The Chambre Marie-Louise Lachapelle was one of the many rooms that we were not able to visit before purchasing the Château. The hallway leading to this room had caved in and so all of the rooms in this area of the Château were inaccessible…
Once the first phase of work began, and the rubble had been removed and the area consolidated, we were finally able to see this room for the very first time. The floor had completely fallen, the ceiling only remained in half the room and bathroom tiles were hanging from the walls. We discovered that this room had once been a bathroom and shower area when the Château was used as a school holiday camp venue in the 1960s. It seemed that nothing remained of the original room and the area was of little historical value. Or so we thought…
Until one day, as the work in this area continued what remained of plaster ceiling in this room fell with an almighty crash! And so we discovered that beneath the plaster were the remains of the original hand-painted Renaissance beamed ceiling. Some plasterwork also fell from part of the wall and so we discovered the remains of renaissance frescoes. One of the most special frescoes we unearthed was what we believe to be a depiction of the Château during that time - a large square shaped building with turrets sitting on a hilltop beside a bridge and flowing river. If you look out the window of the Chambre Marie-Louise Lachapelle you can even see the bridge as it still stands today…
Work in this room continued with rebuilding the floors and the ceiling. Where there were painted beams we made sure that these were properly secured in place for the future. At the time, we do not have permission to restore the beams, or repair the walls, and so we had to wait for further permits until we could continue…
It wasn’t until 2021, when we began the flooring on this level, that it was finally time to continue working on this room. To begin, as the space was so large we decided to build a wall and split this room into two - the Chambre Jeanne d’Arc and the Chambre Marie Louise LaChapelle. Both rooms were then plastered and painted, carefully working around the frescoes, and afterward old wooden floorboards and baseboards were installed.
With the room split into two, the painted beams were now part of the Chambre Jeanne d’Arc whereas the frescoes were part of the Chambre Marie Louise Lachapelle. The beams in this room, as they were new, were painted in a heritage blue to seamlessly blend with the colours of the frescoes on the walls.
Next, we installed a small ensuite. This is the only guest bedroom inside the Château that currently has an ensuite. As the Château is a Class I Historically Listed Building (the same classification as the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles) we do not have permission from the French government to install ensuites in other bedrooms, as this would mean erasing parts of the history of the building as plumbing, fixtures and fittings were installed. As the main bathrooms of the building are directly below this bedroom, it was simple to install plumbing from below and so minimal changes needed to be made.
In this room we still chose to tread lightly adding just a washbasin and bath in the ensuite, both in a classic and rustic style. The washbasin was made using a repurposed nightstand and the bath we repaired and refinished. Overall, this was no easy task and required many calls for the plumber to finish the work! After almost a year it was at last completed…
Finally, we began furnishing the room. Foremost in our mind was that we knew that there had to be thread between the later 18th and 19th Century style bedrooms and the more Renaissance style quarters. And so, we chose a mélange of French furniture from different eras. Adding just enough furnishings to be cosy, and fill the room with texture, whilst keeping the focus on the beauty of the ceilings and the view of the mountains from the window.
Apart from the restoration of the frescoes, and perhaps the addition of some wallpaper, this room is now almost finished. We look forward to continuing to share the progress of the last few bits and pieces of work…
