Unusual Walk: The Family Home in the Clouds
Around Maurice, second from the left, on a seaside outing before the war. In the front row, the future mother-in-law of Françoise Ameline, who was also the owner of the Sol Roc house.
A marvel facing Mont Saint-Michel, perched above the bay. In Champeaux, this family home, owned for five generations, has become a holiday rental.
Grandfather Maurice, a whimsical character with a twinkle in his eye, a beret on his head, and fine glasses on his nose, watches over the house and the surrounding waters. His portrait hangs on the wall along a small staircase that leads to the terrace overlooking the bay.
Grandfather Maurice, whose other photo shows him dressed up and surrounded by his family on a seaside outing at Plat Gousset in Granville, was the one who first had the original idea of building this house unlike any other in this location. It was one of the very first. This was in the 1920s, and the timber-framed building rose along the Sol Roc path, which enthusiasts of shore fishing take on days of high tide in Champeaux.
It is here, above the cliff overlooking the bay, said to be, between Carolles and Saint-Jean-le-Thomas, “the most beautiful kilometer in France.” On the rock, Grandfather Maurice’s house is unmatched. It is unique, incredibly well-situated, like a balcony over the water, perched above the clouds, with Mont Saint-Michel and Tombelaine directly in view, beyond the sandbanks and old fish traps.
Françoise Ameline, 82, and her husband Christian, recently deceased, inherited the family home, which today belongs to their three children. Françoise, a former medical sales representative like her husband, now holds usufruct of the property and entrusted its management in June to “La Clef Decamp,” a company renting holiday homes and short stays run by Sébastien Cordon and Jennifer Decamp in Villedieu-les-Poêles. The couple manages around forty exceptional gîtes.
Once sought by the Conservatoire du Littoral, the family home now enjoys a second life!
Françoise Ameline now lives in Granville. She has turned the page on this family history, of which the house was the epicenter. When she returns occasionally, it is always with a pang of nostalgia. She recalls her years with Christian, his passing after illness, and his ashes scattered in the bay, where the father had sailed and fished. She brings out an old photo from a drawer: it shows her husband as a child, on the neighbor’s boat, Henri Laisney, the former mayor of Champeaux. They had saved a German tourist from drowning, carried away by the currents around Tombelaine. Years later, Henri Laisney received a letter thanking them for the rescue in the Mont Saint-Michel bay. Françoise kept a copy of the letter.
This house in the clouds tells the story of a family life over five generations, from Grandfather Maurice to Françoise and her three children and five grandchildren. At one point, she had to fight with other locals to prevent the Conservatoire du Littoral from taking the surrounding land. The battle was won, and the land leading to the sea remains as successive owners have shaped it, planted with all kinds of trees and beautifully arranged. “I lived twenty years in this house. Twenty years of work restoring it, twenty years of children’s laughter and family reunions.”
Today, the story continues in a new way: the house, now a holiday rental, welcomes passing tourists. It has found a new youth… a second life.
Alain Fergent
Published 16/10/2023 on La Manche Libre