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Transcript
00:01Owning a property abroad is the ultimate goal for most Brits.
00:05It's like a dream come true. It's just so magical.
00:09But for some, a conventional home just won't do.
00:13A lot of it was ruins, but we fell in love with it.
00:18They're setting aside their fears.
00:21The key is to never look down.
00:23To do something remarkable.
00:25It's a mammoth task, really.
00:27Resurrecting Europe's lost villages.
00:30I think any sort of rational person would probably not try and do that.
00:35In this series, we meet the brand new pioneers.
00:39I think I'm a bit all over the place. It's like it's a big day.
00:42Delving into their village's past.
00:45I think that's powder flask.
00:47And we revisit those who already made the bold leap.
00:54And are still battling to keep their dreams alive.
00:58One year. One year without some disaster.
01:01But can they win the race against time?
01:03At the moment, it just feels like everything's falling down and nothing's going up.
01:07To turn crumbling buildings into family homes and successful businesses.
01:12It's a really big moment.
01:14Oh, bless you.
01:15Or will it all fall down around their ears?
01:21Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out!
01:24Oh, dear.
01:25As they try to restore the past to build their future.
01:29future because there's a whole village to be built yet today brace yourself
01:38oh bloody you're not kidding our heroic saviors in normandy risk life and limb
01:43hang on whoa whoa it seems to be loose as their village threatens to fall apart at the seams
01:51you can see it's just literally mud it's just holding everything together it's mad
01:59guests at a ghost village in italy are overwhelmed by their room without a roof
02:04oh my god
02:06this is oh my gosh it is so rare that i don't find any words but this is now happening
02:18and at a hamlet in western france
02:22it takes some heavy lifting and plenty of help from the neighbors
02:29to get a fire going for the first time in years
02:38when you're trying to restore an entire ghost village it's vital to be able to turn your
03:02hand to a wide range of jobs and southwest of rouen in the old farming community of la
03:08bouillere kent couple paul and yip have found that multitasking is now just second nature
03:15we are workman project manager um finance advisor um bank architect you know we're all of those
03:27things because we can afford none of those things yeah
03:30since 2021 these landscape gardeners have been the custodians of five cottages
03:40two barns a hay loft a bakery and two acres of land but they've also just taken on a sixth cottage
03:48after it unexpectedly came up for sale we've recently acquired this with the same thinking
03:55that we've had all along really is wanting to piece la bouillere back together yeah feels more secure
04:01to know that we now own this yeah and it's the oldest property in la bouillere yeah 250 years old
04:09it's exciting although other priorities mean it hasn't yet risen to the top of paul and yip's to-do list
04:15they can't wait to get inside and start transforming it into another potential revenue stream
04:21this is not going to steal our attention away from everything else but it is uh going to be running
04:30alongside all the other works we've got going on yeah i mean we just added another two plates to the
04:37polls it's june and paul and yip have had to refocus their attention away from the village
04:49because paul's mum is ill and they're spending much more time in the uk the couple did have a plan
04:57to move out of the house they live in and into the derelict cottage next door but that project is now
05:03on pause some jobs are too urgent to delay though and there's a building in the village that's crying
05:09out for paul and yip's help it is a nightmare it's quite a challenge yes i must admit i'm not looking
05:17forward to it the middle cottage in their row is increasingly unsafe so paul and yip need to do
05:24some emergency work on the front wall the wall is split and you're starting to separate inside and
05:33outside you can see daylight through the wall it's not good is it so we need to bring it down probably
05:39halfway past that window until i know where it's all good stonework we've been dreading it a bit haven't
05:45we yeah it's quite a risky thing because it's you know we kind of don't really know what's going
05:49to happen but we go into most jobs like that the wall is so bowed that it could collapse at any minute
05:58so the couple need to be careful how they tackle it well mind no cats about hopefully paul starts by
06:07removing any loose stones at the roofline it's great for rebuilding
06:12all these stones i'm chucking down they slid from this gable end they've all slid down and
06:21pushed this out so i've got to just get all the loose ones off and and then i can start taking all
06:27this down to where it starts to come out which is about down there there is a lot of work here
06:32and we've got just us two no loader
06:36next they need to start dismantling the wall by hand one stone at a time well done
06:46paul and yip have put together a rudimentary pulley system so they can lower multiple stones to the
06:53ground at once the bucket and rope may be mass produced from modern materials i'm going to lower
06:58this down now but their methods are following in the footsteps of the original craftsman
07:05the builders who went before them could have used ox or horsepower but paul and yip are having to rely
07:12on their own muscle
07:19well done
07:21my dear i'm nowhere near as strong as i used to be i know none of us are pop it
07:27welcome to your late 40s 50s not for me yet they're making progress but it isn't exactly fast and without
07:37an extra pair of hands on the ground to empty the bucket it could take days paul yip and le
07:43bullier are locked together in a fight for survival with little more than sweat and determination on
07:50their side and they know it's a battle they might not win you want me to get down and empty that into
07:57the wheelbarrow well don't you have to keep coming up and down well it is what it is
08:01the italian region of basilicata was one of the cradles of european civilization home to mathematician
08:15pythagoras it was once an area so populated and vibrant that it sent its own delegation of athletes to
08:22the original greek olympics just above the modern town of torsi stands rabatana founded in the 8th
08:29century by invading arabs it grew to a peak of around 2 500 people who farmed the surrounding fields
08:37and lived a traditional mediterranean lifestyle but emigration demographic decline and successive
08:45earthquakes led to the complete abandonment of this town about 50 years ago it's a trend that
08:52martine an ex-wine merchant from norfolk is desperately trying to reverse
08:57i would imagine the last time that really this was populated was in the 50s most people left because
09:11there was no no work so basically you know the towns are abandoned i'm fascinated by this um coat of arms
09:20because it has a skull and crossbones on the bottom and this is a beautiful palazzo which is for sale
09:27there's something like 10 people living in the whole of rabatana now
09:34where once it would have been thriving with schools and shops so yes it was very sad that the whole
09:41thing was just abandoned a joke there are more cats than people but it probably is
09:48martine has been living amongst the ruins of rabatana for the last 16 years after buying and
09:55renovating various derelict properties she now runs what is known as a diffused hotel with four
10:02elegant apartments she saved from collapse the more that i was here the more i realized that
10:07there were so many possibilities that you know there's all this fantastic landscape this history
10:14this culture so yeah that kind of it grew on me
10:17it's august and martine is hard at work on her next renovation project
10:27but we found veronica's secret place what are you doing in here veronica hey
10:33it's a cellar underneath the rooms she calls the mandarin suite and thought to be at least 400 years old
10:41this will probably be made into like two bedrooms with an ensuite bathroom if we're going to put an
10:47ensuite down here put a bath in front of here so you can lay in the bath and look at the convent i mean
10:52it would just be incredible with these beams exposed and all of this lovely stone martine has already
10:59spent a day chipping away at the old plaster and she's hoping to make more progress today
11:04look you see it's just it comes off so easily
11:11i think that it's just been damp coming in here for a long time
11:17wow could look pretty fantastic couldn't it
11:24imagine finding some buried treasure something from the knight's templars because apparently they
11:29came through here with everybody else after the best part of an hour it's not buried treasure
11:35martine has found but some mysterious stones
11:38and there are quite a lot of black stones like this one in that wall as well there's a lot i wonder if
11:47they maybe even have been rescued from another house that burnt down because there's obviously no sign of
11:51the chimney or anything here it's likely these blackened stones were once part of an old fireplace and
11:58they were taken from other houses in rabatana when they were dismantled the builders of the past recognized
12:05the importance of reusing raw materials and not just for economic reasons stones like
12:11these would have had to be dragged all the way up the hillside from the local river beds
12:15so wasting them would have been unthinkable working away to peel off these layers of history
12:22is a privilege for this passionate village savior
12:27you know when a project's finished it's like it's like finishing a good book you're bereft because
12:31it's gone i know we've got his memories really but there's still a long way to go for martine
12:37before her renovations here are over
12:47coming up i don't think it's that bad honestly yeah look oh our village saviors are playing with fire
12:56in france i always wanted to be a chimney sweep and
13:06i must be nearly through it's the moment of truth for paul and yip in la bouillière
13:12what i don't want to do is for this lot to fall because it's tied into this stonework close my eyes
13:17and ears and hope for the best
13:31despite the fact that the uk and france have similar sized populations there are over two
13:36million more homes lying empty on the other side of the channel sometimes properties are abandoned
13:42france because of the high cost of renovations or complicated inheritance laws but in rural areas
13:49it's often just down to the dwindling number of jobs on the land the ghost village of chicheville
13:56in western france is a prime example
14:04and it could have been lost forever if it wasn't for two british saviors
14:09the guy that we bought it off when we signed at the notaire on that day was 99
14:16and he said his great grandmother was born in the house so that's um going back a bit
14:28tony and terry are antique restorers from gloucestershire who are now the proud custodians
14:33of three houses half a dozen buildings and an extensive wood
14:37they paid about 60 000 pounds for the hamlet and intend to do most of the renovation work themselves
14:46it's not getting handed over to anyone to sort out for us is it no no we can't afford that
14:53it's the labor so whereas you might do a room and it cost you a thousand euros if you're paying
14:58something to do it might be five six thousand euros by the time we've improved the drainage
15:03redo the electrics have some work on the roof we think we can bring it in maybe maybe 90 000 pounds
15:16it's november so before winter spreads its icy tentacles across the village tony and terry are
15:22turning their attention to keeping warm there's also damp in the farmhouse that needs drying out
15:29so the couple have a plan so here's our lovely wood burner the burner is made of steel plate so it weighs
15:38well over a hundred kilos that's 16 stone or about the same as a well-fed great dane
15:45i don't think it's that bad honestly yeah look oh their first task okay keep going a little bit of
15:55right that's it is getting it from the open barn to the main house spot on my spare reversing that bang in
16:06the middle look at that tony has once again called on his good friend peter who's brought his son toby
16:14for extra manpower but it's a struggle even for the three of them i did say wear steel toe caps didn't i
16:28luckily teamwork and a bit of british grit
16:34gets the job done i don't know why you're making such a fuss
16:39it isn't over yet though after a short drive to the front door
16:46i got the light in and with more help from another neighbor john
16:51let them take it the reclaimed wood burner finally makes it across the threshold
16:57where are we heading through here okay are we lifting or sliding no we're lifting
17:03lifting okay okay wow that's okay nicely done they say it takes a village to raise a child
17:14but it can also take the neighbors to raise a village thank you john appreciate that very welcome
17:21and tony and terry feel blessed to be surrounded by willing friends happy to lend a hand the bills and
17:27the post their neighbors are just as delighted with what the newbies are bringing to their community
17:34well the first time i saw this building i really thought it was dangerous and it was a sort of a
17:38couple of months away from collapsing it's been amazing what they've actually done in the relatively
17:43short time that they've been here in this i don't know 200 year old house that didn't have much done
17:48to me in that first 200 years to be honest before they can get the home fires burning the chimney is in
17:54need of a flu and since tony doesn't have a good head for heights he's happy to let peter take the lead
18:01hey there tony are you there peter i'm here okay when do you want to start what have you ready let's go
18:10yeah go on you push and i'll pull this is where glad i didn't paint the wood burner
18:14nice and steady because it keeps getting caught yeah right there
18:24take a bit of tension off i always wanted to be a chimney sweep job's a good one
18:29well we've just got to light the fire now see if it works
18:32we have flame the wood burner can now start drying out the damp ready for lime plastering
18:43and when it's time to do that terry and tony are determined to stay true to the techniques of the
18:48past but for now like generations of farming families in sheathsville before them they can
18:54cuddle up in front of a warm fire and rest their aching bones here's to a good day's work i'd say
19:03yeah cheers well done
19:15in the lost village of la bouillère paul and yip have discovered exactly what's at the root
19:20of their crumbling wall you can see it's just literally mud it's just holding everything
19:27together it's mad back in the 18th century when the village was built the stonemasons used to pack
19:34the gap between the inner and outer granite walls with mud because it was a good insulator and it was
19:39easy to get hold of most importantly of course it was also free but as la bouillère was abandoned for
19:46over 25 years before paul and yip moved in rain water has seeped into the stonework and washed away
19:52the mud making the wall unstable but that's the trouble you know you only starts with a
19:59slit tile yeah 25 years of rain through that one hole was a big deal and we're just trying to pick
20:05up the pieces really literally and hope they somehow go back together with a large section of stones
20:14removed the couple now need to free up the thick timber beam at the top of the wall to reach the
20:19stones below they can't use a chainsaw because anything too vigorous could cause a collapse
20:30i'm already creating quite a lot of movement here yeah
20:33i feel like a spoon a bit quicker what you're getting there pop it's oak isn't it as the beam
20:43is tied into the stonework at multiple points along the wall it's backbreaking work
20:48it's great that is pop it doesn't feel great at the minute is that the end of the timber
21:19there's one more pop it
21:25at 30 feet up this isn't a job for the faint-hearted especially as there's no way of knowing if the
21:31beam will fall as soon as it's released brace yourself oh bloody you're not kidding i must be nearly
21:38through oh there you go all right i felt that relax then all right hang on so we've spent quite a bit of
21:46time releasing this beam what i don't want to do is for this lot to fall because it's tied into this
21:53stonework so i need to lift this and throw it and just get it off and out the way so we need to just
22:00move this scaffold tower back so that i can just lean over and there's no danger of this hitting the
22:06tower with me on it paul and yip reposition the tower lovely right you ready for this because i'm just
22:15going to do this oh god close my eyes and ears and hope for the best i'll spend the life insurance
22:23money well don't worry thank you hang on whoa it seems to be loose okay right okay
22:32oh that was close oh well done oh i need a cup of tea strangely emotional isn't it yeah
22:49i'm just pleased to have you still alive today paul yip and la bouillère have proved they all have the
22:55determination to slow down the march of time even if they can't stop it altogether there's still more
23:02to do on the wall but at least it's still standing and so are our village saviors we have to take risks
23:10on this project otherwise nothing will get done because there's a whole village to be built yet
23:15coming up in rabatana martine is behind schedule and racing to get a remarkable room ready as the
23:28days kind of disappeared you think you've got loads of time in the morning and then all of a sudden the
23:31guests are arriving in 10 minutes and one forgotten corner of sheeshville reaches the end of the road
23:38probably dating back 100 150 years lovely building and we're gonna have to knock half of it down
23:45back in the abandoned town of rabatana the tourist season is in full swing and village savior martine
24:03has had to take some time off renovating her old cantina to concentrate on running her diffused hotel
24:10two guests are on their way to stay in the mandarin suite and martine can't wait to share with them
24:17the room she is most proud of for me this is my most special room it's just magical sleeping out here
24:23with the stars and with the twinkly lights and the candles and everything else it really is beautiful
24:30up until the 1950s this room could have housed a whole family and possibly their animals too
24:36the roof space above would have doubled up as a larder where hams and sausages would have hung
24:41alongside drying peppers but with the roof gone martine has taken the opportunity to conjure up the
24:47spirit of the moors who first settled in rabatana over a thousand years ago it reminds me of a riad
24:56maybe in morocco um so you know without arabic um roots here it's kind of where you would sleep and
25:04you'd be completely hidden from everybody but you can look at the stars a riad is a house centered around
25:11an inner courtyard usually with gardens and fountains riads are more often associated with rooftop terraces
25:18than roofless bedrooms but both designs give visitors the chance to relax and gaze at the heavens
25:26martine can't do any cloud spotting now though she has guests from switzerland due any minute
25:33as the days kind of disappeared you think you've got loads of time in the morning and then all of a
25:36sudden the guests are arriving in 10 minutes i'm going to start making the bed up now
25:40it doesn't take too long to finish the final touches and martine can now head off to greet her guests
25:51this is the mandarin lovely lovely thank you i think it's my favorite really with these arches
25:58and uh yeah so the labatana is an arabic village so these houses nobody knows how old they are we don't
26:07find any words when i first saw it i just couldn't believe that a place like this existed and then
26:14when i managed to buy it it was just incredible
26:25oh my god
26:26this is oh my gosh gary and birgit have traveled nearly a thousand miles to be in rabatana
26:39but it's clear they already feel the destination is worth the journey
26:46super romantic super romantic our second honeymoon is ready to start now
26:53black martine gary and birgit have completely fallen in love with the idea of sleeping under the
27:01stars in the middle of this stunning ghost village it is so rare that i don't find any words but this is
27:10now happening the main house is in here you don't have to sleep outside if you don't want to
27:16yes yes certainly everything is fine prego so this is where you'll be staying
27:25after settling in and getting ready for bed the couple prepare to step back into history
27:34look at that isn't it beautiful we have here the only sky just like the first visitors to rabatana
27:42over 10 centuries ago they can snuggle down and marvel at the night sky have you seen any view like
27:49that i did it when i was a child last time yeah for martin sharing the splendors of this once
27:57abandoned village is a source of never-ending satisfaction but she knows that goodwill alone
28:03is no guarantee of its future survival the revenues her guests bring are vital if martin's mission to
28:10save the rest of rabatana is ever going to succeed golden dream sleep well my darling
28:18sheesh will tony and terry have a job in front of them that they haven't been looking forward to
28:37i'll come with you and grab some more all our saviors are passionate about preserving the history
28:43that lies under every stone and behind every door but sometimes things are beyond redemption
28:50today is the outbuilding day yes we've got to do it but it's a bit sad yeah you know it's an old
28:55building probably dating back 100 150 years lovely building and we're gonna have to knock half of it
29:03down in its heyday this building was probably a stable for horses but while its custodians have been
29:09away in the uk it's slowly been surrendering to the elements unfortunately last winter we had a
29:17lot of rain quite a bit of wind it's brought down some of the wall nearest the road and on the
29:23other side quite a lot came down now what we're left with it's just one high wall about that deep
29:32with a massive crack down it and it's starting to lean so now's the time to take it down
29:38if you park under it or even stand under it too long you might it might come down on you
29:44just like the cottages in la bouillière that paul and yip are wrestling with
29:47this crumbling ruin has been built from stone and mud it makes demolition unpredictable well
29:57tony's good friend peter who's more comfortable working at heights is taking the lead again
30:02have i gotta stand on that all the way up there all the way up yeah yeah on your tippy toes but tony's
30:10doing his best to conquer his fears and is climbing the scaffold too would you hold your hand yeah all
30:18the time i'm up here i think there's a massive bloody gap there i can't do this is that awful tony
30:28slowly finds his feet but getting used to the height is only half the challenge so attached
30:35isn't it all the way growing in freeing the wall from the struggle hold of rampant ivy is going to be a
30:42battle too this has been a right pain to be honest the ivy has managed to find its way under all the
30:51roof tiles and the roof stones but when you've got a wall like this is made of mud if there's no render
30:57on it it starts to get its roots into the mud and then you've got problems it's just sticking everything
31:04together you know i begin to think there's so much ivy in it we might as well have left it because it'd
31:08never fall down as the foliage is stripped back more of the original building is revealed but it's a
31:16bittersweet moment for terry so sad to think that it's actually going to be coming down now you get to
31:24actually see it without the massive clumps of ivy that were on it and really had hidden everything
31:30about it hit the fact that there was a window there and it's going to be quite a lot lower than
31:36it and then it is now we've really got to do it but it is a shame because it's looking so beautiful
31:44despite her attachment to the old building terry isn't about to shirk her responsibilities
31:50okay i'm coming up pete so while tony takes a tea break on terra firma go for another one mind your
31:58head so terry climbs the scaffold i'm more stressed than i was going out there myself
32:05i'm i'm well impressed it's nice to to get hands on with taking some of it down
32:12and it is quite a lot more tricky than you imagine
32:20after a big group effort what'd you get past the roots it's easy there's finally some progress
32:28that's a big piece one of the cornerstones it's starting to get a bit more satisfying now
32:36but the nights are drawing in and the change of season is working against them
32:42is it me or is it going a bit dark it's going down especially under the trees there i might just
32:48do a couple mil minutes and call it a day i think because i don't want to climb down the scaffold in
32:53the dark i don't want to climb down it in the daylight but the dark is definitely no no they'll
32:59need to do a bit more tomorrow morning but most of the job is now done and the old building is at a
33:04much safer height visa restrictions and the need to push through their uk house sale mean tony and terry
33:12will soon be heading back to gloucestershire but it feels like their village is slowly rising from its
33:18slumber we've got two weeks left now before we go back to the uk so definitely got to get more of
33:23this building down once we've got that down to a safe level which maybe another meter or so will
33:30do then we can get cracking on in the house you've got to make some progress got to make some progress
33:34yeah coming up i'm so excited i can't believe it has martine found another property to rescue in
33:45rabbitana oh my goodness no i don't think so and will la bouillière be ready for its first guests of the
33:55season this isn't good this isn't i don't want that collapsing like that we're just trying to uh stop an avalanche
34:16back in southern italy martine is up early picking apricots from a nearby organic farm
34:22these are a special variety called rubies and they're biological so they're organic
34:29and they are absolutely exquisite for her saving rabbitana isn't just about breathing new life into
34:35the empty buildings she's also keen to preserve the traditional culture and takes every chance to
34:40support local artisans and farmers like marinella who share her passion i said i'm doing one and you're
34:47picking like three she's like it's my job martine plans to use the apricots in jam that she will
34:54provide the guests in her diffused hotel this is the best you know you you can't get better than this
35:01it's absolutely delicious isn't it
35:04delicious two days later she's busy simmering the fruit with sugar to create a delicious breakfast
35:14treat basically the recipe is a kilo of sugar to a kilo of apricots juice of one lemon to each kilo
35:21so there's three kilos of fruit here the history of jam making goes back at least to roman times when
35:27fruit was preserved in honey to last over the winter but it was after the crusades when sugar was brought back
35:34to medieval europe that jam really took off martine may be using a gas hob instead of an open half
35:41but the recipe and the principles haven't changed in centuries but what i really like about it is
35:47there's still pieces of fruit that are whole in the jam you put it on bread it's just um lovely
35:54while the mixture is still bubbling martine transfers it to the jars
35:59the jars next the jars are turned upside down to create a vacuum that starves any unwanted
36:06microorganisms of oxygen and once it's cooled it'll be ready for her guests
36:14as fast as i can make it it gets eaten which is great
36:21martine's had a busy and successful summer season and there could be another exciting opportunity right on
36:27her doorstep just below the staircase leading to martine's mandarin apartment there's a little
36:34two-room abandoned home which could be about to go on the market they called me two days ago to say
36:41they wanted to sell the little house here and it's so exciting because it's just perfect it's in my
36:46courtyard and it's small it's really sweet considering the house hasn't been lived in for more than 50 years
37:04it's still in good condition and martine's mind is racing i reckon you could take these floors out
37:11and open it all up to give a feeling of a lot more space but if you if we got rid of all this it'd
37:18just be lovely i'd love to get up there
37:26no i don't think so
37:27it's got a little fireplace how sweet is that yeah i think the fireplace um says a lot about how they
37:40lived here they would cook dried beans in the piñata or they would um cook things on the brachi on the
37:47on the cinders and you know you've got all of the equipment here for the different size pots and pans
37:52and things that they would have actually cooked on the fire just before leaving martine notices an
37:58add-on bathroom right at the back of the property a lot of these bathrooms would have been added on
38:04in the 50s when water first came into the houses and two of the houses i've bought didn't even have
38:09water connected curious to see how this extra room was created martine takes a walk outside you see
38:16these all over the place these toilets attached and basically that's all they are because they don't
38:20the shower or anything in there just a hand basin and um yes i mean you're sitting suspended over
38:25basically a couple of bits of metal stuck into that wall nobody's actually gone thoughtfully into it
38:31and decided how to build that but i suppose back then in the 50s it was great what a luxury to have a
38:37toilet in your house the wheels of estate agency can run slowly in italy though so it could be a while
38:43before martine finds out if she can save another little piece of the village for her resurrecting
38:50rabatana is no longer just a labor of love it's also now her life's work i'm really really really
38:57interested and yes i'm very i would be absolutely distraught if i couldn't get it
39:02in normandy paul and yip's glamping horse box is prepped and ready to welcome two returning guests
39:17but as the front wall of the middle cottage is still precarious paul and yip need to make it safe
39:23before their guests check in we're on the stage three of this aren't we yeah today we're going to
39:30finish taking these stones down so where are we going about halfway down the window yeah about
39:35halfway down lovely let me get a sheet to collect all the rubbish that's going to fall off that wall yeah
39:47here we go since the couple have no professional training
39:52a risky job like this means having complete trust in your workmate
39:56luckily paul and yip have no qualms about that uh we're making as safe as possible
40:05just by putting these outrigger legs in place
40:11they've been together for 20 years and their history goes back to childhood
40:19paul says that he was aware of me at school
40:22i don't think he was aware of me as much as i was aware of him you were the troublemaker in your
40:27burgundy stay press
40:31yeah i was aware of yet my mirror at school but he was in
40:36uh a different
40:39friend group friend group i suppose isn't it and you were a bit more um academic weren't you
40:45yeah so those in comparison to you i'd had it by the time i'd got to yip school the school i went to
40:53where it was i was my third school but anyway that's another story
40:57oh quite graceful do i got there like a swan should i come up yeah
41:05having broken the back of this job a few weeks ago finishing it today should be a breeze
41:11we have this done in a jiffy aren't we yeah tea and toast on its way
41:16but it isn't long before the stones start to give way oh this isn't good this isn't i don't want
41:25that collapsing like that yeah i'll take these ones off oh god just the mud that one
41:32this one we're just trying to uh stop an avalanche some stones have started to move
41:38just trying to see where it should be and what's holding what and it's just very precarious at the
41:45moment really curious oh i see
41:56crisis averted
42:00and after a few more hours of hard graft
42:03god the couple are at last on the home stretch
42:13yeah basically we've just got some cleaning up to do yip's going to remove these handful of stones
42:19there all this has got to come out clean all the joints out sweep all this down and then we're kind
42:24of almost there aren't we well done you are done take this round paul and yip finish up just in time
42:35to roll out the red carpet for their guests george and mary who've driven all the way from somerset
42:41oh look it's just so wonderful isn't it paradise in the countryside it's great to see you both
42:58one dramatic change that's happened since mary and george were last here
43:01is at the barn that overlooks the horse box oh my goodness
43:05the top section of that fell down on its own oh did it and then we dismantled the rest of it
43:13it's a reminder of how quickly the sands of time are running out in la bouillère
43:17and how huge the challenges that paul and yip still face because the buildings are so old you feel like
43:24just a blip in the long line of proprietors that it's had so we want to kind of do what we can but
43:32knowing that in terms of keeping some of it alive at least we're part of this place's history aren't
43:38we the couple are channeling their love for each other into resurrecting this ancient village and
43:45helping her come back to life like any relationship it can lurch from agony to joy in a heartbeat
43:52and there's no guarantee of a happy ending but with three such strong entities as paul yip and la bouillère
44:00anything is possible most people come to france and it's a big enough project to buy a house that
44:09needs fully renovating yeah but you've got blooming village
44:22next time should we go and have a little look yeah come on paul and yip rescue another house in la bouillère
44:28oh wow construction work in rabatana begins after years of waiting it was an amazing surprise and i was
44:36just so happy so happy but it comes with a risk if they happen to hit one of the rocks on the keystone
44:44it could all just collapse and in shishville just imagine his mood okay i'll do that tony and terry
44:51hit the ground running wow he hits you twice as half
45:05so
45:12so
45:13you
45:14you
45:14Transcription by CastingWords
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