The ground floor

The entrance door leads into a hallway with a floor of terracotta tiles and a ceiling of exposed joists painted red and white. On the left, a grey-and-beige double door leads into a lavatory with a sculpted shell-shaped washbasin that has a copper animal-shaped tap. From the hall, a wooden staircase leads upstairs. Further on, a twin door hides a tiny room for equipment. Opposite, an imposing studded door draws attention to a bas-relief above it that depicts four chubby children around a lion lying down beside a basket overflowing with fruit. This scene, at once naive and symbolic, seems to mark the door into the kitchen as an entry into a sustaining, fertile place that is almost sacred in its everyday use. In this kitchen, a monumental medieval fireplace, with a bread oven integrated into the stonework and culinary accessories, tells the story of centuries of dishes concocted here for feasts in the chateau. On the right, a door of solid wood leads to the guards room, a vast, practical space cut into the rock and punctuated with arrow slits. Today, it serves as a utility room and workshop. Another grey door leads straight from the hallway to a first lounge with raw wood strip flooring laid in a chevron pattern. This flooring goes well with a large fireplace of black wood. Two tall small-paned windows bring in natural light, showcasing the hearth’s plate bearing a coat of arms. A finely sculpted double door leads to a dining room. In this dining room, the wood strip flooring alternates between pale strips and dark strips. A stone fireplace, a ceiling of painted joists, and cupboards hidden by a fresco of garlands, fruit and ears of wheat create a unique atmosphere. Pantries and storerooms complete this ground floor.

The garden

A rampart walk leads around the chateau, following its defensive walls. This path takes you all around the edifice’s immediate surroundings. To the left of the entrance track, an opening lower down leads to a swimming pool. This pool is T-shaped like two rectangles together. It is set in a stone surround, punctuated with darker stones, and is surrounded by a vast lawn. A spacious outhouse built against the embankment completes this delightful space. This spot’s landscaped ambience is unique. Around the pool, the vegetation is made up of Mediterranean and ornamental plants, including slender cypresses, palm trees, flowering oleanders and colourful hydrangeas. Lower down, clusters of perennials and various shrubs edge low dry-stone walls. From the garden, you can admire far-reaching views of the wooded valley, the trees in which form a green sea of hues that change with the changing light of the day. The pool, a gem set in greenery, is part of a separate – almost secret – haven, at once hidden by abundant vegetation and opened out to its surroundings, gazing out at the spectacular landscape. The combination of plants of different varieties, old stone walls and shadows cast by majestic trees creates a calm, refreshing atmosphere here.

The grounds

Beyond the enclosing walls and their immediate surroundings, the property covers around 15 hectares of land around the chateau. The dense, varied woods make up much of the estate. Oaks, maples and beeches dominate the environment, broken up with clearings where wild plants grow. Lower down, the land is structured into large plots that stretch over a gentle slope down towards the valley. The meadows, still used for livestock, neighbour fields with hedges that divide up the landscape. In this vast estate, the chateau towers as a central point of reference. From the higher ground, a breathtaking vista takes in the estate’s continuous scenery: a sweeping series of forests, pasture and crops, the diversity of which maintains both visual harmony and agricultural balance.