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Category / Desirable Digs

Rosa Bonheur’s Chateau is a Time Capsule Waiting to be Discovered

Rosa Bonheur was one of the most popular artists of the 19th Century. Not only was her work being sold and seen around the world, songs were composed about her and dolls were made in her image. Today, some of Paris’ most thriving bars and nightclubs are named after her. But her artistic merit has…

Run Your Own Vintage Bistro in the South of France this Summer

Nope, sorry, I refuse to stop imagining that I live in the past. This time – inside Grandmère Léone’s village bistrot in Provence. It’s about that time of year when Parisians start looking south to plan a summer escape from the city, and on my annual holiday house hunt, I stumbled upon this little gem,…

That Time they Stripped the White House Down to its Bones

When American President Harry S. Truman took office, there were many signs that the White House needed some construction updates. The literal breaking point came in June 1948, when the leg of First Daughter Margaret Truman’s piano fell through her second-floor sitting room’s rotting floorboards into the family dining room below. What followed was a…

Oh, The Fun We Could Have With This 1960s Ghost Town For Sale

In today’s atypical real estate news, we head to Warsaw, Missouri, where a 20-cabin pioneer style settlement, including two original 1830’s cabins, is up for grabs. The whole 20 acres plot of land with everything on it is asking $295,000. Let’s take a look around…. Located between two of Missouri’s largest lakes — Truman Reservoir…

Stay at the Home of Victorian “Axe Murderess”

“Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.” The murders of Andrew J. Borden and his wife Abby on the morning of August 4th, 1892, shocked the citizens of Fall River, Massachusetts and caused an international sensation when Mr. Borden’s 32…

At Home and in the Office with America’s First Black Millionairess

There are so many grand Gilded Age homes in New York’s Hudson River Valley, it led one 19th century wit to comment that ‘one couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a millionaire’s mansion’. Walk along the always fascinating Croton Aqueduct Trail and you can catch glimpses of these luxurious mansions that were once homes to…

How America Became Enamoured with Octagon Houses

Explore America’s small towns, and you might be lucky to stumble across a peculiarly shaped house that stands out from its surrounding neighbours by virtue of having eight facades. Back in the middle of the 19th century, there were once thousands of these ‘octagonal’ houses all over America when they were the height of fashion,…

Heartbreak Hides in the Walls of This Paris Mansion

Museums are usually a feast for the eyes, but rarely are they this much of a treat for the heart. Cozied up beside Paris’ Parc Monceau you’ll find just that: the opulent Musée Nissim de Camondo, a perfectly preserved mansion from 1911 that belonged to the affluent Camondo family. As stunning as the interiors and antiques are, it’s the…

A Brief Compendium of Modernist Homes for Movie Villains with Flawless Taste

Why is it that the bad guy always inhabits an incredible spread? It seems every self-respecting movie villain needs a strategic hideaway to devise all their evil plans, so let’s take stock of some memorable cinema locations for movie villains with a weakness for Modernist design… The Chemosphere House, LA The Chemosphere, perched on the…

Forget Roadside America, Let’s Location Scout in “Weird France”

I’ve been yearning to get back across the pond for a good ol’ dose of “weird America”, but I tend to forget that my own country has some pretty odd, quirky and wonderfully nostalgic sights to see when you venture off the main road. Wes Anderson would have a field day with Atlas des Régions…

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