Located in Clamecy, Bourgogne, which conveniently has a direct train to and from Paris, La Boule d’Or is a hub where the general public and artists can come to stay, live and work.
Behind the sustainable, community-driven hotel are four friends who joined forces to renovate what was a run-down 18th-century auberge, right on the Yonne river.
The Connexion spoke with one of the group, James Freeman-Turner, about the ambitious project’s origins and goals.
La Boule d'Or Clamecy
How did you come to purchase it?
One of our founders, Boris Levy, had been exploring the French countryside looking for a little piece of land to create a space for people to come away from the cities.
After spending nearly a year travelling around, he eventually turned to Le Bon Coin and saw an abandoned 12th-century chapel with a restaurant, hotel and quarry garden and thought “yep, that’s it”.
What were the key characteristics that made you fall for the property?
It’s not everyday that you see such an eclectic mix of buildings and land, a chapel, an 18th-century auberge (built onto the front of the chapel), a professional kitchen, so many caves, a conciergerie, a beautiful courtyard with a standalone 11 room hotel, historic barn (perfect for turning into art studios) and an epic rock-walled garden with 20m high cliffs.
Firstly, we wanted to make a creative home for ourselves and our community. We all had the need for a space and studios outside of our respective cities to be peacefully productive in.
We thought that if we could create a space for us, and all our varied needs as artists ourselves, then we’d be able to open up to others to come and benefit. We all shared a strong belief to be ethical and environmentally friendly despite it being in such an old building.
La Boule d'Or Clamecy
We knew to fulfill this goal we had to look at how we made our purchasing choices – only buying second-hand furniture, buying cleaning and building products that were either natural or the least environmentally damaging, recycling and upcycling as much as possible, serving natural/biodynamic wine from wine makers that really care for their land, and sourcing local products like honey, organic bread and cheese.
Probably the biggest impact for our environmental goals was to only serve vegetarian food to our volunteers, artists and guests staying at La Boule d’Or.
What main challenges did the project pose?
The hotel and auberge had been closed for many years, and of course the health and safety, fire and security rules in France had drastically changed. To make the dream come true to open up the space as a creative home and hotel, we had to learn and then update all the safety aspects of the building.
This turned out to be a bigger challenge than ever expected but in June 2023 we had the complete inspection with the fire, police and council and received our certificate to safely open to the public!
La Boule d'Or Clamecy
What aspects of your interiors experience were especially useful?
Our four founders are made up of artists: Nicolas Delaroche is a Swiss photographer and ceramic artist, myself (Jamie Freeman-Turner), a British-American musician, Boris Levy and Adrien Lachapelle are both French and work in film; that’s to say none of us have any professional background in renovation.
Adrien, being the most experienced, had previously worked on his own apartments, but never a 1,000 year old chapel! We have all become more skilled throughout this renovation.
What original features did you want to retain?
The chapel itself started life as a hospital, treating ‘weary travellers’ in the 18th-century. The auberge was built onto the front of the chapel named ‘La Boule d’Or’ and again was to welcome ‘weary travelers’.
Since we got our hands on the giant iron keys and opened the giant wooden doors, we started inviting people to come help us in this adventure using the social media app TikTok. We’ve found the main feature we’ve retained is the ability to welcome ‘weary travelers’.
As for design or structural features, we’ve actually been rescuing a lot of features which had been covered in plasterboard and paint since the 90’s. Gorgeous wooden beams, original furniture brought back to glory, and opening up the garden to not just be a place of storage.
How did you come up with the themes and colours for the rooms?
When we walked into the hotel for the first time, the first thing we knew we had to change was the colour scheme, or lack of one. There was a red, pink and purple room, a brown and black, a 50 shades of green room, a yellow and blue room, and so on. It was head spinning.
La Boule d'Or Clamecy
We wanted to created a space that invited artists to come here and dream, and leave a trace. We knew this space will change throughout its time, and so we wanted to start from a blank canvas, a minimalist white canvas, organic carpeting and no TVs.
What tips do you have for finding furniture?
The four of us have collectively probably been to 100 brocantes. We set our restrictions to only upscaling used furniture which we found, bought or was donated.
La Boule d'Or Clamecy
We got to know the person running the local antiques store in Clamecy, we also spent many hours treasure hunting in the Ressourcerie, an association set in an old house on the outskirts of Clamecy – where you can find everything that has ever been made. Some of the garden furniture was made from an old canal lock (écluse) donated by the local éclusier.
My only tip would be to start early (we have spent the first year trying to find all the furniture we need) and not to rush the journey toward finding what you want. I also love haggling, which is a bonus.
We focused our efforts on the 11 room hotel, created a shared kitchen within the hotel, worked on the barns for studios and created a gorgeous space in our garden to relax or work in. Our garden hosts a natural wine bar, serving natural, biodynamic, orange wines.
What are the three most important interior design considerations for anyone renovating?
When designing each aspect of our property we considered how it could be used to foster a better, more social, community spirit. Like with designing our shared kitchen within the hotel, the most important thing for us was how it could suggest sharing a meal, or meeting someone new.
La Boule d'Or Clamecy
The same with our garden bar and the furniture choice and creation, placing guests in comfortable surroundings that would allow them to meet people.
Firstly I would suggest understanding your goals for the time that you or others will spend in your space. This next advice might be a bit too specific to us but, in general, ask for help. We put out a plea for help on TikTok which garnered 4 million views and led to people traveling from all over the world to come help us turn this abandoned building into this loving community and creative home and hotel.
Our project has been so much more rewarding due to opening our doors to people even in the renovation process. And lastly, this one is super specific to us, don’t forget to ask Adrien’s mom to borrow her truck for a year. This one is extremely helpful!
The grand opening took place on July 14, 2023. For full details visit La Boule d’Or’s website.
