{"id":9960,"date":"2022-04-05T13:00:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=28208"},"modified":"2022-04-05T13:21:11","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T11:21:11","slug":"french-interiors-an-antiques-filled-manor-house-in-loire","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/french-interiors-an-antiques-filled-manor-house-in-loire\/","title":{"rendered":"French interiors: an antiques-filled manor house in Loire"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Jo Leevers\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 05 April 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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When Coral Miles watches television programmes like Escape to the Chateau<\/a>, she can\u2019t help smiling. \u2018That has always been my life,\u2019 she says, explaining that, as a child, her family moved to France when her parents bought an old convent in Brittany. In the years that followed, her mother Lesley went on to restore several more houses in Brittany and elsewhere in France, including Paris<\/a> and the Loire Valley. Then, 15 years ago, she and Coral found this atmospheric manor house in the Loire, which was built in the 1850s.<\/p>\n

Once a grand nobleman\u2019s house, it had fallen into disrepair after years of inheritance disputes. \u2018It was a rare opportunity to restore a traditional house with really beautiful features,\u2019 Coral explains, adding that some of those features are even older than the house itself. In the mid 20th century, the house was owned by a master stonemason who worked on restoring historic buildings in the area. \u2018Any pieces that were no longer wanted he kept for himself and put into this house,\u2019 she says. \u2018And he had a good eye.\u2019<\/p>\n

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The same might be said for Coral and her mother, who between them have filled the house with an eclectic array of antiques<\/a> that enhance the character of the house. And, in doing so, they are following in a family tradition. \u2018My grandmother was an antiques dealer<\/a>, a true eccentric who ran a shop in London\u2019s Blackheath in the 1960s,\u2019 says Coral. \u2018She would sleep fully dressed at the wheel of her car, so she was ready to set off to sales at the crack of dawn.\u2019<\/p>\n

Coral has clearly inherited both that passion for antiques as well as the love of the chase and she is a regular at the local salerooms, brocantes<\/a> and flea markets, several of which are held along the banks of the river. \u2018You can spend hours looking for treasures and then enjoy oysters and a crisp white wine at a riverside cafe,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

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The fruits of these trips fill the house: everywhere one looks there are interesting collections. In the living room a dazzling array of antique green glassware fills the mantelpiece. The collection was started by her grandmother and has been continued by Coral. It includes 19th-century apothecary bottles and 20th-century chemists\u2019 jars, some with blue glass stoppers added for decoration.<\/p>\n

The kitchen walls and a high shelf in the hall are home to blue-and-white ceramics<\/a> from Wedgwood, Spode and Limoges, along with a few German and Dutch pieces. Some items are in daily use but many are too fragile, so are just for display. Coral\u2019s devotion to fine china started young, when, at the age of 18, she brought back an entire Lomonosov tea service from a school trip to St Petersburg. \u2018I managed to cram it into my hand luggage, along with a huge jar of Russian gherkins,\u2019 she recalls.<\/p>\n