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In the hall to the primary bedroom, Venetian plaster walls radiate light. Antique table from Chateau Domingue. Historic Belgian doors found in Round Top. Above the bed, Christy's canvas bears a quote from a cherished book, Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa, which references the author's belief about the connectedness of all things. dynastic Asian landscape master. "What's important to me is that my work is understood," Christy says. "It's about nature, but multilayered with ideas and deep meaning … The lines in this painting are a metaphor for energy." Covered stone arcades attached to the house lead to the McWhorters' respective spaces — Hal's office and Christy's studio. Contemplating the inspiration for their home, Christy says, "I had a vision. I was driving through the French countryside, and I loved some of the buildings." She pulls out a faded folder with photocopies of a chapter from a 2005 Taschen volume, Provence Interiors by Lisa Lovatt-Smith, clipped and carefully saved. The priory pictured in that book was restored by French executive Daniel Vial, who commissioned Anthony Ingrao, an American designer then living in Paris, to turn the early-medieval ruin in France's Luberon region into a rustic vacation retreat that was published in Architectural Digest in 2017. "I wanted it to be very serene and austere. I didn't want a lot on the walls. This is a country house. I preferred one large, very simple room." While there are no Provençal fields of lavender, bluebonnets and other rampant Texas wildflowers run wild. If the strains of Gregorian chants wafted from the walls, one would not be surprised. Dream achieved.