It isn’t long into my meeting with Jo Mcintosh that I learn just how creative and entrepreneurial this gorgeous woman is. She literally doesn’t have enough hours in the day to work on all the projects and ideas spinning around in her head – from upcycling clothes and fabrics to repurposing French tapestries into unique cushions and bags, creating necklaces from trinkets found whilst fossicking around the brocante (second-hand) and vide greniers (attic sales) near her French home in Chauvigny – Jo does it all.
But let’s step back to the year 2000 when Jo’s husband, Tony, was offered a job as a boarding supervisor at a school in Bunbury, Western Australia. A huge move from their settled lives in Cambridge, New Zealand, but one that Jo and Tony, with their two daughters, Melissa and Chelsea, embraced. It wasn’t long before Jo had an extra 100 children to watch over – a job she relished.
Whilst in New Zealand, Jo had nurtured her creative side by attending interior design and cooking classes with Wayne Good and when she realised there were no similar opportunities in Bunbury, she started flying Wayne over to run a week’s worth of classes in the town. Wayne soon suggested Jo teach the eight-week interior design class herself as well as her French Provincial Paint Finish class, and, as if Jo didn’t have enough on her plate, she decided to start a home-based retail business too.
Tragedy struck in 2006 with Tony’s sudden death. The following year Jo and the girls travelled to Europe for the first time and it was then that France really lit a fire for her. She had always felt drawn to the history and timeless appeal of France – the old stone buildings, the wooden shutters and wrought iron – and she loved the importance that the French put on family and food. She felt like she’d come home. She also realised her Australian home-based store could be so much more.
On a trip back to New Zealand, Jo told her mother about this strange spiritual connection she seemed to have with France and learned there was French ancestry in the family and, at one stage, even a chateau! This all began making more sense to her.
Despite the tragic loss of her husband, and the girls going off to university, Jo wasn’t about to slow down. She opened a French homewares store called Rustic French Living in a beautiful old church in Western Australia and it was on one of her buying trips to France that she and her friend Cherry, from Bunbury, found a property in Chauvigny, Western France. On initial inspection, the run down three-level house was in a bad way. “There was no electricity so we had to use our phone torches to pick our way through all the rubbish and building materials. It was a total mess and uninhabitable, but had a lovely feel.” Back in Bunbury, Cherry and her husband Andy agreed to going in with Jo and purchasing the house.
“Just like in all those programmes you see on TV, it wasn’t long before the artisans we employed to renovate the house told us they’d have to start from scratch because the earlier work done on the house was of such a poor standard. It was definitely not something we wanted to hear.”
A VERY FRENCH EXPERIENCE
Jo met a lot of people during her time at Rustic French Living and found out there were many middle-aged women who would love to go to France but were too scared to go on their own. Jo launched the Bespoke French Village Experience and now offers two couples, or three ladies, the opportunity to experience real French village life at her home in Chauvigny, which includes soaking up the history of the region, shopping at local produce markets, exploring nearby picturesque villages, visiting nearby brocantes, galleries and chateaux.
The experience offers a real-life opportunity for a limited number of guests to enjoy the laid-back life of French country living. The three-story house is perfectly situated on the main street, five shops down from the closest patisserie and just across the road from the friendly tapas and beer bar.
Jo works on a bespoke itinerary that gives her guests plenty of cultural and enriching experiences, such as visiting the nearby village of Montmorillon, with its quaint winding cobbled streets and boutique shops that are all themed around books, writing, calligraphy and art. Fresh produce markets, crêpes and cider at one of the local castles, wine, plat du jour luncheons, dinners at great little restaurants and aperitifs at home are also all part of the experience, as well as impromptu outings and introductions to her friends in the area.
With the sale of Rustic French Living, Jo started an online business called My French Door. It’s now known as Linen and Stone. It fuels her creative side and visceral longing for France and love of all things French. The online store is filled with one-off vintage brocante treasures that she finds while out and about. She also sells handmade cards, cushions and totebags made from recycled French tapestries, jewellery, wall sconces, candelabras, embroidered tray cloths and linen.
Jo now divides her time travelling between Matangi, near Hamilton, where daughter Chelsea lives; London, where her other daughter Melissa lives; Bunbury, Western Australia and, of course, her French home in Chauvigny.