Former Labor MP Tim Holding restores 105-room, 235-year-old French chateau

A former Victorian politician is embarking on one of the largest private restoration projects in France as he painstakingly restores a 235-year-old chateau, with a jaw-dropping 105 rooms.

Chateau de Purnon is a Louis XVI chateau in Vienne, France. Picture: Supplied

Former Victorian Labor Minister Tim Holding is championing French culture and heritage as he painstakingly restores a crumbling 105-room, 235-year-old chateau in rural France.

Holding embarked on his chateau odyssey with his fiance Felicity Selkirk in 2020.

A Minister in the Steve Bracks and John Brumby governments, who was once mooted as a possible future Premier, Holding quit politics in 2013 and the following year moved to France.

In 2019, he and Selkirk started investigating buying a chateau to restore.

Tim with his fiance Felicity at Chateau de Purnon. Picture: Instagram

The chateau was crumbling when they bought it. Picture: Instagram

“We both love French culture. We love everything about France. We love its history, its architecture, its food and wine and, for us, we were looking for a new project for the next stage of our lives,” Holding said on a Bastille Day Melbourne Instagram live chat.

In late 2019, they discovered the dilapidated Chateau de Purnon, buying it in 2020.

“We looked at 15 chateaus before we found Purnon and each one of them were unique and beautiful in a different way, but this was the one that stole our hearts,” Holding said.

“For us, it has been this wonderful adventure, embarking on this journey of saving something of rare quality and being able to be part of the adventure of preserving heritage for future generations.”

The revival of Chateau de Purnon is slow, intricate and expensive. Picture: Instagram

Holding said the Purnon project had taught him “the value of optimism”. Picture: Instagram

Purnon, which reportedly cost the couple $1.19m, is an 18th century Louis XVI style chateau in Verrue, 3½ hours southwest of Paris.

It is set on 24 hectares and the property includes a large English-style park, several significant out buildings, stables, a tack room, a chapel, a boulangerie, an orangerie, a laundry, garages, a wine barrel room, a dry moat and cottages all of which require restoration.

“When it was running at its full capacity it took a village to keep the property running,” Selkirk said.

The revival of Chateau de Purnon is slow, intricate and expensive; an enormous and emotional passion project for the couple.

As it is classified as a historical monument any restoration work must be first approved by French authorities.

“This is one of the largest private restoration projects in France at the moment,” Holding said, with the work supported by various grants.

“We immediately knew that this was the property that we had been looking for and because of her condition it was urgent that she change hands and that someone come along very quickly to save her because she was right at the point of risking becoming a ruin,” Selkirk said.

The chateau reportedly cost the couple $1.19m. Picture: Instagram

The chateau includes a chapel. Picture: Instagram

For Holding, the shift from politics to Purnon has meant a seismic change to his life.

“I’d never sat on a tractor before and so there was all this gear we acquired with the chateau that I quickly had to learn how to master,” he said.

“I was not a chainsaw person or an outdoor specialist at all, but with neighbours showing us how to do things it has been quite an adventure.

“We live in a small wing of the chateau that has heating that still works and is reasonably comfortable for us.

“As we restore rooms we hope to be able to slightly shift the centre of gravity in the house so that we live in a broader portion of it because it does seem like a shame to have 200+ square metres of space, 105 rooms, and inhabit only a tiny wing of it.”

Selkirk added: “We have not had a shower for three years. We have a bath, it is okay.”

Any restoration work must be first approved by French authorities. Picture: Instagram

The chateau is 235 years old. Picture: Supplied

Holding said the Purnon project had taught him “the value of optimism”.

“I think we are both instinctively optimistic people, but it is a rollercoaster, you have ups and downs,” he said.

“In the depths of winter when it is cold and the roof is leaking and the rain is coming in, it is very easy to get down and to wonder why on earth you have embarked on this epic journey of madness.”

But he urged people to follow their passions.

“So often people’s greatest regret is a risk they did not take and buying and restoring an 18th century French chateau is full of risk and full of uncertainty, but it has been a wonderful adventure for us and we don’t regret it,” he said.

Holding will be in Melbourne at the end of July to launch Les Amis de Purnon (Friends of Purnon), a not-for-profit association which will support the restoration of the chateau.

Holding will be the special guest at an evening at ARTVISORY in South Yarra on July 26. Tickets are available here.