Noticed a stain on paint in main gîte bedroom at the weekend - of course not before the people left so couldn’t ask about it.
It looks oily, although dry, so worry it would seep through new paint. And of course we have none of this paint left as company went bust. It’s a clay paint. So even if we could colour match the texture and surface would be different. And it’s a big room with high ceiling so nor repainting the lot.
But it bugs me, and I want it gone. But how?
Lovely room! I think this is a pretext so that all of us will want to come and stay with you! 
I know it can be a bit naff, but could you disguise it with stick on images (eg butterflies in different sizes) one over the stain and then scatter a few more randomly up the wall?
Given the wood theme in the room, could you find shapes in wood for a less twee look than butterflies? Our local Centrakor does quite nice wooden letters.
Stick a no smoking (or no sex🤣) sign over it
Is it worth dabbing on a teeny bit of e.g. lemon juice? As you say it does look a wee bit oily…
I would dab on alcohol from a brico or supermarket. It would dilute any oil and evaporate it, may take a couple of dabs.
It might be worth adding a generous spread of bicarbonate of soda - it’s very good (but not very fast) at drawing oil out of absorbent surfaces.
If it’s oily or waxy try gently dabbing a solvent with cotton buds - nail varnish remover’s powerful but cheap and readily available.
When nothing more is coming off seal it with thinned down PVA. After that several ways of touching it up. Ideally to get the matt finish I’d use a combo of a couple of Caran d’ache pencils and spit, but that’s me. However, good art shops sell individual watercolour pencils by them and other manufacturers, as well as the expensive boxed sets. They’re good because they’re matt, quite opaque and very controllable/precise.
Please let us know how you get on - I’m always grateful for suggestions for easy repair work that doesn’t need a whole repaint (or whatever).
Especially in French Brico’s Acetone.
Wouldn’t dare assume that @JaneJones uses nail varnish, but OTOH it’s a common and unusually inexpensive item in many ladies’ arsenals of powders, creams, potions and liquids.
Plus some women (like the one to whom I’m married) hate going into brico stores -
“I’d rather wait in the car.”
Assuming it’s oil then in days of old when men were bold and ozone hadn’t been invented I would have said carbon tetrachloride or 1,1,1-trifluoroethane on a pad, held against the stain, then repeated with clean solvent.
These days - acetone is certainly a possibility (can be bought in 1l bottles from most spermarkets or brico’s) or MEK( Butanone), or lighter fluid, or IPA (that’s iso-propyl alcohol, not India Pale Ale).
An essential clarification -as the two aren’t very interchangeable
Re the latter I’ve recently found a very good American style sports bar in Rodez (that I’ve posted on before) which has a superb Cailfornian IPA, but one has ask for it in French which sounds so weird - un demi de ɛ̃dja pal alə Californienne SVP
Oh dear! Does look like something oily. Not knowing what exactly caused the stain is a challenge.
I would try holding a flat folded paper towel over the stain and ironing that with a hot iron. The heat should draw most of the oil into the absorbent paper towel.
If the mark still shows before reaching for acetone I’d try white vinegar with a Q-tip followed by a touch up if necessary with Caran d’Ache watercolour pencils in lieu of the discontinued paint. Vinegar will strip paint less than acetone but I second the recommendation of keeping a set of Caran dAche pencils because they really are easy to control and useful for all manner of touch ups. (A little brush is included with the set so no spit needed!)
Like you, I couldn’t just leave the stain.
Or good old fashioned Xylene. 
Carcinogenic? What was that you said??
I have IPA as it’s very good for removing white mites from cacti without damaging them. Will try that on Saturday at next changeover. And then see what that results in the week after.
I also have a box of caran d’ache pastels.
We await the ‘after’ pics with eager anticipation! 
There are a number of advantages that clay paints offer. For instance they are breathable paints which are ideal for going over lime plaster. Consequently they either need to be sealed with a glaze to prevent stains or left as is to be breathable. Once stained the only option is to touch up with some more paint. Using anything else will only make the stain/mark worse as this will in turn be absorbed by the paint… There are still a number of companies that produce clay paints, it might be worth getting the nearest colour match and mixing with another colour to get a more exact match.
Welcome back, @Rik_Newell and thank you from the bottom of our collective heart for that sage counsel. I hope you can forgive my cynicism.
@JaneJones , I found this. I don’t know if it’s available in France. Rik might even give advice on whether it’s likely to be of use.
