Part 2

By
Stephen Buss

Five years ago, we bought a small, dilapidated French property with a plan to turn it into a holiday cottage. All we had was the 'shell' of an old stone cottage with a dodgy roof and no doors or windows, but it was well placed in the landscape. Something of a Feng Shui carte blanche! The entire layout had to be decided upon and agreed, but for this project Feng Shui would be equally as important as tourist board guidelines.

I use Xuan Kong (or Time & Space) Feng Shui, a popular method as used by many professional practitioners all over the world. My first step was to use the facing direction and year of construction to draw up the Flying Star chart. This would help us to decide the location of internal walls & doors, windows and front door by superimposing it on the floor plan of the building.

The Star chart

The facing direction is 183 degrees, or south. The construction (or renovation) year was mid 2004 when the roof was replaced and the major works carried out. This makes it period 8, the flying star chart is as follows.

Directions such as Tai Sui and the Three Sha move each year and fortunately were to be found in the Southwest and south during that year causing no offence.

Electricity next with as much delay and expense as possible by 'Elecricité de France' to decide the entry route for the supply cable. It was taking so long that I began to think that they were using some obscure school of Feng Shui to decide how best to 'bring the energy in' and that the elders were arguing over which method was superior. After much discussion they informed me that they would be employing the use of a 'taupe'. My French dictionary told me that this meant 'mole' which strengthened my theory that they were indeed using the Chinese zodiac in their method, perhaps the mole is a Gallic version of the Rat? All became clear when I learnt that a mole is a clever kind of hydraulic tunnelling device used to lay underground pipes and cables.

There then followed a flurry of activity with concrete floors, windows, plaster, tiles and plumbing resulting in the shell of our holiday cottage ready for us to start work on. Time to check the compass readings again, thankfully all walls and openings were spot-on.

We were aiming at a broad range of family holidaymakers who would be looking for relaxation and a slice of French life rather than a lesson in Feng Shui. However, if the Feng Shui is right the sense of relaxation will be more effective. A holiday cottage, or gîte, is a commercial venture for any property owner and so generation of income has also to be a consideration. Hence, a careful balance of Water and Mountain energies will produce an efficient and beautiful property.

Water & Mountain

The usual practice of placing a moving water feature to enhance an auspicious water star is not too practical in a property of this type. Placing the bathroom and WC in a sector where there is such a water star activates qi every time it's used, the same goes for the kitchen sink. Most of the windows are also to be found at the good water star positions, allowing those stars an easy entry and the harmful ones being blocked by a 2 foot thick stone wall. Similarly, having a large mass in the area of an auspicious mountain star will promote good mountain qi, in this case at the back wall where the land rises to the rear garden.

It's difficult to judge if the changes that we made altered the Feng Shui from the original building, as it had been derelict for about 80 years and none of the locals remember it being lived in. Its year of construction is completely unknown so there's only a 1 in 9 chance of it being the same. What attracted us to it was the location and facing, so I imagine that the original builders would have been prompted to follow an auspicious layout quite naturally.

The next stage will be to arrange the interior décor in the correct fashion. Few properties have an ideal arrangement and in most cases the compromises need to be cured with suitable forms of the correct element.

The entrance to the kitchen has an unfortunate water star present which can be easily fixed using the sound of metal. The idea here will be to use a French antique chiming clock to harmonise with the décor in place of a traditional Chinese wind chime. The general idea is to use form and colour to manipulate qi rather than placing expensive and incongruous artefacts. Feng Shui is about harmony and balance, so by using locally bought fittings and ornaments we can easily cure and enhance the energies whilst retaining an authentic French atmosphere.