Right folks, need your collective wisdom. I am going to manually start removing the white lime paint & mortar from the inside walls of my teeny tiny french house. See picture. Yes I know I could buy a drill bit & do it in less time but I am not going down that route. So, for those of you who have done it manually what advise would you me ref tools. I’m off on Tuesday to Bricolage to buy a club hammer & chisel. I have googles & mask & suit as I know it’s going to be super dusty. Any final thoughts before I get stuck in? My builder has already hammered a small test patch & it looks fine. What pearls of wisdom can you offer me? I’m just outside Lalinde in the Dordogne in case anyone want to come and help me 
Or alternatively can recommend anyone local in the scenario where it’s just not feasible for me ?
Good luck doing it by hand. If I were you, I’d invest in a compressor and an air chisel, makes life so much easier. A 50 litre compressor is just about good enough and can be bought for about €100. Air chisel and hose about another 50.
I would use an SDS drill in hammer only action with a chisel bit.
We removed render from a whole house. I wouldn’t even consider doing it by hand.
SDS is good for the tough bits but can get quite heavy after a few minutes.
As a matter of interest, why are you removing it?
A small SDS would be fine not a demolition tool.
My first thought when I saw it!
Same thoughts here - in fact I wouldn’t mind all of our house having walls like that!
I’m interested to hear about your progress once you start as I’m considering similar. Would you re-render the walls?
I would also like to know why you are removing the existing wall covering ?
What is the ultimate end result that you wish to achieve ?
On a cautionary note, you may wish to consider why someone went to the time, trouble, and expense of putting the existing mortar in place on what I assume is probably a stone wall.
Possibly over whitewashed losing some of the charm and character?
I have used an air powered needle scaler to great effect with less damage to the surrounding stone. You can get these as an electric drill attachment now but not tried that version.
Now you’ve all got me thinking. I was going to remove it hoping to reveal the original stone wall underneath. The house hasn’t been lived in for a very long time and I wanted to get the stuff off in the first place to assess the stone. Let the building breathe a bit, if that makes sense. And then yes ironically I might repoint and replaster but only if the stone wasn’t up to much which I know from the outside isn’t the case as it’s beautiful. Now I’m doubting myself!
It does make sense frances, it’s obviously not a damp wall as the white (paint?) would be peeling off especially as you said it’s been lived in for some time.
If this is a simple rural house then the stone may well be a closer relation to rubble than beautifully dressed stone. And if it’s lime mortar (chaux) will be breathing quite happily.
If you want to remove cement mortar we have a house full of it and you and your chisel would be very welcome!
thank you! I feel better now. reading your comments
Mmmm if you replaster ironically if not the traditional mix, you might actually introduce breathing problems that aren’t there now.
And as @JaneJones says, no guarantee that internal walls have the same quality of stone.
I’d do a tiny non-obvious piece by hand first to see, if I really must.
But personally I’d not touch it.
Are you the NZ Frances btw?
There seems to be a piece missing just above the stove for closer inspection, maybe a close up on that part?
Thanks for your response. I’m rethinking my approach based on the consummate wisdom from you all. No I’m the UK Frances 
Ha ha ironically that’s the test patch I did with my builder. I think I am going to let him advise me. Think I might do more harm than good
Please check he knows about old buildings. We have acquired a house with big damp problems that was “renovated” in the 70’s with massive amounts of concrete. However both gable ends had been taken back to the original stone very recently and we thought at least that would be ok. But no, as the builder had used concrete mortar not line mortar. All that effort for very little!