Welcome to Roquetaillade. We're situated, 35 minutes southeast from Bordeaux. I'm here to present you this family site where my family's been here for over 700 years. And behind me, well, the castle of Roquetaillade built in 1306. But in fact, at Roquetaillade there are two castles. Just behind you,there is a first castle, which was built by Charlemagne, the first European emperor in the eighth century. It was a wooden castle. Well, this wooden castle evolves with time, over a period of 600 years. Stone replaces wood. And you can imagine that every 50, 100 years, you add on new buildings, new towers, new defenses. Now, you might ask yourself, why is there a second castle? Well, in fact, this old castle has a big, big problem. There's no water, problem in case of siege or attack. I'll talk about sieges a bit later on in the visit. Second reason, Where did the money come from? Very simply, the owner's uncle gets elected Pope Clement, the fifth, the first French pope in Avignon. With this position, Clement can build for himself and his family, seven castles in the area, including the New castle of Roquetaillade for his nephew. Okay. Well just a few words of the new castle built in 1306. When you look at it, you say to yourself, Well, this doesn't look like a French castle. It looks more like an English castle. Well, there's an explanation to that. Bordeaux was English for 300 years. So in fact, the pope in 1306, when he wants to build this new castle, has to ask permission to the English king. That explains its shape and form. And in fact, in many movies, you find Roquetaillade in Great Britain, there's a film with Roger Moore where he plays a butler in a Scottish castle. It was all being filmed here. Apparently, Sir Roger hadn't paid his taxes correctly in England and couldn't work there anymore. So the director of the film, desperately looking for a Scottish looking castle found Roquetaillade in the Bordeaux region. Now, of course, when it's built, it's a military building. It has no windows. So you can imagine it's not particularly comfortable inside. But obviously you don't build this for comfort. You build this for defense. Now, as you can see today, the new castle of Roquetaillade has been transformed . To be very brief: End of the Middle Ages, peace comes back. The military building has no longer any function, so it's slowly transformed into a house. 16th century: The first floor is opened up and 19th century, the ground floor is opened up. Now, how do you do that? Very simply, you punch out the arrowslits, you put in windows and you bring in light, heat and comfort into the building. To do the work in the 19th century, the family of Roquetaillade call upon one of the most famous French architects of the day, Eugene Viollet Le Duc, and say in English, Viollet Le Duc. Now, you might not know him, but you do know his work. He's the head of the Gothic revival movement in France. He saves us about every single medieval building in France. Notre-dame of Paris, Carcassonne, Vezelay, Mont-saint-michel, Hospicess de Beaune, etcetera. Viollet Le Duc does not touch the outside of the building, but creates unique decorations will be discovering in a few minutes. But before we go to the castle, we're going to visit the medieval chapel. It's the last building left of the village. It dates from the 12th century, its Romanesque style. That's round arches. You know, Gothic art are broken. And in 1865, when Viollet-le-Duc comes to Roquetaillade he's going to work on this chapel. But like the castle, he does not touch the exterior. But inside creates some of the most beautiful decorations we have today in France. So let's go and see this. I'll show you my car keys afterwards. Now, isn't this extraordinary? Contrast between a very simple outside chapel and inside. Look at all this amazing decoration. Viollet-le-Duc in the chapel of Roquetaillade, for some amazing reason, mixes up Christian and Muslim arts. And in fact, if you look at this ceiling, you have the impression of seeing Aladdin's magic carpet. All decorated in geometrical shapes and forms. Painted in very vivid colors. And in fact, this chapel has never been restored in 160 years. And the colors are so fresh and amazing. You have the impression it was finished yesterday. Lamps you might find in a mosque. And they're the mashrabia. What you find in the sultan's harem. As you know, the Sultan and many wives. No one could see them. So they were hidden behind this type of screening. So all this creates the most wonderful traveling in time and in space. And even if this chapel has never been restored, we have just started a restoration campaign because as you can see behind the altar, there's a lot of work to be done. All the decorations have been lost through water infiltrations, and we've just covered the outside of the cupola with copper. And after 1 or 2 years drying, normally we'll be putting back all the decorations. And then afterwards a grand spring cleaning. Because this chapel has never been touched, as I said, in 160 years. But look all these colours now, why are these colours so wonderful? Well, Duke was using medieval techniques of painting natural pigment and egg white, and it's the egg white which gives the softness and the vibrations to the colours. Now this chapel, obviously, we live in the castle all year long. We use it for weddings, christenings and burials to remember. You say march, hatch and dispatch. The dispatching is done in the crypt underneath your feet, accessible from the exterior. Now, maybe just a few words of this baptismal font. Now, on the top, there's a design. It's a poly lobe, poly in Greek. Many lobe, like your ear lobe. This poly lobe reflects the tin cupolas above your head and the design is reused on the floor tiles which are made out of cement. Well, Viollet-le-Duc was a modern man. He was using the latest inventions of his time, and cement tiles were invented around 1860. And today they're coming really back in fashion in France. Okay. I talked about sieges or attacks of castles in the beginning of the visit, so I'm going to explain to you how it really happened in the Medieval ages. Let's go. Well, a few words about the new castle. 1306. Now for its defense in those days. We are. Don't forget, we are in the inside the town walls, which went right around the building, instead of these chains was a wall of the fence. And the moat behind me has never contained any water. So, in fact, it's a dry moat or should you say a ditch. And that explains the presence along the wall over there of a tunnel. What's this tunnel doing here? Very simply, in case of siege or attack, the whole village would move into the building for protection. In 1306, this little bridge did not exist. Instead, on the wall of the castle was a hidden door called a postern, which permitted in case of siege or attack to discreetly slide down to the dry moat, get to the tunnel and eventually go and fetch help. Now, I talked about sieges a bit earlier on in the visit, and I'm sure you've all seen Hollywood films which show the attack of the Castle in Medieval Ages. And what you see is that at the final assault, what do you do? You get a ladder, you put against the wall, you climb up and wave your sword. Tally-ho. Well, unfortunately, it rarely worked that way. You didn't take Castle by force. You took a castle by time. Siege in French also means a seat. So when you siege the castle, you sat around it. You did a blockade, and you waited. You waited for what? For food, political or water problems inside. And I said to you, the old castle had no reliable source of water. So, in fact, the new castle is built around a vital well. A siege could last over years. So you can imagine if you have no water inside, it's just impossible to survive. Now we're going to do a quarter of a turn and go to the main entrance and we're here at Roquetaillade. What does it mean? It means carved in the rock. So if you look at the base of the walls of the new castle, you can see the limestone rock base on which both castles are built on. Let's go. Just a few words before we go inside the new castle of Roquetaillade. A few words about this facade. In 1306, there's only one entrance to a military building which seems logic. It's defensive. And since it's the weak point that explains four towers defending the weak point behind me, the drawbridge normally goes up here. It's a drawbridge. It falls into the moat in case of siege or attack. And if the attackers manage to get past the drawbridge at the door above their head, two defensive systems. First, the break back hole. You throw stones on the attackers, never boiling oil. That's only for Hollywood films. And the second hole is for the emplacement of the wooden grille portcullis. Portcullis is a French word, which means a running door. So this wooden grille would come down and stop people coming in and out of the castle. Now, if you look at this facade and you make abstraction of maybe one, two, three, four windows, replace them in your imagination with the original arrowslits, it gives you a very good idea of what all four sides of the castle look like. So, as I said, not very comfortable inside and talking about comfort between the two left towers, you have a little stone cabin. It's the cabinet of ease. You understand? Siege toilets, obviously, in case of a siege, you couldn't go outside and do certain very important things. So the toilets were fixed on the outside walls, protected in stone, and everything would fall into the moat to keep the inside of the castle clean. So this little stone cabin is not part of the castle's military defense. So as I said in 1306, when the new castle is built, there were no windows. And in fact, the only windows existing on the castle when it's built are the two little windows at the top of the keep. They were the Lords private quarters. The last place you defended in case of siege or attack. In other words, underneath these windows in this courtyard, there was absolutely nothing. No doors. No windows. Just a series of arrow slits on the first level. Obviously, this is another defensive system because, in fact, the entrance to the castle was hidden on the left. Imagine you're attacking the castle. You arrive here, blind courtyard. Where do you go? By the time you understood, you had to go that way, well, obviously you would have received a few arrows. Before we continue, let's go and see what where this entrance is and what a medieval room looked like in those days. So you'll really understand the lack of comfort in these military buildings. So this is a medieval arrowslit. An English one. An English one why? Because with this arrowslit, you could have two soldiers on each side taking turns to shoot arrows through the arrow slit. So on the outside, as I said, it's a very thin on the inside it widens up. And what you've got to know is that a good marksman out of ten arrows outside, he could put at least 1 or 2 inside. So it was pretty dangerous here, even if you were protected by the walls. Now, all the rooms in medieval ages were like this. Bare rooms. And here, in fact, you have. You have the entrance to the medieval castle. This entrance was the only door to access the base of the keep. And as you can see today, it's been blocked up. And I'll explain why we go back to the courtyard. So back in the courtyard. Well, as you can see, it's changed since the medieval ages. Their doors and windows. Well, this is part of Viollet-Le-Duc's program in the 19th century transformed this medieval building into a house with a minimum of comfort. So he uses the medieval windows at the top of the keep to open up all the windows in this courtyard, replacing the original arrowslits. And he opens up all these doors you have all around and closes the medieval entrance we just saw a few minutes ago. In other words, from the gargoyles to the ground, it's the work of Viollet-Le-Duc. The gargoyles. I'm sure you've seen those at Notre-Dame of Paris. Those monsters jutting out from the keep. Now they have two functions. First function, evacuation of rainwater and in fact, gargoyle in old French means throat. But they also have a second function. I don't know if you have them at home, but they have monsters heads. It's to protect the military building against evil spirits. The monsters heads are supposed to frighten them and you shoo them off to the neighbor's castle. I don't know if it worked, but anyway, Roquetaillade was never attacked in 700 years. And if you've been to Notre-Dame de Paris, Viollet Le Duc restored The cathedral covered it with chimeras, monsters and gargoyles. Just below the gargoyles, a pair of swans at the emblem of the family, Le Blanc de Mauvezin, Le Blanc in English: White, family emblem, white swans, which would be repeated in the castle where Viollet-le-Duc works. Above the doorway, Viollet-le-Duc puts the heads of the owners, medieval tradition to welcome the guests. And since he worked here for ten years, he does not forget himself. He puts his own head on the left on the same level as the owners. Well, you might think that's a bit pretentious, but in fact, that was the way medieval architects signed their work. So we're going to go to the keep. As I said, the medieval entrance on the left was blocked by Viollet Le Duc in the 19th century, and he creates this new access to get to it. Let's go. So we hit the base of the keep. And as I said, the access to this keep in 1306 is on this wall on the left as we come in. And in medieval times, there was absolutely nothing here, just a ladder which permitted the access to the first floor. Obviously, this is another defensive system. In case of siege attack, you could pull up the ladder, close the door and defend yourself from the first level. All these castles built by the family of the pope Clement V, their system of defense happens on the first level. So to take the castle, in fact, you have to access it. In 1865 when Viollet Le Duc arrives at Roquetaillade. Well, obviously this latter does not suffice. It's a bit complicated. So he creates this staircase. On the first landing, you have the Swan's emblem of the family. Swan on the right, holding Mr. crest and swan on the left, holding his wife's crest. Now, if she's represented by cows, it's nothing to do with her character. Okay? It's her maiden name. She was called Galard de Béarn. And in Béarn you have a breed of red cows, as you can see on the coat of arms. On top of these pillars, vine leaves to remind you the richness of the Bordeaux region. And behind this pillar on the left, there is a bat. What's he doing here? Viollet-le-Duc considered you should use nature as a model for architecture. So if you look at the structure of the bat's wings, you have the structure of the Gothic vault above us. And today, in modern architecture. When architects talks about the structure as a skeleton. Well, this idea comes from Viollet Le Duc in the 19th century. Opposite the bat, there is a monkey. Let's go and see him. It's a message left by Viollet-le-Duc to future workers at Roquetaillade. The monkey was the nickname you gave to the apprentice, who climbs up and down the scaffolding to bring equipment to his master. Here, the monkey is eating an apple symbolizing his satisfaction. The house is good. Good food, good people. And, of course, well paid. If your luck had been badly received here, he probably or most certainly would have put a monkey either pulling a face or even scratching his bottom. This is what you call medieval communication. Don't forget, in medieval times, people did not know how to read. So communication is visual. Viollet-le-Duc uses this idea when he does his restoration works in France and also here in the castle of Roquetaillade. When you think of it, the new generation living just on their screens. We're going back to the Middle Ages. Let's go upstairs. Just a few words of this lantern put in in the 19th century by Duke. It's absolutely a masterpiece of work. Absolutely beautiful. It weighs a 350 kilos and it's oil fired. So obviously, you have to change the oil once in a while inside. So it's so heavy in the room above. There's a whole system of weight and counterweight to be able to bring it down, fit it up and put it back up again. On it, you can see the swans of the family. Also, Vine leaves between the swans to remind you of the richness of the Bordeaux region. And if you look at the feet of the lantern, you see the pope staff in memory of Pope Clement, the fifth who financed the castle in the medieval ages. So Rockdale has been in the family for 700 years, so you can imagine it's continual work. Roofs, the chapel we've just started. But there's also a grand project we started nearly eight years ago in the Great Hall. So let's go and see this. So we're here in the largest room of the castle, the Synod Hall. So what's a synod? In fact, it's a reunion of churchmen. Oral tradition says that in the Middle Ages, Pope Clement VII had reunions here. But, of course, don't forget, there were no windows, just arrowslits. And at the back of the room, a very primitive medieval chimney. So, you know, gothic or should I say medieval ambiance. You're in the dark. But that's how you live. In those days, the medieval chimneys destroyed and replaced by the one of the first Renaissance chimneys of the Bordeaux region. It dates from 1599 and still has its original painting on it, which is rather rare. You can imagine that's the first thing which disappears in wars, occupations and revolutions. This painting tells a story of Hercules, one of his 12 labors. You all know Hercules. You've seen your Walt Disney here. He's killing the hydra of Learn. It's a multi-headed dragon. Every time you cut a head off, three heads would be growing. That's why he's helped by his nephew, who's dressed in red, who's burning the. The tips to stop the regrowth. Now, you might ask yourself, well, why do you put Hercules on your chimney? Why not the head of the king? Well, there's a very good reason to that 1599, The 30 previous years had been civil war in France. Very violent, nasty stuff. So, in fact, Hercules has the advantage of being politically neutral. It's as if I ask you, what would you like on your chimney? Hercules, Joe, Donald or someone else? Well, my American visitors, they all tell me Hercules will satisfy family and friends alike and avoid problems at home. As you can see in this room, there's scaffolding, work in progress. And in 2014, we started the most exciting operation in Rockford we've ever done. Put in place a decoration imagined by 160 years ago. I come and show you this. In the 19th century, the Duke had a project for this room presented on these two watercolours. Obviously, in those days you didn't have Google Internet faxes or whatever or numeric cameras. So the projects were always presented by painting. And these paintings by Duke are most extraordinary and present to us what he had imagined a whole architectural decoration and running around the room, a frieze or giant cartoon representing a banquet in honour of the Pope. Clement the Fifth. Unfortunately, this project never started because around 1870, in Bordeaux, there is the phylloxera illness in the vineyard. No wine production, no money, no work. That is why eight years ago we decided on the basis of these two watercolours to put in place the Duke's medieval dream in this room. And since 2015, three of the ceilings have been finished. The under the arcs have been finished and we have just started the fourth ceiling, which should be terminated in a few months time. Hopefully in the next few years we will be able to put in place this cartoon with the 100 figures running all around the room, feasting at the banquet of Pope Clement. To talk about this work is rather complicated because it's not a restoration. It's not a creation and it's not a restitution. It's a bit of all three in a sense, because obviously the two watercolours, you don't have all the stories. You don't have all the ceilings. Here there are only nine people and there should be hundreds of them. And on the other watercolour, we don't have all the information either. We only have the facade of the chimney. We don't have the other side. So we do have to do a lot of creation. And this is where it gets quite fun at. Rock Did you look for details in other rooms to see what you could have put in place? Rock. So in fact, you become a little modest. Duke. So let's go and see some of the work we're doing at the moment. We don't know what Viollet Le Duc had in mind, but this is our translation of what he thought. The first three ceilings. You can imagine you're under a medieval tent. At a banquet. And under this fourth ceiling, you become you come outside. So to create the ceiling, we have to invent something transparent, something light to have the impression that the sky is shining through the ceiling. So these are the models we've been working on for the last few months. Models which create a sense of transparency, a structure, and then an organic lace representing vine leaves. And in fact, if you look at the floor, the sun shining through the windows, you have the same red surrounding which you can have here. So you imagine you place this transparent light on the ceiling and this gives volume and light to this medieval castle. Now let's talk a bit about Viola. So we saw the big hole, which is work in progress. But on the ground floor, he creates, well, all this staircase around us, plus a few rooms and just a few words of this staircase at the bottom of which he places this fountain. And what's this fountain doing here? Very simply, it transforms the medieval stables into 19th century dining room. So obviously, you wash your hands before going to the table. Behind the stone, a reservoir you fill up from above to make the whole system function and to symbolically protect the water in the fountain. Viollet Le Duc puts two aquatic monsters on the left, a male mermaid with a little smile, as if to welcome the guests. And on the right more worrying the Basilisk. I don't know if you know the Basilic, but if you read your classics, Harry Potter number two, you have him there, an animal, mythological animal with the head of a cock tail of a fish supposed to live in the in wells in the medieval ages. But what's even more interesting is this painting just behind me. Now, what people do not know is that the Duke is the father of Art Nouveau, father of Gaudi, of Barcelona, OTA of Brussels, Guimard of Paris. You know, the metro stations all in movement. Well, all these great art Nouveau artists plunge into Viollet Le Duc's work. And if you look at this frieze, it's probably the first example of art Nouveau in Europe is in this medieval castle in Bordeaux. Now, the link between Art Nouveau, which is 1900s, and medieval art. You can understand it by looking at this. Both are based on three things movement, color and nature. And the colors of this painting are so fresh and vibrant, you really have the impression that it was finished just two days ago. Now imagine it's lunchtime. Well, if you go to the dining room. Well, obviously, we have to wash our hands before going to the table. So imagine this room. 1306 The stables. Horses smell of horse manure. Of course, no windows were in the total dark. Just arrowslits. This is what Duke finds in the 19th century. So obviously, what's he going to do? He's going to break the arrow, puts in windows and brings in light into this room and transforms it. His decoration above your head. He uses a typical medieval design folded napkins. But look at the amazing colors he uses. Very modern for the 19th century. Greens, oranges, yellows and a mauve at the back, which is absolutely fabulous. Now on the walls. He doesn't have his designs painted directly on them. He hasn't painted on canvas in Paris. Once finished, they're rolled up, brought to Rockford and unrolled to fit each square and rectangle of the room. Very practical. And because there's a space between the canvases and the wall they breathe. So in perfect condition, 160 years later. Now, don't forget we are in a medieval castle, defensive. So the walls are thick. In other words, inside there's never much light. This is really Luke's obsession. The same obsession they had for cathedrals in medieval times. How do you bring volume and light into these rooms? Well, here he does it the following way. He uses a blue background on these canvases, giving us the illusion that we're looking through windows onto the nature outside. Hence the walls become transparent. And on these walls, you have nature everywhere. Butterflies, dragonflies of art-nouveau, bees, wasps, snakes. Well, imagine a good dinner here. Candlelit. And after a few bottles, everything starts flying out of the room. In the 19th century. Of course, cars do not exist. So people invited to dinner also invited to sleep at the castle. And Viola Duke is asked to create two guest rooms. He creates a pink room with green walls and a green room with pink walls, which can you see This room is usually not open to the public. And let's go and see what Viola Duke does here. So this is the green room. Obviously, you can imagine that if there's a pink room, it's more feminine. And the green room. Green room is much more masculine. Hunting scenes everywhere. Dragons, animals entangled in brambles. Everything is in movement. And here you really have the most wonderful decoration by Viollet Le Duc. Very organic. If you look underneath the arches, you have streams of vegetation running everywhere. This is really what the Art Nouveau movement was going to put in a few years later. For example, inside the windows, also organic biomorphic shapes and forms that you can imagine on the Métro stations of Guimard in Paris. The furniture also comes from medieval dictionaries. You can see them with the Baldachin where you can see the pope's staff in memory of Pope Clement, the Fifth, and all this organic decoration. At the end of the beds and above the pillow cases. And in fact, children of the family, they don't like sleeping in this room. This is where the ghost happened to be. Hopefully we'll be able to open this room to the public. But before that, well, we need a big good spring cleaning here, a few reparations, things like that. Lectricity. And normally we'll be able to do this in the next 3 or 4 years. Well, our brief visit finishes here. I hope you were interested and you liked what you saw. There's certainly a lot of other things to discover. So when you have the occasion, come and visit us in Rochdale in Bordeaux. And if you need any information about the visits the work, don't hesitate. To contact. Us. Okay. Have a good day and see you soon.
