De Blauwe Kachel

We are Gerrit Jan and Roeland, two brothers from a large family of five children. Ever since we were young, we travelled with our entire family, often during the autumn holidays, to Eastern France to enjoy the then still unexplored Jura. We often stayed in simple French hotels. Later, our parents took the step to buy a fantastic ‘fermette’ (French word for a small farm) in a hamlet about 60 km south of Besançon. That was more than 25 years ago and the fermette has remained in our family all that time. It is a wonderful base to get away from the hectic, busy life in the Netherlands and you can completely relax there. The house is characterized by simplicity. There is no luxury, no swimming pool and no central heating; the house is heated by two wood stoves. These wood stoves gave us the idea a while ago to do ‘something’ with it. We are both Francophiles, speak the language, have a base in France and find the old French, enamelled cast iron stoves a beautiful piece of brocante and industrial heritage. Within our French network we started looking for these types of stoves. We took them to the Netherlands, checked them thoroughly, replaced the mica (the panes in the stove) where necessary and carried out repairs if necessary. We also tested the stoves for use, of course. Safety comes first! The reactions in the Netherlands were overwhelming; the people we were able to make happy with a stove thought it was fantastic to bring a piece of French nostalgia into their home in this way.