Almost a year ago Rohan and I went to the local Mairie (the Town Hall of our tiny village) to ask whether we could build an extension. The plans for enlarging our Tréguennec outhouse were outlined, questions were asked about its purpose and various official documents were reviewed. Not long after, the secretary who runs the Mairie apologised saying that our plans for development could not go ahead. Dominique, a kind and helpful man, explained that permission could not be given to make an extension to a building that, as far as he could see, did not exist! He showed us a copy of the village’s detailed cadastre (land registry) and, to our amazement, there was no trace of our outhouse.  

Clearly, in such circumstances obtaining planning approval was going to be difficult, perhaps even impossible. However, Rohan and I knew that the outhouse existed, after all it was part of our living quarters, and someone from the Mairie could walk the 200 metres to our home and see it for themselves. But no, it was documental proof that was needed, and in a country steeped in bureaucracy, it is documents that trump all else; moreover, concerning these documents there is a hierarchy! This blog is about how we established that our outhouse does actually exist and how Rohan managed to get its existence officially recognised. 

We soon realised why there was a lack of any ‘official’ documentary evidence. In keeping with French law, such an absence was inevitable, since for well over one hundred years our outhouse had been a pigsty and pigsties are not, and never have been, recorded on ‘Napoleonic’ cadastres. Despite not being formally recognised, this was clearly no ordinary pigsty, with its 55cm-thick walls of uncut stone and granite lintels over its doors, this was a structure built to last. 

The building’s original absence from the cadastre continued despite it being converted first into a workspace and then later into a bedroom for guests. Around fifteen years ago its beaten earth floor was tiled, the insides of its mud and stone walls were plastered, its roof was made good, plumbing and electricity were introduced, and such were the changes that no one guessed its porcine history.

Having a single bedroomed outhouse worked well, but last year it felt right that it be enlarged. Providing guests with two rooms rather than one should make life easier all round. Also, as Rohan and I get older, two rooms would offer us a convenient living space if one day we chose to sleep there instead of in the main house. The idea of having a ground-floor flat-plus-verandah directly overlooking the garden and with no stairs to climb was very attractive! 

We did eventually get our planning permission and this was thanks first to our discovery of a detailed and signed ‘unofficial’ plan of our property, and second to our capacity to manoeuvre through the infamous mire of French bureaucracy. 

The recently-discovered plan had been given to us when we bought the house. In order to sell the building and its land, the then owners had commissioned for potential buyers a detailed plan which included the outhouse. Fortunately the plan was drawn by, and accredited to, a highly respected géomètre (surveyor) and in France being a géomètre is very highly rated; so while these plans were only a second-order piece of documentary evidence they made all the difference.

Now to the bureaucracy with all its twists, turns and ‘traps’. Downloading the application form at home was impossible but by sitting next to Dominique in the Mairie and working with him on his computer, we ultimately managed to complete the form. However, even with his help, our form was returned three times because of errors or omissions! More was needed, and only after two visits to, and two phone conversations with the officer in a nearby town responsible for ‘House Extensions’, was everything done and permission to extend was granted. 

To ensure that this nonsensical position does not arise again, nearly a year ago Rohan wrote to other Departmental authorities asking that the cadastre for our property be changed to reflect accurately the layout of our land and buildings. 

Last week an official géomètre arrived, apologised for the delay, precisely measured our garden outhouse and that same evening sent us a copy of Finistere’s official cadastre with our outhouse included (see illustration). Our invisible outhouse bedroom on which we will be building an extension now exists on documents for all to see. We are delighted with the outcome and I imagine our Mairie will be happy too!

The illustration shows a photo of Section ZC of the updated ‘cadastre’ of our land as plots 326, 329 and 332. Our cottage is shown as the yellow block across the top of plot 329 and running over into plot 326. Our outhouse is the square yellow block just touched by the number 9 of the plot number 329. The new room will abut the outhouse and run for 4 metres into plot 332

For help with writing this blog, I would like to thank Dominique, Rohan and Vivien