Jean-Ghislain and Eléonore, Count and Countess Lepic, couldn’t ask for a home with a extra distinguished historical past. Set within the verdant panorama of Normandy, the spectacular Château de Louÿe dates again to 1180, when Richard the Lionheart constructed a fortress there to defend the lands he held in France. The Lepic dynasty additionally has an illustrious story. By the point Jean-Ghislain’s ancestor Charles Edouard de Viel-Castel acquired Louÿe in 1882, different family members of his, the Dukes of Bassano, had been giving loyal service to France’s Napoleonic emperors for one of the best a part of a century.

WORKING PROPOSITION

However regardless of all that, Jean-Ghislain and Eléonore don’t contemplate themselves to be basic chateau house owners. Reasonably, they’re, she says: “A working couple renovating their household home. Massive, sure; historic, sure; however a household home.” And, they add, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that they’d be residing right here in any respect. If the couple aren’t fully typical, their household isn’t both. 

The blissful clan at Louÿe consists of seven youngsters: Achille and Theodore, Eléonore’s two from her first marriage; Evangéline and Axel, from her second; Jean-Ghislain’s son and daughter Adrien and Clémence; and lastly the youngest, Hortense, fruit of their very own particular love story.

ROMANCE RENEWED

Eléonore de Boysson, a prime government with the luxurious LVMH Group, and her husband, a monetary professional, first met after they had been barely of their teenagers. After a brief however pleasant romance their paths diverged and by the point they crossed once more, in London, each had been married. After that, it was to be one other 20 years earlier than they even set eyes on one another. Once they did – at a singles dinner organised by a mutual good friend – they lastly knew it was meant to be. That was in autumn 2005, and they haven’t seemed again.

Eléonore recollects how she obtained the warmest of welcomes at Louÿe from Jean-Ghislain’sparents, Louis-Jean and Marie-France. “And as I labored and travelled rather a lot, I used to be delighted to spend as a lot time as potential right here with the kids,” she says. “After all, I used to be unaware then of the unbelievable work and dedication that goes into being châtelaine…”

Then, six years later, her much-loved mother-in-law handed away, and a troublesome period opened at Louÿe. “Though Jean-Ghislain helped his father rather a lot, the reality is that the home step by step fell asleep and that made him very unhappy, as a result of he has a really robust bond with this place,” she recollects. When, sadly, Jean-Ghislain misplaced his father too, the property handed to him. The couple knew that they need to decide. Awaking Louÿe could be an enormous activity, so that they needed to both totally decide to it or stroll away. And naturally, they each already had demanding careers.

AN AMBITIOUS PROJECT

Within the occasion, it was their skilled backgrounds that gave them confidence to make the leap. Eléonore’s present place at LVMH’s DFS Group consists of duty for iconic Paris retailer La Samaritaine. Her expertise for selling French experience – by creating Disneyland Paris and increasing Louis Vuitton internationally – has even seen her recognised with the Legion of Honour.

In the meantime, Jean-Ghislain, founder of economic consultancy Infra Gestion, is a valued adviser to the governments of their very own and different nations. Collectively, the pair knew that they had the talents wanted to guarantee Louÿe’s future. In line with Jean-Ghislain: “We stated to ourselves, we have now the power and the entrepreneurial imaginative and prescient, in addition to the ethical obligation to our ancestors and our kids, to maneuver ahead.”

A MODERN-DAY REVIVAL

That’s to not say that any of it has been straightforward. The household had been spending a weekend at Louÿe when the Covid pandemic hit, placing them in lockdown. However once more, they discovered a constructive facet to the state of affairs. Jean-Ghislain explains: “For us, the confinement turned out to be a blessing; a type of honeymoon interval. We arrived right here in March, when nature begins to get up, the times are getting longer and every thing round you is rising, creating… reviving.

“In actual fact, it was then that any doubts we’d had dissipated. We started, little by little, with the reconstruction. As we’re surrounded by 300 hectares [740 acres] of forest that belong to us, we thought, why not use our personal wooden? So we arrange knowledgeable carpentry store proper right here. Now we make home windows, doorways and furnishings for the chateau, and sooner or later – when, hopefully, we’ve produced all we’d like – we could even be capable to promote our designs.”

PROUD FAMILY HISTORY

For the Lepics, it’s not nearly restoring objects, however restoring lives. It’s arduous for younger folks from the neighbouring villages to search out work regionally. “However,” says Eléonore, “the chateau and the tasks we’re creating ought to assist enhance that. We have already got apprentices within the workshop and gardens, and that is simply the beginning.”

Jean-Ghislain, who has an enthusiasm forLouÿe that may make his forebears proud, says that he’s impressed by those that went earlier than. “My ancestor Hugues Maret, 1st Duke of Bassano, was Secretary of State and Minister of Overseas Affairs to Napoleon Bonaparte and remained loyal to him till the tip.” His son Napoléon Maret, the 2nd Duke, was Grand Chamberlain to Napoleon III, and his spouse, Pauline van der Linden d’Hooghvorst, was one of many ladies-in-waiting to the Empress Eugénie,” he tells us. 

(Proof is there in Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s 1855 portray of the Empress at her palace at Compiègne, with Pauline sitting to her left.)The 2nd Duke of Bassano even adopted Napoleon III and his Empress into exile in England, the place they lived beneath the safety of Queen Victoria, who was very keen on Eugénie. 

He later had the unhappy responsibility of informing the Empress of the demise of her solely son, the Prince Imperial Napoleon-Louis, in a battle towards the Zulus in what’s now South Africa, and of accompanying her to the scene to pay her respects. Whereas the previous is in every single place at Louÿe, that doesn’t rule out modernity. 

“We’re including up to date particulars,” Eléonore insists. “Som enice curtains, a cushty couch, a comfortable quilt… it makes me emotional to suppose that, a yr in the past, the complete japanese a part of the second flooring was in very unhealthy situation and now it has welcoming bedrooms for the kids and our buddies.”

She says that one in every of her biggest allies in bringing previous and current collectively is Braquenié, a royal textile producer now celebrating its centenary. “It belongs to our buddies at Pierre Frey, and Jean-Ghislain’s mom used the sesame materials when she renovated the north wing 30 years in the past,” enthuses Eléonore. 

For her and her husband, their exceptional home deserves solely one of the best. As Jean-Ghislain says: “What we’re combating for right here is continuity. We’re not the house owners, however the managers, the curators of the historical past linked to Louÿe. And it’s an exquisite problem that has solely simply begun.”

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PRODUCTION & INTERVIEW: VICTORIA DE ALCAHUD

PHOTOS: CESAR VILLORIA

DECOR: BRAQUENIE-PIERRE FREY