We are back home in France now for just over a week and the difference of temperature in the house in that time is remarkable.
The first few days after we got back were perishing – this was not at all the fault of the outside temperatures- they rarely, even at night , went below 4 or 5 C -but due to the fact that we live in an old stone house.
Stone has some very strange properties, one of them is its ability to conserve temperatures. We have a large wood burning Godin in our living room but for the first days back it might have been a candle in a freezer for all the heat it gave us. Gradually the wood heat penetrated into the bones of the house and by about Thursday we could come down stairs in our dressing gowns again.

All this time the outside temperatures were rising , which also obviously affected the interior but , oddly , not as much as you would expect.

The house has a remarkable ability – based also on the fact that there is quite a small area of windows- to remain a bit aloof from the outside , a fact which we are greatful for in the summer when the temperatures outside can hit the thirties.

Another relevant factor are the shutters , putting these across the French windows into the terrace in the evenings in winter has an immediate effect on the inside , as this also does in the heat of the day in summer .

We were strolling around the village last week and noticed that the New Builds in the lotissments are all furnished with air conditioning units , it seems almost as standard. These houses are of course , as all modern houses are , built of cavity brick.

Just as we bought our Presbytere , a French government initiative was brought in that each house as it was sold had to be furnished with an energy rating , ours was one of the first in our area to be so rated and I remember the Nortaire remarking to us that it had scored particularly well, better than the new builds.
This is proof -I suppose- that sometimes the old ways were not the worst.