For Edward Holmes, 44, renovating a medieval château in Bordeaux, France, was quite a change of scenery from his last job landscaping his father’s golf course back in the UK, where he grew up.
When his business-minded parents bought Château Lagorce for a cool million euros back in 2003, the young Englishman, then a single twenty-something, was the top man for the job. He moved to Bordeaux in 2005 and saw just how much work lay ahead. The rooves and gutters were rotting and full of holes; the plumbing and electrical were shot; there was no AC; and the stonework needed re-masoning. Had the place sat five years longer, it would have been gone….