Our Story 

We are Angela and Roddy Sharp.  We are proud Scots, although we haven’t lived there since 1981!  We met at Aberdeen University and left for South Africa shortly after we married. What was meant to be a couple of years turned into more than 30 years in Africa; SA, Malawi, Tanzania and Mauritius, interrupted by three years in Paris.  

 

Our time in France gave us a great love for the country and we decided to live here permanently when our time in Africa ended. We bought Le Manoir with the intention of keeping ourselves busy doing chambres d’hotes and a gite, but somehow, and crucially thanks to holding our daughter’s wedding in the barn, we are delighted to have found ourselves with a wedding venue! 

 

We find that having first hand experience of holding our daughter’s wedding gives us an empathy with the couples who come to visit Le Manoir.  We thoroughly enjoy meeting the couples who will ultimately celebrate their marriages at Le Manoir.  We take immense pleasure from giving our wonderful home to our couples as their perfect venue.

 

Our lives are extremely busy with meeting our couples,  hosting their celebrations, wedding admin, maintenance and cleaning of the property. Nonetheless, we still enjoy travelling and try to visit Africa and Scotland at least once a year. We don’t have much time for hobbies these days, but enjoy walking in the wonderful countryside around Le Manoir or playing golf.

 

 

There is a certain mystery surrounding the beginnings of the house and some authorities make reference to it being linked to the Knights Templar, which was disbanded in the 14th century.

 

What is known is that the Pigeonnier in the grounds of Le Manoir dates from the 16th century and has been a National monument since 1953. The existence of such a structure means there must have been some sort of substantial dwelling on the site at thistime.ﾠ  However, the core of the present house is believed to date from the 17th century as the sundial on the front of the house bears the date of 1699, together with a Latin saying "Non omnes qui mane micant sub vesperelucent".ﾠ  Apparently, this saying is often found on sundials, and roughly translated means, "not everything that sparkles in the morning light, is found again during the evening".

 

Stone corbels, which would have supported a turret of some description, can still be seen in the dining room and from the terrace at the back of the house, giving the impression that the house was fortified at some point in its history. There are other clues around the house that lends support to this theory such as the small round opening in one of the bathrooms, through which one can imagine firing an arrow or musket…

 

The Pigeonnier stands on nine mushroomed topped stone columns which were designed to keep out rats. It is considered to be one of the finest pigeonniers in France and is much photographed and painted.