I confess that when we bought our Godin two years ago we were influenced by his extreme good looks.
Our justification of this superficial judgment was that if this monster was going to spend the majority of his time in the corner of our living room doing nothing he could at least pose there in a handsome manner.

At this level M. Godin has certainly done his job well.

He is, even in the height of summer when the thoughts of any artificial heat are abhorrent, universally admired.

We have now however lived with (you never own a Godin, you just keep him for the next generation) Monsieur for two winters and let me tell you when called upon this man is not just a pretty face.

As you can see from his shape M. accepts his logs (50 cms. long, well seasoned oak or beech ) vertically rather than horizontally.
This simple fact is I think one of his major design successes.
His controls are laughably simple, there is a simple small door at his base and this has a damper which you can turn from closed to open.

Last thing at night I will put in a log and then close the damper fully.
In the morning M. is still purring gently and guarding us from all chills. Last nights log will by this stage be a chunk of charcoal just ready to burst into flame (bringing some new wood with it ) at the merest half centimetre turn of the damper.
Open the little door and you will have the towering inferno.

Another of M.’s successes is his position.
We spent Christmas in a house in Dublin where a stove was placed in the old inglenook fireplace.
Not one calor of heat leaked out from there into the room.
Our M. stands proud and delivers heat from every side.

There was a certain demurring from some members of the family when he first arrived because he didn’t have much of a display window.
(M.’s window is so small you can barely make out the glow or flame within)

To those I say if you want the comfort of an open fire (as we had in Ireland ) than have the flickering comfort of an open fire but buy a central heating system (as we did in Ireland ) to keep yourself warm.

We have just spent our first January in the Languedoc.
It has been colder than expected temperatures have occasionally touched zero and even down to minus two.
Thanks to the efforts of Saint Godin (who better than any martyr burns himself each night for our pleasure ) we have survived and in comfort.