Since the 1970s · Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
We lay stone the way our father taught us.
SARL MASSE — structural masonry and restoration of old stone buildings in Annot, Méailles, Le Fugeret, Braux, Entrevaux and Peyresq. Three generations, two brothers, one standard.
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Earthworks
Cut into the ground, brought to level, trenches dug.
Who we are
A masonry business that chose not to grow.
We are two brothers, Olivier and Franck Masse. Our father, Jean-Denis, started the business with his own brother in the 1970s. We learned the trade on his sites, with his tools, and we never wanted to do anything else.
We do structural work: earthworks, foundations, walls, roofs, new houses. But what defines us is stone. Laying it, cutting it, bedding it — and above all, knowing how to rebuild an old house without leaving a trace that we were ever there.
We could have hired, taken on more sites, said yes to everything. We decided the opposite. Quality over quantity: that is what our father did, that is why people wait for us, and that is why they wait.
Three things to know
What we stand behind.
Stone
What stone asks for, and why few people still give it.
Old stone building topped with a new timber frame, autumn light.
01/03
01
An old building is repaired, not replaced.
A village house took two centuries to find its balance. We listen to it before touching it: where the damp comes from, which wall carries what, what moved and why. Only then do we open it up.
02
We rebuild a wall without leaving a trace.
That is our difference, and it does not show — which is exactly the point. The right stone, the original bonding pattern, mortar mixed to the colour of the valley. A year later, nobody can tell where the old work ends.
03
Everything else holds to the same standard.
Earthworks, foundations, slabs, frames, roofs, new houses: we do not lower the bar because the material changes. A clean site, true levels, and nothing we would be ashamed to show ten years later.
What holds us
Olivier and Franck Masse
Our craft
Watch a stone house go up, course after course.
From the first cut of the ground to the last tile, every stage has a reason to exist. We laid it out on a single page so you can see what you are paying for, and why it takes the time it takes.
Raising the stone walls
- Annot
- Méailles
- Le Fugeret
- Braux
- Entrevaux
- Peyresq
- Since the 1970s
Where we work
We work close to home. On purpose.
Two valleys: the Vaïre and the Var on one side, the Verdon on the other. Annot, Méailles, Le Fugeret, Braux, Entrevaux, Peyresq — and as far as Castellane, Beauvezer or Puget-Théniers when the job is worth it. Being twenty minutes away means we can go back in the evening when something is bothering us. More than an hour away, that stops being true.
- Annot
- Le Fugeret
- Braux
- Méailles
- Entrevaux
- Saint-Julien-du-Verdon
- Peyresq
- Puget-Théniers
- Saint-André-les-Alpes
- Thorame-Haute
- Castellane
- Beauvezer
Hover a commune to see the kind of work we do there, click for the full page. A project somewhere else? Call us and we will tell you honestly whether it works.
Lead times
Some of our clients wait three years.
We would rather say it now than after the quote. This is not manufactured scarcity: it is simply the number of sites two brothers can run without cutting corners on the finish.
Understand our lead timesIn brief
The essentials, in five sentences.
- 01
SARL MASSE is a family-run structural masonry business specialising in stone, based in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in south-eastern France.
- 02
It was founded in the 1970s by Jean-Denis Masse and his brother, then incorporated as a SARL on 22 January 1996 by his two sons, Olivier and Franck Masse, who run it today.
- 03
The business is at home in the Annot area and the upper Verdon, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and a little in the Alpes-Maritimes. That is not a boundary: it is simply where it works most often.
- 04
Its trades are the restoration of old stone buildings, stone and retaining walls, earthworks, structural masonry, roofs and the construction of new houses.
- 05
SARL MASSE has deliberately chosen not to grow further: its order book is full up to three years ahead.
You have a building, a wall, a project.
Tell us what you have in mind. We will answer honestly: what is possible, what is not, and how soon.
Or call us directly 04 92 83 26 05