Welcome to the Château du Lude, one of the last grand castles of the Loire. Private and still inhabited. It's a real journey through time that I offer you, by visiting the beautiful rooms of this castle, the places perhaps a little more secret, And also everything around it. That is to say its magnificent facades, and the gardens that extend, and which dominate a superb valley, which is the Loir valley. The Loir being a small tributary of the Loire. Here we are in the vestibule. So the vestibule dates from the Renaissance. So 16th century. It was obviously transformed in the 18th century. And then we tried to find the original character, in the 19th century, using stones that were still visible. But we tried to restore, to find the complete style of a coffered ceiling. Canvases set in the walls were replaced there, which are paintings representing martyrs. And all the decoration that we will see on the columns, on the pilasters, on the door towers, It’s all reminiscent of the Renaissance and all that style. Well, all that was redone in the 19th century, But it's completely inspired by the Italian Renaissance facade, which is completely original. So everything fits together. There is a certain homogeneity, Despite the centuries that separate exterior decoration and interior decoration Which is also quite remarkable, it's the pavement, A marble mosaic floor which is due to the architect Louis Parent. And it’s a design that could be very contemporary. And there is another one quite similar, in a very beautiful castle on the other side of France, which is the castle of Ancy le Franc, where the same architect Louis Parent intervened. So, in this vestibule, the visitor, the family guest arrived. The first thing that struck him, is probably this angel who is camped. And I think... I think all the decoration and construction of this tower and this staircase, was wanted, was thought around the angel. A bronze angel from the 15th century, which served as an ornament at the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. This is the last example of a monumental bronze angel in sculpture French. So I tell you right away that this is a facsimile, because the great-grandparents sold the angel to a collector. It was at the time, therefore at the beginning of the 20th century, because they had to restore all the roofs of the castle. And the original is now at the Frick Collection in New York. But there is an excellent facsimile copy in bronze too, And the angel welcomes you with the cross, his finger pointing, and we feel that everything is converging towards him. And I think that this was wanted by the Marquis de Talhouët-Roy, who therefore ordered all this work in the middle of the 19th century. The tower we are going to now was built from 1840, and the angel leads us to go by this monumental staircase, in everyday rooms. And also he introduces us to the Great Library, which was originally, in the 19th century, the office of the Marquis de Talhouët-roy. And so we realize here, in this all-paneled room, there is a studious atmosphere, I would say, a working atmosphere. And it is here that the marquis liked to stay. His office was moved because today, we make it an exhibition piece. But he was here originally. This allowed him to receive these guests or these appointments quickly. And so, it was he who composed this library where he brought together two collections of books. A collection that comes from the Talhouet family and another collection who comes from the Tour d'Auvergne family who are the Dukes of Bouillon and here part of the library arrived here by inheritance. It happened through a rather astonishing, somewhat romantic character. Who is Antoine, Count Roy, whose bust we have which sits in the middle of the room. We see him here in the costume of peer of France and with the order of the Holy Spirit Antoine Roy was a lawyer. He took care of the affairs of the last Duke of Bouillon and who did quite a bit auction and who finally ended up with the inheritance of the last duke de Bouillon who died without children. And so this character had an incredible life throughout the Revolution, Restoration. He was Charles X's Minister of Finance. He was the Minister of Finance of Louis XVIII. He was ennobled by Charles X and his daughter married the Marquis de Talhouet, therefore owner of Lude. And that's how some of the books arrived in this magnificent library therefore completely built in 1850. And it is here that we also keep some models of the gardens which I would like to show you later. Which are the gardens surrounding the castle. But we're going to continue, we're going to go see some other ceremonial pieces because once we arrived in the vestibule, either we were received in the marquis's office, or we were received at a reception and there we passed through all the state rooms. So here we realize. Of the magnificence of this life. First, during the Renaissance, you should know that the family he occupied at the time was the Daillon family, a Poitevin family which was a military nobility and who held high positions in the king's army, the time of Louis XI until Louis XIV, so approximately 250 years. And the Daillons settled in Lude at the end of the 100 Years' War, in moment when Anjou was attached to the kingdom of France. And they spent their time beautifying, trying to leave this side massive fortress to give it the character of a kind of pleasure palace And so, that's why we are dealing with an extremely rich decoration, both outside and inside. And here, we find ourselves, for example, in the Grande Galerie, which we also call the village hall, because it lends itself to it. It’s for large receptions. There is absolutely extraordinary decoration. You start with nothing but the door, nothing but the door. Here we find the Daillon monogram, the symbol of the ermine, symbol of the ermine which recalls that the family of Talhouet, therefore occupying in the 19th century, is a family of Breton origin. So. But look, even look at the detail of the doors. Everything, everything, everything is taken care of, everything is thought of in this decoration and this exceptional decor. So there is a large part which dates from the 19th century from the Talhouet era. For what? Because when they start the renovation work, they will find the painted ceilings which date from the 16th century and they will notice that there is an extremely rich and refined decor. And that will push them to recreate a decor in the style of that era. So this was done a lot in the middle of the 19th century, and at the time of Viollet le Duc, of the Dubans, we really put this style in the spotlight. And at Lude, we don't cut it. We are going to do a complete decor, including the furniture, the wall canvases, the woodwork, the fireplaces. The fireplace is a neo renaissance fireplace which is totally inspired of the chimneys of the Château de Blois, but that of the Château de Blois is also in the 19th So there really is a whole era where we look back at the Renaissance. I'm going to close the door and you're going to see that on the other side, it's even more impressive. Here, everything is gilding and colors. And yet it is a room that receives very little direct sunlight. But this gold gives it an absolutely absolutely extraordinary shine. And what's more, it's full of architectural artifices which mean that we don't does not realize that we are in the old walls of a fortress and that we will gradually penetrate into the very refined world of neoclassicalism. And so I take you to what could be another castle. We are in a much clearer, much clearer, more uniform space. The gilding is more discreet, even if the woodwork is still, are still worked. And we are here in the neoclassical wing, with a row of lounges which were really reception rooms. That's practically all they were used for. There you go, we have a row of three living rooms which are always furnished, with all the furniture that is in the family and therefore which gives them a side extremely, extremely alive. And all the more so since, on the walls, we have beautiful portraits of the family who are mostly Talhouet, of course. Especially the portraits of two families from the 19th century which is the family that accompanies us. We therefore move from the billiard room to the large living room which is the central room of the castle. You should know that this wing was built just before the revolution, so at one time. So here we are in 1785. The owner of Madame de La Vieuville. She is also a Breton, a Breton who inherits her uncle's castle Mr. Duvelaër. Joseph Julien Duvelaër and he himself was a fan of the Compagnie des Indes And so this gentleman returned to France after having spent ten years in Canton, China. and he returns to France with his Chinese wife, which was already quite astonishing funfact. And it is he who will actually begin demolition work. First because part of the castle was very damaged and then, its niece who inherits the castle, will have this large neoclassical wing built by calling on Vincent Barret, who was an excellent architect to whom we also owe the Château de Montgeoffroy and the Château du Marais near Paris. And the work will end, at least as far as this wing is concerned. just before, just at the time of the Revolution. In fact, in 1790 everything stopped and the construction site would not resume until 20 to 30 years later. We are going to finish decorating this large living room inspired by the decoration of the Bordeaux City Hall But everything is in a Louis XVI style. So. And then later, so the work continues and we will build the beautiful tower as we call the Chambord tower and which is the Neo tower Renaissance which houses the Angel of Lude. So. But so from the time of this Monsieur Barret who works for Madame de La Vieuville we have this large living room with the cutaways and the mirrors who think and who give a lot of depth to this piece And so it is a piece of great elegance. And this is where all the family reunions took place back in the day. This still happens to us sometimes in summer, because the living room is very poorly heated in winter. But as you see, everything is there, everything, everything is like back then. We have the impression that the great grandmother whose portrait we see there, great-grandmother, the Marquise de Talhouët-roy, we have the impression that she just left the room and came to spend a little time with her friends here. This room may be very large, but it has a form of intimacy, I think, by the way it is arranged, by the furniture, by the plants. There is a form of intimacy. And this large living room leads us to what we call the small living room. This is the summer lounge, I would say. And now we are more busy in the summer periods and where are we going? continue to find family portraits. So with some older ones dating from the Daillon era, so there, it is the Daillon, Talhouet and Nicolaÿ families who intermingle, since the castle, the last marquis of Talhouet-Roy who lived in this castle, had only two daughters and therefore his eldest daughter, of whom we have the beautiful pastel portrait over there, marries the Marquis de Nicolaÿ. And so this is why the castle passes to Nicolaÿ, therefore my husband's family. We therefore arrive at the second generation, the third if we count our children and the fourth if we count our grandchildren. And through this small living room, we enter the bedroom, the bedroom of the Highness which is located on the ground floor and which is one of the beautiful rooms of the castle It is a Louis XVI style room with a very beautiful Polish canopy. Why Polish? Because it's a fashion that arrived with Marie Leczinska who was the the wife of King Louis XV and this room is still equipped with its old toilets. It feels like it hasn't moved for 80 years, but in fact, she is always busy. We receive people from time to time because it is possible to rent rooms at the castle. We do it, I would say, not too regularly because all these rooms are very old and all the furniture is old, so it's not for us, it is not for frequent use, but it happens to us receive guests in this castle. So the room of the Highness which was in fact the room of the mistress of house in time, is adjacent to probably the prettiest room of the castle which is also the smallest. Here, we enter a very intimate, very enclosed, very small place. It must be barely eight square meters, but this room is entirely covered in paint from floor to ceiling and we call it the Studiolo. In fact, the Studiolo is one. It's an Italian fashion. It's something. This type of piece that you will frequently find in the palaces, in the great old Italian villas. And it's a place where the lady of the house could come and retire alone and separate from courtiers. And to be able to meditate in solitude. This is typically what we see, what we see here in Lude, with a series of paintings which date from the 16th century, Renaissance paintings which represent in fact scenes from the Bible and from a book by Petrarch called The Triumphs and which was also in the library of Monsieur de Daillon. So. And so it's all these murals with a ceiling too extraordinary. The ceiling is due to the school of Raphaël. There you go, we will find exactly the same patterns in the rooms of the Vatican. And this room, surprisingly, has been completely obscured between the 18th and 19th centuries. That is to say that we put a false ceiling there, we painted the walls with plaster and presto, finished. And so these are the two levels. The Marquis de Talhouët-Roy, in the 1850s, who, while carrying out the work restoration, will come across these paintings. And it's extraordinary because they are in perfect condition and therefore they will renovate everything and find this ceiling under the false plaster ceiling. And it will also push them to redo the decor of Lude in the style of this time there, it was really the discovery of this Studiolo which made them completely influenced. Otherwise I think we would have gone towards neo gothic, but there, the discovery of the studio takes them towards the neo-renaissance. But it is an absolutely remarkable piece. There you go, after this series of shows. I will give you a little overview of our private apartments which are nevertheless open to visits on request. There is always a way to see them on a guided tour. It is a request that we make in advance or at reception and because it is in the continuity of this castle. So this is the small library. We completely find the style, the Renaissance style that we have, that we have seen from the other side in the party room, with the painted ceilings, the monumental fireplaces, tapestries, dark woodwork, this gold, this gold that we will find everywhere. And then the dining room which is a dining room that we use still every day. And I think the best way to keep the pieces and keep elements of furniture is to use them. It's living there every day because we see daily if there is a problem, if there is. And so these are heated parts, so they are, they are, we take some care, there you go, we take care of it. So obviously, from the dining room to the kitchens, there is only one step. And so here I take you there. We go underground because, obviously, as it should be, the kitchens in the past were in the basements. Besides, besides, I'm going to show you, I didn't invent anything. But you see, there is still the old mechanism for the freight elevator which was manual, but which allowed dishes to be taken from the kitchens to up to the antechamber of the dining room to have them roughly hot at the table. So there, we go down into the basement of the tower and we will access to the old kitchens which, at the time, occupied an entire wing. There was. It must be said that at the beginning of the 20th century, therefore before the First World War, there were still 36 people working in this in this castle and therefore which occupied the land between the floors, the linen rooms, the kitchen. So there we go again, we go back into the time since we are almost back in the Middle Ages. We realize this with the extraordinary vaults, the ceilings of this kitchen that we restored and still use, since we make the jams on the big stoves, once per month in season, therefore from June, from June to November. That's it, for two or three days a month. All these stoves are humming and we make jams with the fruits of our garden, with the fruits of the vegetable garden. So. And. And so it is. These kitchens were used roughly from the 15th century until the Second World War worldwide. And then after which we made a kitchen upstairs more much more functional and closer to the dining room, but everything is in working order. We restored these basements in the 90s and have been using them ever since. uses, we show them. Finally, these are pieces that continue to live. It's extraordinary because we found all the brass, we found all the utensils, everything was there. It was a bit like Sleeping Beauty. So. There, we'll go back upstairs and maybe I'll take you to some in rooms that no one sees. So. So I'm telling you right away there is a way to visit. I myself organize a few visits per year on request for parts because that we cannot take everyone because of the problem of access, name of marches, etc. But I'll show them to you anyway. I'm going to open a few doors for you. So after them. After the cellars, we were in the second basement. Here we are on the third floor and it was. It was the main linen room. You should know that there were five linens in this castle. So that was the biggest one, taking up the space of an entire tower. Which is completely. Which had been completely painted. And then that made it possible. There were large tables to be able to do them. Adults' ironing. Large sheets, tablecloths, tablecloths. Can you imagine that in the cupboards, I still found a tablecloth that was 17 meters long. So when we have to iron a 17 meter table, well it You need big tables. So it's quite interesting because we even have tables somewhat shaped like kidneys, because it allowed us to go further with the iron to iron in the center, and the stove obviously, which was in the middle, in the middle of the room, which allowed you to heat the irons and then to heat yourself and also heat this huge room. There was. There was a second stove in the fireplace which has disappeared Today. But I find this piece really interesting because layout, woodwork, all that had been done with great care. It's a linen that was installed in the 19th century, but it's really, It’s beautiful work as they say. And in the back, there, you see, there is a big cistern. So that too, a very ingenious system from the 19th century. You should know that there is a garden architect called Edouard André, who intervened here and who completely redid all the gardens for the Marquise de Talhouet. And here we are in the 1880s roughly. Edouard André is the one who also made the Buttes Chaumont for example, in Paris he created parks in England, he worked a lot with Alphand and he created quite a few private gardens, including those in Lude. Everything redone. But at the same time, this Mr. André was a great engineer and so he also installed the entire irrigation system for the gardens and it was say that they made a small mound. He built a water tower which is 35 meters high and which is on a hill which is therefore higher than the castle and from there the water in the water which was pumped into the Loire, into the river A, by a mechanical system that we called a ram, was sent into the water tower, and from there redistributed to eight hectares of gardens, plus the castle and therefore the circuit ended here at the third floor and filled these large cisterns. And then it was redistributed to one or another water station, as we called the bathrooms. They were not equipped with taps, but there were water stations and and the old kitchens, obviously, but so ingenious. So there was a cistern here, and there was another one in the tower opposite. So, this is where we keep the old clothes. There is still. There are a lot of old clothes, I tell you, we threw away nothing, so we open a cupboard, and lo and behold, we will come across old dresses, on embroidery, on uniforms. So some of these clothes belonged to the family and others had another use, that is to say that it was used to make coins theatre. Because you should know that in the old days we spent the summer here and one way to have fun was to put on shows and we did it with everyone in the family or with neighbors. And so there were quantities, whole trunks of costumes to play the comedy. There you go, so we imagine the excitement that there must have been in this kind of room and there it was, Everything was handmade and with a quality of linen that I will show you right away time, because we have other laundry, another lingerie to see and where I will show you the quality of the linen that was used here in the 19th century. So one of the. Here it is, one of the little lingerie sets. We saw the big one in the tower and this one was lingerie. We no longer did small laundry or dresses, shirts, etc. And this is also where there are some cupboards where we kept the linen and these are things that. These were the trousseaux that ladies got when they got married. And this is the trousseau of the Marquise de Talhouet Trois who married in 1847 and who arrived here with his wardrobe of sheets, towels, everything all marked, embroidered with the number, the number of the talhouet with the crowns of marquis. And and in this lingerie too, we find everything you need must. There are cupboards with that, it's fun. These are all. These are the covers, the covers that we put on the furniture when the family went on a trip or when they went to Paris and if the castle was not occupied for a certain time, everyone was covered the furniture. There you go, all the covers are there, all the covers are there, the towels, finally, every time we open a cupboard, we find piles of things. And the family's clothes The stove, a stove made on purpose, designed for irons. That is to say that there is a cabin inside which allowed you to place the irons in the warmest place and with a lid to keep them warm. And it worked, it ran on coal. So. And we feel that one day someone put the last iron there. That's it, we tried to restore these parts and preserve them with all the furniture, everything we used at the time. Next to the laundry room was the staff apartment and so it was really close and it also takes up a whole tower. What's funny are these tiles with which we covered the floors And. And here, there you have it, this room, it was a room for a little rest for the ladies and that's where she also did the sewing work, etc. We also have the office where the butlers changed. So here, they were cleaning up a bit. We found the booklets, that is to say the costumes, in the cupboards which he put on to serve them for the service of great ceremonies. So in each castle, like that, there were colored booklets, in the colors of. These are the colors of the castle and everything was stored here and he came to to change. And I don't know if you noticed, but there is heating central which was installed at the beginning of the 20th century and which made it possible to heat two floors of the two floors of the staff apartments. The staff games room with a very nice billiards table. There was one for the master of the house on the ground floor. There was another one here on the second floor for staff. And so, this is where. In fact, when we restored these parts, this is where we collected the old toys that we could find in the house or in the attics, in old cupboards. And when we open a cupboard, we come across old children's toys who have. Who have entertained generations and who have not left this house. It's always, always fun. And through these apartments, one could access the attic to the attic of the castle and walkway. Which of course, are spaces which were not used and which were preserved almost for aesthetic purposes, for documentary purposes. This is how the covered paths were made in the Middle Ages, with the loopholes, with machicolations. We get a little idea of the architecture of this castle. And I'm going to show you the one in the tower. The staircase tower, The dome of the staircase tower. That's it, that's also one of the pieces that we rarely show because access is a bit difficult, but. I'll take you there. And there, we are squarely under the roof. We are squarely under the roof and we can see a little of the ingenuity of the builders of the time. That's one. It is a 19th century frame and this piece includes the top of the dome of the grand staircase and which was therefore a brick construction with a glass opening in the middle, but which does not overlook the open sky since there is still. There is still one floor above and there is still one asked for a lantern. But we can clearly see that the artifice, in order to still be able to obtain light with this white ceiling which overlooks the glass roof, and there, again a cistern, a cistern. So that's the other one. The other cistern of the castle, connected to the water tower which is located in the park, the water tower of Édouard André and which allowed to have running water in this part of the house. So for all the water stations, we saw some. We saw one in the lingerie. There is one like that, there is one per floor and that allowed us to have the water. Even if it was not drinkable, it allowed us to have water daily at your fingertips. So we saw the Highness's room just now. Here I take you to a series of additional rooms which are small guest rooms which were occupied from the. From the 19th century, it was the time when the three marquises of Talhouët received a lot during the summer, during the winter period, with court hunting, with all the life that this type of castle entailed. 150 years ago, 200 years ago. The bedroom, the children's bedroom with the small beds, small beds of children that I have still used with our own children. We used these little beds which are fantastic and. And there you have it, with the linen, the furniture, we found everything and got back on track. these little rooms. And finally the room, the gentleman's room which is also one with his little one canopy, the desk, the. Here they all are. We could then. What's great about these rooms is that they were not too big and they were easily heated. Above all, especially in winter. Each had its own stove. So obviously, this type of castle could not be conceived without a garden. Lude is no exception to the rule. Already, its location is quite exceptional because it dominates a valley. It dominates the Loir valley. The Loir is a tributary of the Loire and this made it possible to create a succession of terraced gardens. These gardens have existed since the 17th century, so we still have traces of them with the large terrace and a magnificent balustrade which runs for more than 200 meters, but also other other spaces which were created gradually generations. I am thinking, among others, of the Jardins de L’éperon which is the terrace which took the place of the old fortress. When, when the shipowner of the Compagnie des Indes, Joseph Duviard, made raze half of the castle which was in very poor condition and therefore it transforms this on the terrace, it has become a garden. We transformed it recently. We created new gardens there at the end of the 20th century and that helped us allowed to install a rose garden there and to install a labyrinth there, to do everything a path through yew corridors and also to provide surprises to discover the scale of the gardens on the banks of the Loir, there is a large garden carpet which was once a French garden, A garden created by Édouard André who I have already spoken to you about. Édouard André, who was this famous landscaper from the time of Napoleon III and who worked for a long time with Alphand And so Edouard André completely redone the gardens for the Marquise de Talhouet and created these French-style gardens on the banks of the Loir. We transformed them about twenty years ago and made one garden of ponds and topiaries which is also very structured, very simple but very structured and which allows to obtain a contrast with its opposite which is one which is the landscape of the Loir valley and which is a constructed landscape. That is to say that at the beginning of the 19th century there was the development, planting of an agricultural park. The agricultural park is a style of garden which was very fashionable in the first mid-19th century. There, the most famous landscaper who used this style and the Count of Choulot, well the Lude agricultural park is a bit in this style and it is, I I would say that it is one of the most important elements. In my opinion, it is one of the most important elements of the garden, because it is a vast space, but planted with clumps of majestic trees which give an extraordinary perspective. And it could be an English landscape. The difference with English parks is that the agricultural park is not accessible for walking. It is created for a utilitarian purpose, that is to say for agriculture, for the cattle. But it accompanies aesthetically. It accompanies the garden and the surroundings, the surroundings of a home. And so this walk also leads to the park which has been completely redesigned and wooded, with clumps of trees with interesting species. We extended this reflection by taking a whole botanical walk with the help of a botanist who is a botanist from Sarth called Jacky Pousse and we have built up a small botanical collection of mostly trees and shrubs, which is a young, a young botanical course whose most old plantations are now almost 20 years old. But it helps to complement these more formal, more structured gardens. There is another maze too, which we created recently near stables and which also makes it a very fun course for children at during a walk and which, basically, all these spaces have been redesigned, recreated, rehabilitated, without betraying the spirit, I think. The spirit of these gardens, the genius of the place which is present in the Lude gardens since the 17th century. So I showed you the beautiful rooms of the castle, the ceremonial rooms, the bedrooms, cellars, kitchens, etc. Now, we go behind the scenes and there, just a little wink, but for to tell you that the work is never finished and that there we are, we are still retyping two new pieces. Finally old pieces but which need a serious renovation and which we will add to the visit. There you have it, to further complete what we can complete from a visit to a castle like this one and which will tell yet another part of the story of life daily at the Château du Lude. I hope you enjoyed this visit, that it makes you want to come take a closer look and push open the doors, maybe meet us and discover a little better what I showed you. And then maybe in the future also the new parts which will, reborn and which will soon be open to the public.
