This chateau was built in the early 19th century with a Palladian design. It was designed by Joseph-François de Champeaux, a member of France’s Corps des Mines group of elite engineers and a renowned scientist, known for his discovery of the mineral autunite. The edifice’s architecture, inspired by the works of its designer in the Alps following Napoleon Bonaparte’s victorious Battle of Marengo, embodies the neoclassical ideal of leisure properties at its time of construction. You reach it via a discreet lane that winds through meadows and forests and leads to only two properties. Three separate entrances lead into the estate. Two take you to the farm court and a third takes you to the chateau court, around which a series of outbuildings stand, including a chapel that adjoins the chateau’s central section. On the west side, there is a greenhouse, an orangery, a gardener’s dwelling, a well, the remains of the enclosing walls of a vast kitchen garden, and, further away, a caretaker’s dwelling. On the east side, there is an outer court. It is separated by an enclosing wall and a simple timber gate. Its northern edge is demarcated by a long garage made up of former stables, carriage shelters and a coachman’s dwelling. To the south-east, there is a corner building that houses a coop, a hutch and storerooms. There is a well that can be used to draw water. A double timber gate, framed between two towers used as storehouses, leads to the farm court. Two separate entrances take you to the estate’s farm complex, which completes the series of buildings with several distinct constructions: a huge barn, a cowshed, a stable, a kennel, a dwelling and a cottage. The property has been uninhabited for several years and needs large-scale renovation. Such a restoration project would involve all building trades, including roofing, timber framework, masonry, electrics, plumbing, heating, sanitation, and window and door frame building.

Le chateau

The chateau has a rectangular central section with a cellar, a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor in the roof space. The edifice is crowned with a hipped slate roof embellished with a crest. Two slightly protruding towers adjoin the central section on each side. Each one is also crowned with a hipped roof with a crest. An east wing extends at a right angle and closes the court. It has a first floor and a loft, as well as a cellar. It is crowned with a gabled slate roof. The court-facing elevation displays a symmetrical arrangement. The towers can barely be seen from the court. The central section has French windows in the middle, framed between two large windows. It sets the layout of the windows in the upper floors. These windows, fitted with wooden louvred shutters, get smaller and smaller as you go up through the levels, which are underlined with stringcourses. A bull’s-eye window and two small semi-circular openings, on the first and second floors, punctuate this elevation too. The east wing has six evenly spaced bays, which include French windows on the ground floor and a false window on the first floor. The south-facing facade, brought out by its two side towers, looks out at the grounds through five bays of windows fitted with wooden shutters. In the middle of the ground floor there are three sets of arched French windows. Two stringcourses underline the upper floors, where there are windows that get smaller and smaller as you go up through the levels. These windows are fitted with wooden shutters.

The ground floor
The main entrance door faces the court. It leads into a vast hallway with a floor tiled in a pink-and-white checked pattern. This hall connects to the rooms. On the right, there is the main oak staircase. This U-shaped staircase has a wrought-iron balustrade with an oak handrail. Three internal windows punctuate a wall that separates a service corridor running alongside the reception rooms. This corridor leads to several storerooms and takes you to an office with wood strip flooring that connects to a small lounge. Four connecting reception rooms facing the grounds then follow. There is a reading room, which has a large-paned double window with a wrought-iron guardrail, wood strip flooring, dado panelling, a black marble Louis XVI style fireplace and oak bookshelves. It connects to the office, the corridor and a large lounge. The latter is filled with natural light from two sets of arched French windows with large panes, fanlights and indoor shutters. Its parquet flooring is patterned with a trompe-l’œil of bottomless cubes. The room has a black marble Louis XVI fireplace and floral mouldings. Two double doors take you to the corridor and hallway. A third one takes you to the small lounge. The latter has a third set of arched French windows and a floor of chevron parquet. Its ceiling is embellished with geometric mouldings. Lastly, there is a dining room with a large-paned double window with a wrought-iron guardrail. The room has dado panelling, a black marble Louis XVI style fireplace and a floor with a black-and-white checked pattern. This dining room connects to the corridor and a pantry. The hallway also connects to a summer lounge via an imposing, glazed, arched doorway that makes the room feel like a conservatory – an impression underlined by mosaic flooring and foliage frescoes. This room leads to the pantry and to service rooms in the east wing, via a secondary corridor with a floor of hexagonal terracotta tiles. Here, there is also a flight of oak backstairs with a wrought-iron balustrade and an oak handrail. Further on, there is a secondary hallway. It has a floor of stone tiles and can be reached from the court via French windows. It connects to a kitchen and to a bathroom with a tiled floor patterned with black square inserts. The kitchen offers a view of the main court and the outer court. It has a floor of square terracotta tiles and a large stone fireplace. It connects to a utility room, a scullery and the rear entrance hall. It also leads to a secret staircase that takes you up to the first floor.

The first floor
The first floor mirrors the ground-floor layout of connecting rooms, with an ordered arrangement of spaces. The main landing connects to a storeroom filled with natural light from two internal windows. You reach a corridor via a vaulted passageway. This corridor has a floor of hexagonal terracotta tiles. It runs alongside the bedrooms and leads to the west tower. This tower houses a shower room and a bedroom that looks out at the grounds. The bedroom has a black marble Louis XVI fireplace, dado panelling, marquetry flooring and a private shower room. Beyond it, there are two extra rooms and a back bedroom. They face the grounds and feature black marble Louis XVI fireplaces and indoor shutters. Each bedroom has parquet flooring with its own distinct motif. The corridor continues to the backstairs and the east tower, in which there is a bedroom with a view of the grounds and farm complex. This bedroom has a marble fireplace, herringbone parquet and a private shower room with a mosaic floor. Next, there is a bathroom and a lavatory. A hidden staircase leads to the east wing, where there is a vast room with a view of the main court and the outer court. It has a floor of hexagonal terracotta tiles, a fireplace, a loft space and a brick chimney flue. Backstairs lead up to the second floor.

The second floor
The second floor is limited to the central section and the towers. A central corridor with a floor of hexagonal terracotta tiles runs across it lengthways. A series of internal windows distributes natural light from both sides. Bedrooms are spread out on either side of the corridor. Some face the court on the north side. Others face the grounds on the south side. This second floor also has a storeroom, a lavatory and six rooms of varying sizes. Two of these rooms have fireplaces. Some of them have terracotta-tiled flooring and others have wood strip flooring. The west tower houses a spacious room with a floor of terracotta tiles and exposed roof beams. From here you can admire a view of the grounds and the kitchen garden.

The outbuildings

The chapel
A chapel adjoins the west tower. It is a simple, single-storey building. It has a hipped slate roof crowned with a belltower. You enter the chapel through an arched double door beneath a fanlight of red and blue stained glass. Two side windows opposite each other, shaped similarly to the door, fill the chapel with natural light through their colourful panes. The vaulted ceiling is decorated with mouldings with floral motifs. It looks down at the sacred space. On the walls, there are the remains of frescoes with stars and crosses in circles. A wooden altar, positioned on the south wall, faces the entrance. Behind it, a niche in the wall houses a crucifix.

The gardener's house
A gardener’s house lies to the west and stands in parallel to the chateau’s east wing. Its structure is simple, with a ground floor upon a cellar. The rectangular building is crowned with a gabled slate roof. The elevation that faces the chateau has four openings positioned symmetrically: two windows framed between two French windows at the ends. The French windows lead straight to the two rooms that form the dwelling. Basement windows bring natural light into the cellar and aerate it.

The orangery
The remains of an old orangery lie at a right angle to the gardener’s dwelling. The orangery’s south elevation, punctuated with four arched glazed openings with fanlights, recalls the chateau’s architectural style. With the collapsed roof and broken glazing, nature has taken over the structure. Beside it lies a dilapidated greenhouse. This greenhouse has a stone base beneath a metal frame, in which a few glass panes remain intact here and there. You enter the greenhouse from a side door. A wooden door leads to the orangery.

The garage
The garage has a row of five semi-circular openings above as many archways. Three of these bays have wooden double doors. The spaces inside were once used to store carriages and to house horses. These spaces have kept their stone floors and their hayracks on the walls. The garage’s upper level is a vast loft space that was once used to store hay and grains. A coachman's dwelling adjoins the building’s south elevation. It has a first floor that you reach via a timber staircase.

The henhouse
This building lies at an obtuse angle. It closes the outer court on the south and east sides. It is made up of several storerooms, including a pig shed and a henhouse with an arched opening with wire mesh. A side door, beneath a semi-circular opening, recalls the architectural style of the other outbuildings. In front of the building, there is a well, from which water can be drawn.