I see a window, so presumably it is an outside wall. With the cost of energy these days you may wish to consider insulating the outside walls to reduce both heating and cooling needs.
If it’s an old French maison secondaire, particulalrly if in southern France(?) I don’t think that would be aesthetically desirable, nor possibly even very useful. Our stone house in the Lot Valley is about about 600 years old, but is warm in winter and cool in the summer
Some stone walls are better than others regarding heat transfer due to variances in the type of stone used, but they all benefit from being insulated to reduce said effect.
Having the stonework visible inside and out is just fine, if one is willing and able to pay the cost of having it look visually appealing.
I have a colleague with a house in the Lot, where by my recollection it can be stinking hot in summer and decidedly cold in winter. I also fully realise that different folks find different temperatures preferable inside their homes, and that most folks who come into our home remark how warm it is. (I come from a family of skinny blokes and find anything less than 21 deg during the day too cool for comfort.)
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okay so thought a follow up would be appreciated here as your collective wisdom, as ever, helped guide my thinking. i decided i liked the walls the way they were. in fact i’m going to simply repaint them to freshen things up. thus avoiding, what i am sure would have been a total disaster because it would have been an overeach on my part. instead i spent 3 happy days attacking my “garden”. i have begun whipping that into shape instead. so thank you to everyone for your advise. much appreciated.
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