n the early 60s, the home of the Labrouche parents was the first to benefit from reusing 18^th-century door mouldings, terracotta tiling from Le Tâtre, and the overmantelpiece fireplaces that Saintonge is so richly endowed with (and that only Burgundy can match in all France).

Ten years earlier, in 1954, Michel and Line Labrouche, brimming with all the confidence of twenty-year-olds, had left it all behind: Paris, academic studies at the Ecole Normale, the triumphant 50s with its Formica and nylon shirts… everything.

Once they had set out on the artistic adventure of painting on porcelain initiated by Picasso at Vallauris, Line and Michel Labrouche were soon confronted with the reality of six young mouths to feed. Therefore they broadened their working palette to include buying old knick-knacks and bric-à-brac, furniture and architectural materials that in those days were no longer considered of any value by their owners. Their porcelain clients, generally well-to-do and cultured, and often based in Cognac, were the first to notice this salvage work by Michel and Line Labrouche.

These clients were also the first to buy stone entrances, flooring, old wells, and cornerstones from Line and Michel Labrouche…As well as asking where skilled craftsmen could be found who were capable of working with these old materials. Twenty years before authentic decoration became widely popular, Michel and Line Labrouche laid the foundations – between two batches of porcelain in the kilns – for a trade of the future inspired by the past.

Line Labrouche carried on her widely acclaimed work in painting on porcelain until her death in 2001. Her sons Mathias and Arnaud have continued to rescue from oblivion, and even from skips and tips, thousands of pieces from the cultural heritage of old Saintonge.