Issue date: February 02, 2000
By JANE KNOERLE
Living and working in the south of France sounds like the impossible dream. Not so for French stonemason Bernard Renaud. He prefers California.
"People here are more vigorous," he says through his translator, wife and partner, Linda Renaud. "They have a positive approach to work and life."
After living in the Bay Area for 15 years, Mr. Renaud has built a reputation as a stonemason extraordinaire. His clients include sports stars (Dwight Clark and friends), Silicon Valley bigwigs (John Sculley, onetime CEO of Apple), and a member of the rock group Metallica.
He sculpts fireplaces, fountains, balustrades, columns, tables, and statues, using limestone imported from France. Some of the stone comes from the quarry written about in Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence." Other limestone is imported from the quarry from which the Romans built the Pont du Gard 2,000 years ago.
The Renauds met and married in France 20 years ago. Mr. Renaud had moved from near Lyon to southern France, where he hoped to earn a living as an artist. Gradually stonework became his business, while he continued painting for pleasure. Linda Renaud, who is British, was in France to train and show horses.
Through the urging of a family friend, the Renauds moved to California 15 years ago to work for the owner of Guess Jeans, a Frenchman named Jeff Hamilton (Bohbot), who wanted a new stone front entry and balustrades for his Beverly Hills mansion.
During the project, the Renauds lived in a Beverly Hills apartment, with one of Mr. Hamilton's bodyguards on hand to babysit their 6-month-old daughter, Julie.
Deciding they liked California, the couple moved to the Bay Area in 1986. "Our work is more rustic than glitzy," noted Mrs. Renaud. Their stone yard, Stone Creations, has been located in Menlo Park since 1992.
Mr. Renaud prefers to speak French, despite going to Berlitz Language Center three times a week for a year in an effort to learn English. Linda Renaud cheerfully translates.
"I enjoy meeting clients and interpreting their needs; producing scale drawings and estimates," says Mrs. Renaud. "Then I hand the project over to Bernard for fine-tuning and production."
Stone Creations' yard is filled with stacks of limestone and marble in wooden crates. Handmade 150-year-old clay roof tiles are piled nearby. The tiles were used on the recently completed office building at 1600 El Camino Real in Menlo Park.
"When I was in the south of France, I saw these tiles stacked in a yard and brought two (weighing 6 pounds each) back in my briefcase," says Mr. Renaud. "When the architect saw them, he said, 'That's exactly what I wanted.'"
Most of Mr. Renaud's clients are by referral, but Linda and Jens Andreassen found him on the Internet. The Andreassens had a French country-style home in Virginia, but never found the right stone for their fireplace. They moved into their new Menlo Park home a few months ago, but didn't like the existing living room fireplace.
At Stone Creations, they chose their limestone, then waited several months for the fireplace to be completed. It was installed last week.
Floyd Gonella and his wife, Margaret Taylor, of Atherton, discovered Stone Creations through the Yellow Pages. "Floyd found them in the phone book after I'd been to stone yards in Sacramento twice and had looked everywhere," says Ms. Taylor. "Of all the things in this house, this (fireplace) took the most time."
The fireplace, which has two kinds of limestone, is the focal point of the couple's new kitchen and family room. They are also proud of the Rachel Bentley painting hanging above the mantel. It is one of seven Rachel Bentley paintings in their home.
Local real estate agent Tom Hilligoss and his wife, Kate, wanted their living room fireplace in time for Christmas. They gave the stonemason a drawing made by Kate's father, Mansfield Cleary. "We had a cherry wood mantel in here and it didn't look right," says Mrs. Hilligoss. The limestone fireplace with a granite surround and hearth fits into the style of their 2-year-old home.
Most of Stone Creations' fireplaces cost between $5,000 and $7,000. Installation is not included and runs another $800 to $1,200. "I can refer clients to a company experienced in installation, or work with the contractor on the project," says Mrs. Renaud. Completion time for most jobs is around four months, she says.
While California is now home, Mr. Renaud has not abandoned his native land. He traveled to France four times last year, and currently has one-man shows of his paintings in both Paris and Dijon. His art signature is "Renot."
Two-and-a-half years ago, the Renauds opened La Galerie Internationale, featuring French artists, on California Avenue in Palo Alto. On weekends Mr. Renaud often sets up his easel and paints in the gallery.
The Renauds also retain their French appreciation of fine food. Mr. Renaud's father owned a restaurant in Lyon. "We both cook like crazy," says Mrs. Renaud. "And, no matter what, we close up and go home for lunch every day from 1 to 2 p.m."
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