The little square next to Saint Pierre d’Ouchamps is very clean and tidy but the façades, with the exception of the one in the corner are somewhat delapidated. I was intrigued to see that the roof has been renovated using slate while the neighbouring roofs are tiled.
La petite place à côté de l’église Saint Pierre d’Ouchamps est très propre mais les façades à l’exception de celle du coin sont plutôt délabrées. J’étais intriguée de voir que le toit a été refait en ardoise alors que ceux des voisins sont en tuiles.
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5 replies on “Slate among tiles – Ardoise parmi tuiles”
There’s one in every crowd !
New slate roofs are appearing everywhere, where once there was tiles. Slate is seen as more up-market and therefore more desirable. It’s a fashion that started in the 19th C here. It’s something the built heritage authorities are aware of and there is some concern about the disappearance of tiles. My guess is they will be refusing permission to change materials within the next decade, especially as the source of the slate is no longer local, or even French.
As you know, we have a mixture ourselves. The house has a slate roof, but the workshop and pigsty have tiles, one of which has the handmade sort. One of the barns has a tiled roof and the other, which has been redone, is slate. The little house a mixture of tiles, slates and even some corrugated iron!
A slate roof is more expensive than a tile roof. But it’s (said to be) quite more resistant and lives quite longer…
I restored 2 old tile roofs in the last 10 years, and I can tell you that old traditional clay tiles are more and more difficult to find, and “new” tiles are not as nice. So choosing tiles is not always the easy choice !
I also agree with Suzan, one has to stay in line with the local architecture and tradition 😉
We want to keep the tiles on our barn which needs redoing but Jean Michel has to work out the best way of being able to keep the creeper!