GETTING THE ROYAL TREATMENT

by Adrian Leeds

While many castles in France are still owned by descendants of royalty sporting titles such as "Count and Countess," you needn't have such lineage in order to enjoy the luxury and elegance of a real French château centuries old and bursting with history.

It wasn't until I had the actual pleasure of visiting several châteaux in the vicinity of Poitiers as a personal guest of each of the owners that I fully came to realize what the word "enchantment" means.

Traveling by car from Paris we set out on our journey to assist the owners of Le Château de Ranton in hosting the "open house" of "Les Journées du Patrimoine" (an annual heritage day which allows the visit to historical places normally closed to the public). We were treated like royalty during our entire stay and it was easy to imagine oneself a countess or princess, when surrounded by stone walls densely inhabited by the spirits and souls of a very rich past.

There are approximately 100,000 châteaux in France. Many of them have opened their doors and gardens in the last few years to curious travelers who yearn to be enchanted by the aura of French history and the sensation of being in the very same spot as someone whose name is engraved in the annals of history. One château owner, of royal lineage himself, was gracious enough to explain that the aristocracy of France can no longer support the expense of maintaining these magnificent relics without the help of the public, the government and tourism. Furthermore, they remain proud of their heritage and want to share the beauty and culture their châteaux have to offer with the entire world.

Château de Ranton

We took the tiny "D" roads (departmental roads) winding through the fields and tiny villages. Late afternoon, we arrived at Le Château de Ranton. It is a fortified castle dating back to the fourteenth century near the town of Loudun, 30 kilometers southwest of Chinon in the Loire Valley.

It was so completely different to what I'd expected. It was almost a shock -- stark and foreboding from the entrance, so perfect a specimen that it seemed more like a Hollywood model of a medieval castle, rather than a real one. A bridge crosses a dry moat (20 feet deep) to enormous arched wooden doors, just like your imagination might picture for you.

As you enter, you walk through a shady corridor of stone, lined by more wooden doors, ancient swords crossed at their the center, terra cotta urns on a window alcove and leading to one of the most beautiful "back yard" gardens I've ever laid my eyes on. The "L" shape of the château caresses a fresh green turf, dotted by ancient tall evergreens along the edge and rows of flowers in bloom. The castle walls are alive with ivy, trumpet vine, wisteria and roses.

Guestrooms line up along the left wing of the château, each under an arch shaped inset, each with doors and windows of small square panes. Above those rooms, a circular stone staircase leads to a large room with an arched ceiling used for gatherings of different types. That evening, the room accommodated a concert by a local soprano and mandolin player. There is also another stone staircase which leads down to a large "cave" (wine cellar).

In the right wing, a modernized kitchen sits to one side of a spacious dining room, followed by a large salon, each room restored perfectly to its original condition and style, each accompanied by a sixteenth century open fireplace, one with a bread oven, originally designed to heat that entire wing of the building. There are also additional guestrooms in this wing and on the second level is a large room currently under renovation for receptions. The current owners, Paola Butler and Peter Johnston, both expatriates from England who work for international companies, were fortunate to acquire most of the original furniture when they purchased the château 10 years ago.

There was a fortified château at Ranton more than a thousand years ago. About 1340, at the beginning of the Hundred Years War, the squire of Ranton, Guillaume de Gourmont, undertook to rebuild the existing fort. The main towers and the ramparts that are still the remarkable feature of the château were built then. In 1631, the second major set of alterations was made to the château, adding the older of the two towers, which is typical of this period. The château was abandoned during the French Revolution and in 1862, the chapel, dedicated to St. Leonard, was given to the town of Ranton to serve as the parish church. By 1889 the château was still habitable, but much was little more than a ruin. One of the main towers of the entrance collapsed in 1942 and it wasn't until 1964 that its newest owners began renovation.

Le Château de Ranton has been impeccably restored by the dedication and hard work of its current owners. Hoards of locals, who had never seen beyond the exterior walls, came to investigate the castle that gorgeous Sunday of Les Journées du Patrimoine. Mr. Johnston gleefully led groups around the rampart and through the rooms, wearing the sign of pride on his big smile as he recounted the fascinating history. Ms. Butler chatted with her guests and discussed the relics and furnishings, which adorn the rooms. I wasn't the only one enchanted that day – everyone who passed through its beautiful gates was, too.

Château de St-Loup

The Monday following Les Journées du Patrimoine, we rose early to head to Le Château de Saint-Loup to meet with Count Charles-Henri de Bartillat, present owner of the castle. Monsieur de Bartillat was an attorney in Paris before purchasing Saint-Loup from a cousin and devoting his life to the complete and perfect restoration of its buildings and gardens. The château was also open to the public for the Heritage Days. Saint-Loup Lamairé is a charming small town only forty-five minutes drive from Poitiers.

The château sits behind a low stone wall and after entering a small unassuming door in the wall, we were taken aback by the view of the immense grandeur of the château and its medieval Keep at one corner, a château on its own accord. Enormous gilded gates and wrought iron fence border the gardens. Just outside, pumpkins and squash grown in its own "potager" (vegetable garden) were on sale outside the gate. A sweet-tempered Golden Retriever lounged in the sun near the steps of the castle; his tiny house sat next to the Keep signed "Boni."

The main castle is 2,500 square meters – a perfect example of Henri IV and Louis XIII style, built in the seventeenth century by the Gouffier family. The Black Prince imprisoned John the Good in the medieval Keep which now has expansive guestrooms with stained glass windows and luxurious baths. Guests can admire the pigeonnier, attend a concert in the converted stables or use the newly built reception space (accommodates 400 people) for special events. Seven further guestrooms will be available in the main castle very soon.

One kilometer from the castle at the end of a tree-lined canal, a small pavilion for intimate dining spans the canal – one of the most romantic spots I've ever come across. On the property is Monsieur de Bartillat's true pride and joy: an "Orangerie." Within the walls of the Orangerie, we enjoyed the perfection of the layout - geometric patterns of hedges and shrubs, orange trees in square tubs and Anduze vases, jasmine, bougainvillea. There are some fifty specimens of seventeen different varieties of citrus plants representing the Garden of Eden. The potager is also currently being restored, based on the exact plans from 1745. Vegetables and flowers are set out in fifteen squares and six rectangles with each season as beautiful as the next. There is also a fruit orchard that was replanted in 1997 following the list of plants from the eighteenth century. There are 305 trees: apples, cherries, peach, almonds, pears and apricots and more.

Château de Tennessus

This castle is a remarkably authentic fourteenth-century castle complete with moat, working drawbridge, arrow-slits and battlements.

No one knows who built the original Keep at Tennessus. The first known mention of the "tower, fortress, lodging, and village" is in a document dating from 1404, when it was owned, in his wife's name, by Challot des Près, lord of Fontenioux-Rolland. Its fortifications offered too valuable a means of resistance for it not to become embroiled in the Wars of Religion. A party of Catholics quartered themselves there in 1590 and established links with the Catholics of Poitiers. They were dislodged from Tennessus only in January 1591, at the same time as others were expelled from the Château de Saint-Loup.

The château itself was condemned to demolition on March 25, 1793, but this important monument fortunately escaped, as the orders of the decree were never executed. After a number of changes of ownership during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the château again seemed destined for ruin, but in 1960 the sculptor, Dominique Piéchaud, undertook a number of urgent works of salvage and restoration In 1989, Tennessus fell into the hands of British owners, Pippa and Nick Freeland, who plan to continue the major restoration program and have opened to the public this magnificent testimony to the Middle Ages.

The Tennessus Castle is decorated in true medieval style; yet its lodgings offer accommodations with all the modern comforts and facilities. The bed and breakfast rooms are located in the Keep, the oldest part of the castle, and are reached by a steep spiral staircase. They are enormous and virtually unchanged from the fourteenth century.

The southwest wing of the château is a completely self-contained apartment which sleeps five people and comprises the original gatehouse and west tower. Guests may also enjoy the tranquil grounds of the château, to boat and fish in the moat or to use the swimming pool.

We returned to Paris by autoroute, a sure and fast way back to our every-day lives, but not a very enchanting one. When the weekend was over, it all seemed like a dream. Maybe it really was.