Château Shopping (no 4)

Jan 30

Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair!

Very early on a rainy and foggy morning Wednesday past, we drove out of Carcassonne. We headed west and to the north into the Lot-et-Garonne, a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. North of Toulouse and abutting the Dordogne to the north, the Lot-et-Garonne is named after the Lot River and Garonne River, and if you made it through reading those sentences you probably heard in your head the exact same thing I heard when I wrote… blah, blah, blah blah blah… as they say ‘It’s all France to me!’ :)

We drove two hours and forty five minutes through the rain and the mist to reach Château de Cadres. The Château sits proudly on a mount of its own, and makes quite the impression from a distance. It is a fairytale castle that makes you feel like you should suit up in armor, or a flowing gown with a conical shaped headdress with flowing veil, and switch your car out for a galloping steed. A vision in real life Disneyland unfolds above you as you begin to circle the castle after leaving the long tree lined alley approach… Avalon revealing itself as the mists stir and rise…

Château de Cadres is referred to as a Folly… an architectural folly - oftentimes strange, fantastical, or whimsical - built for just one purpose… pleasure!
The castle, although built in the mid nineteenth century, was built upon the foundations of a much older Château and designed to resemble a style and fashion of long ago. With some of the Château appearing medieval and other parts garnering inspiration from the Renaissance, the building rambles across the hill it is built upon.

The visit to the property lasted almost four hours. Four hours of strolling the 27 acres that make up the grounds, the sometimes three levels, sometime five levels (different floor counts in different sections of the Castle) of the Château, the two small ruins (one a religious moment, the other a folly within a folly), and the Groomsman’s house that included stables, workshops, garages, a butchery, and living quarters.

I personally adore this Château but, as with any property that we see there are pros and cons, and we continue to weigh each one carefully.

Below is a large gallery of images that we took during our visit. I will say that the French do not quite understand preparing a property for sale in the same way that we do in the US. Some hours spent cleaning and painting a neutral color over the 1980’s "aren’t we being artistic” painted wall treatments would certainly been in order, and for god’s sake… open the damn shutters!

We will make a second visit to Château de Cadres very soon and I have ordered swords and helmets to wear in case of Dragon or evil temptress with a basket of apples! You just never know!