September 23, 2014 - The Waters family from Perth, Australia, were seeking a “lock up and leave” holiday home, definitely not a fixer-upper, or a château, says Karina Waters. “The children had finished school, we wanted a change, and we loved the neo-classical architecture of France.” A chance sighting on the Internet drew them deeper and deeper into the south until they reached the Pyrenees Mountains. They had never seen peaks like this, or snow, or what stood, gleaming and mysterious, against its mountain backdrop. Originally a 12th century fortress, the structure had burned down, and then been rebuilt in the 18th century for Louis Gaspard de Sales, a wealthy nobleman known as “the king of the Pyrenees”. Classical, measured, serene, it was gorgeous from the outside but inside it was a ruin. Even though rubble six feet high hid the rear of the property from view, the couple still made an offer, taking on 4,000 square metres, not one of the 96 rooms habitable...