as cook and author Peta Mathias discovered<\/a> when she put her apartment in Uzes, southern France, on the market early this year. <\/p>\nThe number of New Zealanders owning second homes in France is on the rise, and the Wrights hope another energetic Kiwi couple with a dream of owning a chateau will replace them. <\/p>\n
Friends who\u2019ve stayed with them over the years include Mathias, NZ Fashion Week founder Dame Pieter Stewart, and fashion designer Dame Trelise Cooper, who now has her own place in Toulouse with husband Jack.<\/p>\n
![\"Diane]()
Diane and Wayne Wright during a visit from Diane’s son, Gareth. Their chateau, with its pointy tower, is visible in the background between them.<\/p>\n
Wayne began exploring his own French connection in the early 70s, tracking down relatives in France and spending time there to escape the Southern Hemisphere winter. His ancestors arrived in New Zealand in 1840 on the Comte de Paris, which carried the first French settlers to Akaroa.<\/p>\n
In 1997, he and Diane, his second wife, were married at the American Cathedral in Paris, requiring special permission from the Anglican Archdeacon of France because neither of them is Catholic. <\/p>\n
The couple owned a house in Ussel, another medieval village about 200km to the north, for many years before Chateau de la Blaynie caught Wayne\u2019s eye. For him, it was a romantic dream come true. <\/p>\n
\u201cA beautiful wife and a beautiful house,\u201d he says, with a twinkle.<\/p>\n
![\"At]()
At home in Merivale, surrounded by antiques Wayne has collected throughout his career. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n
Far from being born into a life of privilege, Wayne never knew his father and was passed from relative to relative as a child, attending 11 different schools before leaving at the age of 14. <\/p>\n
An uncle took him into the buying and selling trade in Timaru, and he eventually moved into antiques, specialising in pieces from England and France.<\/p>\n
Diane was married to a high-country farmer for 25 years before moving to Christchurch, where she had a shop in Merivale Mall. Wayne\u2019s antique store was right across the road; they met when she came in looking to buy some dress furniture for her shop.<\/p>\n
In 2011, the Canterbury earthquake damaged both their home and business premises beyond repair. The couple decamped to Auckland but have since returned to Christchurch to be closer to Wayne\u2019s children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n
About 1000 people live in the village of Albas, which is in the Occitanie region and has a guinguette (a bar with live music) that opens in summer. A nine-hole golf course in partnership with local vineyards is planned on a property just across the river. <\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The Wrights dining out with Diane’s daughter-in-law, Mandy. ‘You go to the markets, you eat, you drink, then you eat some more,’ says Diane. ‘It’s what every French programme tells you.’<\/p>\n
The French way of life remains deeply ingrained there, says Diane. Only a generation or two ago, people still came down into the valley on horseback to wash their clothes in the river.<\/p>\n
Kiwis are welcome \u2013 \u201cThey see us as allies, through and through\u201d \u2013 but cultural offences such as consuming food in the street or walking barefoot remain taboo.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go to the markets, you eat, you drink and then you eat some more. It\u2019s what every French programme tells you,\u201d says Diane.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m over there, I go for a walk through the forest every single morning, no matter the weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sky can be a really moody, dark grey-blue with a front coming in, but the fields are still that gold and green, and you can almost see Joan of Arc riding across with her legions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joanna Wane is an award-winning senior lifestyle writer with a special interest in social issues and the arts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reluctantly, the couple realise their beloved chateau in the Midi-Pyrenees has to be sold. \u201cIf my illness goes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[806,3246,2534,21816,4487,8414,21818,299,156,1872,2688,2082,11775,1345,194,101,21817,111,139,69,3178,1133,13311,5433,8229],"class_list":["post-20774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-as","tag-both","tag-cancer","tag-chateau","tag-christchurch","tag-couple","tag-desperate","tag-dream","tag-entertainment","tag-face","tag-farewell","tag-for","tag-french","tag-home","tag-kiwi","tag-left","tag-lifelong","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-owning","tag-sale","tag-sell","tag-stage","tag-they"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}