It started with a holiday home of their own; now a young Irish couple are building their own development in France. Kate McMorrow reports
Andrea Cawley and Iain Dunne are living the dream near the village of Brantôme in the Dordogne region of south-west France, running their hotel, Domaine de La Rosarie, holiday cottages, a property agency and juggling the care of young sons James and David.
If that wasn't enough, plans are now drawn up to build a hamlet of traditional-style holiday homes in the extensive hotel grounds.
It all started with dabbling in investment property while Andrea was working for the Bank of Ireland and Iaian with Commerce Bank. After a spell in London, the couple - Andrea is from Howth, Iain from Raheny - bought a holiday home in the Dordogne, got married in the medieval village of Saint Pierre de Frugie and decided to put down roots in the area, buying four houses to let as the first stage in their overseas property venture.
Northern Dordogne around Brantôme has stayed relatively untouristy, unlike the south, although the area is catching up, says Andrea, whose father Jeff Cawley runs the Irish office of French House Sales in Tara Street, Dublin 2.
"It was intimidating when we bought our first house and could have been tricky, but we fell on our feet. The local mayor helped enormously, especially when we bought the hotel and thought of building in the grounds," she says.
The 12-bedroom Domaine de La Rosarie is a former 17th century Carthusian monastery, with ancient stone-walled gardens sporting a profusion of roses and geraniums in summer.
The hotel and holiday cottages are proving useful for visiting househunters from Ireland.
Prices are surprisingly affordable in the Dordogne and the Perigordine architecture is among the prettiest in France, with steep tiled roofs, pigionnaires and quaint dormer windows.
Access from Ireland will involve either a train journey from Paris or flight transfer to one of the UK airlines servicing the region.
While summers are invariably hot and spring and autumn beautifully sunny, winters can be cool in this inland region. For anyone with small children who needs to avoid the excesses of heat further south, it's just about perfect.
French House Sales have prices to suit most pockets, from a village house to restore for €28,000 to a fabulous ivy-covered mansion where François Mitterand lived as a boy, quoting €1.155 million.
Their traditional-style holiday homes, to be aimed at the luxury end of the market, will be built in the hotel grounds in local Perigordine style. They'll be "something a little special," promises Andrea.
French House Sales, 01 6360951
www.frenchhousesales.com
