Dear abbey: from New York City to a rustic village in France, a family use technology to swing a seasonal lifestyle

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1992 by Michael Rubiner

Brian Wood and Odile Rousseau have a living and working setup that many might envy. In the winter months, the couple live in a loft in Chelsea, in New York City. Come May, they're off to the picturesque Loire Valley village of Villeloin-Coulange, where they hole up until fall. It may sound like "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," but it's not quite that. Actually, Wood is a painter who's represented by the prestigious SoHo art gallery Lieberman and Saul, while Rousseau, who was born in France, runs a guest house built into the ruins of a medieval abbey. The two manage their binational, bilingual existence using a couple of computers, a pair of fax machines, and a few telephones. With this equipment, they are able to keep his art business and her guest-house business on track from either continent.

Wood and Rousseau met in Montreal while he was there for an exhibition. They got married and settled in New York, where Rousseau set up an art-framing business and Wood continued to paint. "We originally got the house in France in 1985 as a place for me to work, and we restored it," says Wood. "And since I was spending a great deal of time working in Villeloin, Odile decided that she wanted to have a business there as well."

When they found it, the place was a historical mosaic. "In France, buildings are constructed in layers over the centuries," Wood says. "The original abbey is from the ninth century. Our place is built into the ruins of the twelfth-century chapel area. In our cellars, there are eleventh'century Romanesque pillars and columns. So it's very ancient. The newest part of the house was built in the eighteenth century."

At first there was no electricity or plumbing. "It was really primitive country living," Wood recalls. After a laborious four-year restoration, Wood, Rousseau, and their four-year-old daughter, Sophie, moved into the restored abbey itself, where Wood maintains a large studio space. When they decided to open a guest house, they expanded the property; an adjoining house became La Pension de L'Abbaye. There are only four guest rooms, and many of the guests, says Wood, are "art-world people." Rousseau, who does most of the cooking for her visitors, advertises in The New York Times, but most people hear about the guest house through word of mouth. "It's a wonderful place, people love it, and she's a great hostess," Wood says. "So people recommend it to their friends." ar from feeling confused by her transcontinental life, Rousseau has found that her dual residency enhances her business. More than 70 percent of her guests come from the United States. Living in the States, she says, is "one of the secrets of the big success of my business. On my brochures I always leave an American phone number. They call New York and are totally delighted that I speak English. It's very reassuring to tourists that I know America. I know what Americans want--they want good beds, good towels."

Running two different businesses from two different residences in two different countries is also not the 1ogistical nightmare it might sound like. In France, Rousseau and Wood have set aside a room in the former abbey for an office. From there, they run both businesses and arrange for Wood's European as well as American shows. When they're in New York, they work out of an office Wood has built into their loft. He uses his computer to maintain his mailing list, to contact collectors and museums, and to keep track of exhibitions he's involved in; Rousseau helps manage his business, doing, as she puts it, "all the unglamorous stuff"--making slides and frames, following up with galleries, and the like. Rousseau also keeps in constant contact with an assistant in France and forwards much of her mail with a Toshiba 3750 fax. In February, Rousseau slides her disks into the computer and accesses her database of clients and prospective clients, booking reservations for the summer by phone and fax. "What makes this business a success is my welcome, of course," says Rousseau. "But the technology makes it so much easier to run the whole thing. It's perfect."

Wood would like to expand both offices: He wants to buy a Quadra for his New York studio and a PowerBook computer to carry to France and connect them by phone lines. "I use a Toshiba T1200 laptop over there, which isn't really adequate anymore," he says. "It's very rudimentary." There should be no problem outfitting the French office with up-to-the-minute technology, Wood says, because the abbey's renovation included rewiring.

Wood is hardly the garrulous type, but he perks up noticeably when you get him talking about France. "Villeloin-Coulange is a gorgeous little town. Only about 200 people live there," he says. "It has a broad range of economic and social groups--wine-making anstrocrats, professionals, farm laborers, and construction workers." When asked if he's ever tempted to miss his plane back to New York, he laughs and says, "Yes, very tempted. H1 always do business in New York--that's where the art world is. But we may shift the balance."