going to be lovely.
29:24Back in Western France, Tony and Terry are busy checking to see
29:35if their six-month absence from the village
29:37has led to any significant damage inside.
29:41Luckily, everything seems just as they left it
29:44and the couple have some grand designs for the main farmhouse.
29:48This will take us through to what will become our grand salon.
29:52This will all come down.
29:54It will become one big room.
29:56Yeah.
29:57I've started stripping out the fireplace.
29:59It was all boarded up
30:00and then we'll start stripping all these walls out,
30:03exposing the original stone.
30:05This is a big project, to be honest.
30:07We're making inroads into it at the moment.
30:10With their background as furniture restorers,
30:13it's no surprise they've already created
30:15a little oasis for themselves in here.
30:19We call this our cocktail lounge.
30:21Originally, it was just going to be a landing area.
30:23Yeah.
30:24And then we felt we needed some kind of moral support, I think.
30:27Somewhere nice to sit down in the evening,
30:29play a bit of music, have a glass of wine.
30:34Tony and Terry may have only put their stamp on a few rooms so far,
30:38but they're acutely aware of the importance of what they're doing
30:41and their place in the history of the village.
30:45You know, you've got to rescue these houses before they disappear.
30:49Like the rest of the Hamlet, really,
30:51it's just there waiting to disappear
30:54unless somebody steps in now and saves them.
30:57Saves it.
30:58At the beginning, you thought it's all about us.
31:00Then you realise that it's not just us,
31:03it's everybody that was here before.
31:05You're kind of adding to their story
31:08and hopefully maintaining their story.
31:11Their first task on this trip
31:13will be to oversee repairs to the guttering on the roof of the farmhouse.
31:17We're heading to winter, which it will rain, no doubt.
31:20We need to get the extra dam pipe fitted
31:22so it can get the water away from the house.
31:24If it keeps soaking this in, it's going to cause problems inside.
31:27So that we definitely need to get done.
31:30As many of our village saviours discover,
31:32the work required to drag these buildings into the 21st century
31:36can be overwhelming.
31:38And often you need a bit of help.
31:40Should do.
31:42So it's a good job another expat, Peter, lives just down the road.
31:46He's a builder and his skills have already proved invaluable
31:50to Tony and Tara's project.
31:52You need me up there?
31:54No, no, no.
31:55OK, well, if you're not going to need me,
31:57I'll start getting some of this ivy off.
31:59Ivy can actually be an asset to a house
32:02and villagers of the past may well have encouraged its growth.
32:05The leaves help keep buildings warm in winter and cool in summer,
32:09but it can be calamitous
32:11if the roots bury their way into weak spots in the masonry.
32:17These houses are bit by bit, by bit, put together.
32:21Instead of a lime or a cement mortar, it's clay.
32:24Basically, it's just mud.
32:26Take a pair of the ground.
32:28Your house is made of mud.
32:32While Tony grapples with the ivy...
32:34Get some of these now.
32:36Terry is fighting her own battle with the native flora.
32:40I think this vegetation isn't just going to have to keep on top of.
32:44It just has grown up, you know, really a lot since we've last been here.
32:49Around half a dozen outbuildings stand derelict in the hamlet,
32:53all in various states of disrepair.
32:56But Tony and Terry are determined to preserve them,
32:59however much the ravages of time have hidden them away.
33:03Believe it or not, there is the remains of quite a large building under that.
33:07So we'll make a pathway in and then I can work out how to clear the building.
33:12In a former life, this forgotten ruin would have been a shelter for pigs or cattle.
33:19They're quite overgrown in there.
33:21There's brambles thicker than my thumb.
33:24Turn it up to the right speed.
33:32Slowly, the brambles succumb to Tony's trimmer
33:35and it gives him a glimpse of the beautiful stonework buried beneath.
33:39Terry, you ought to come and have a look at this.
33:46That's further back than I thought because I thought our boundary was here
33:48so it curves around to this corner here.
33:51Yeah.
33:52Look at that wall there. That's fab.
33:53It's nice, isn't it?
33:54Yeah.
33:55I think all this cleaned up and make sure that it's secure,
33:57it doesn't fall down.
33:58And I think it's just going to be a fab thing.
34:01Looking at the house, you look out the window, you'll see all of that.
34:03Yeah.
34:04No, it looks really good.
34:05I can't believe how much you've done.
34:07It's at moments like this when the village is slowly revealing its secrets
34:12that Tony and Terry feel the decision to come here is the right one.
34:17I can stand back and look at that and think,
34:19wow, we've actually started to save something that could disappear forever.
34:25If we can save that in whatever form,
34:27there's something that can be there for generations to come.
34:30There's no doubt that Tony and Terry have the vision and determination
34:34to resurrect their ghost village.
34:37But with so many of their buildings hanging on by a thread,
34:40the couple need to sell their house in the UK soon
34:43or they might find their efforts are simply too little, too late.
34:47Coming up, in Rabatana, Martine takes things into her own hands.
34:59I think it's much better to get it back to bare bones here
35:03and just start again.
35:05And in La Boulière, Paul and Yip have to deal with devastating news.
35:09It's been tough. It's been up and down, so, you know.
35:13So it's caused a lot of heartache, hasn't it, really,
35:17and it has been difficult.
35:18Back in Rabatana, Martine is out to visit a couple of long-term guests,
35:35staying in her diffused hotel.
35:41But Salvatore and Maria aren't ordinary guests.
35:44They're bringing to this ancient village
35:46the very latest in 21st-century working life
35:49because they're digital nomads.
35:53And they've booked the Bergamot rooms for a whopping two months.
35:58So how are you? How's the house? Is everything fun?
36:01Very, very nice, comfortable.
36:03We are... Do I like to sit outside and work?
36:06Really? You've been out there? Yes, yes.
36:09This long-term booking is just what Martine needs
36:12to finance the next stage of her renovations in the village.
36:16Obviously, they pay less than they would
36:21if they were paying on a nightly rate,
36:23but if you kind of work it all together
36:25of not actually putting a breakfast into each person,
36:27not changing sheets and ironing them,
36:29washing them and cleaning and everything else,
36:31it works really well for me, really well.
36:35Martine's young guests have been so impressed
36:37by their working environment
36:39that they've encouraged more digital nomads to spend time here,
36:44and they now regularly hold meetings
36:46in the town's ancient convent nearby.
36:50What we do is to bring remote workers in the village.
36:54The spaces are huge, the light is very good,
36:56and we can focus here, there is silence,
37:01it's perfect for working remotely.
37:03Having spent a few weeks here already,
37:05Salvatore and Maria have come to know the history
37:07of their diffused hotel,
37:09and they're in awe of Martine's passion for preserving the village.
37:13In my opinion, with what she did, I think that she, like, like this,
37:19she gave a second life to these properties and to this beauty.
37:23I bought it in 2015, and it was a wreck.
37:27It was all rusty wire knitting, this was all cemented,
37:30it looked like a prison block, it was awful, absolutely awful.
37:34But there's just something when you walk inside
37:36that you just feel there's just this soul of the house,
37:38and it was crying out to be rescued, really.
37:41Every nook and cranny in the Bergamot Suite
37:44seems to embody Martine's vision for the whole village,
37:48a place where modernity and the past can flourish together.
37:53I didn't want it all to be on one floor level,
37:55so we created the mezzanine here.
37:58That's really lovely, it's so romantic, sleeping up there.
38:02And then there's the view as well of La Rabatana.
38:07Yeah, it's beautiful here.
38:09As Martine's visit comes to an end,
38:11she heads back to the Mandarin apartment,
38:13where she decided to make a start on the cantina herself.
38:21You can hear it's really hollow behind.
38:23I think it's much better to get it back to bare bones here
38:27and just start again.
38:29Despite not being able to find builders,
38:32Martine is determined to get this project going.
38:36It's so thick.
38:40I mean, I'm sure it's been plastered on top of plaster, really.
38:47It's a bit like taking off wallpaper, but quicker.
38:51After a couple of hours' work,
38:52she's taken the old plaster off a big section
38:55of the cantina's main load-bearing wall.
38:58I just find it very satisfying,
39:01because it's something that's actually quite easy.
39:03It's not difficult.
39:04And you do see a result quite quickly.
39:07Like all of our village saviours,
39:09Martine has no qualms about getting dirty
39:12and taking on the work herself.
39:14But some jobs are just too big for one pair of hands,
39:17and she'll need help if this unloved corner of Rabatana
39:21is going to rise from the ashes again.
39:36Back in La Boulière, it's a big day for Paul and Yip,
39:39as they kick-start their plan to move
39:41into the unrenovated cottage a few doors down.
39:45We're going to start clearing all the junk that's in there.
39:48It's a complete dumping ground at the minute, isn't it?
39:51And we want to clear the fireplace and have a fire in there.
39:56Now, there hasn't been a fire in that fireplace
39:58for about 30, 40, possibly even 50 years, you know.
40:02It'd be nice to see smoke coming out of the chimney.
40:04Oh, they're amazing.
40:05It'd be something quite...
40:07This feels quite big to me. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
40:11Ye old locking system.
40:14The first step in turning this unloved cottage into a home...
40:18Bottom or top? Top, please.
40:21..is to move everything they've been storing here
40:23into the next house along.
40:26Oh, pure granite. Oh!
40:29You all right? Yeah.
40:30But it's surprisingly simple
40:32because they don't even need to go out the front door.
40:34Every house apart from our house has got a connecting door.
40:37Every house apart from our house has got a connecting door.
40:41La Boullier was built around 200 years ago
40:44to house the people who worked the land here.
40:47This terrace may have started as just one cottage
40:50that was added to as the number of farm workers and their families grew.
40:55In more recent years, these houses were home to three generations
40:58of the Boucher family.
41:00And arrangements like this provided an ideal solution
41:03to childcare problems.
41:07There was a partition there and along here and a door.
41:11Madame Boucher just lived in that little bit.
41:14That was her bedroom, her lounge and her bathroom.
41:17For years. Just that corner.
41:21Not here.
41:23After an hour of hard graft...
41:24Oh, God!
41:25The main living area is free from clutter.
41:29And the couple make a start
41:30on bringing the old fireplace back to life.
41:34Ah, look at that.
41:36That's great, Paul.
41:39No-one has used this fireplace in nearly half a century,
41:43so to see flames flickering in its grate is a real milestone.
41:48It's good.
41:50So far, it's looking good.
41:52Smoke's going the right way.
41:56It's drawing straight up there, isn't it?
41:58It is fantastic.
41:59It's not even, no problem at all.
42:01It's like it was asking to be lit.
42:03Yeah.
42:04There's something very magical about it, isn't it?
42:06It totally is like bringing life back into the building.
42:09Yeah.
42:10Fire's on.
42:21It's all clean, clear.
42:23It feels amazing to get this done today.
42:26Oh, yeah.
42:27It'd be interesting living in here.
42:29For a change, won't it?
42:30It would.
42:32I'm looking forward to it.
42:33Look at the lovely fire.
42:34Why wouldn't we be happy in here?
42:35It's amazing.
42:36But, weeks later, moving house is the furthest thing from Paul and Yip's minds.
42:48We found out that Paul's mum...
42:55She's got terminal cancer, so pancreatic cancer and breast cancer.
43:02She's fighting, you know, a good fire.
43:14But it's been difficult.
43:15Yeah, it's tough.
43:16It's been up and down, so, you know.
43:17So, it's caused a lot of heartache, hasn't it, really?
43:21And...
43:25I see, yeah, it's been difficult.
43:27It has been difficult, but...
43:29You know, I think, practically, the impact that's had...
43:34Yeah.
43:36...has slowed progress, you know, because we work, and then we get some money together, we go back to England...
43:43But also with motivation, because sometimes I haven't felt like I want to just get up and...
43:48No.
43:49It's probably the best thing to get up and crack on with stuff, but...
43:52Yeah, it just leaves you exhausted, I suppose, doesn't it?
43:54That is it. It is exhaustion.
43:57When you're resurrecting a ghost village, things rarely go to plan.
44:02And sometimes your priorities can be overturned in a second.
44:07For now, Paul and Yip have to take each day at a time, and do what's best for their family.
44:14Even if that means La Boulière has to take a back seat.
44:17Next time...
44:18Brice yourself.
44:19La Boulière threatens to fall apart at the seams.
44:20It's just literally mud.
44:21It's just holding everything together, it's mad.
44:22Guests in Rabatana are amazed by their room without a roof.
44:24Oh, my God.
44:25It is so rare that I don't find any words, but this is now happening.
44:41And in Shishville...
44:50It takes some heavy lifting and plenty of help...
44:54...to get a fire going.
45:11Look at that!
45:15Yip!
45:17We love...
45:19and see.
45:21We are also growing up here...
45:26We are also growing up here.
45:28Just as we stand up...
45:32We find the fastest shaking flat on the balancing of configuration between 1 and 2 19%.
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