25 Years of Restoration: Tour of Chateau de Montastruc with Its Owner.

Hello and welcome to Montastruc. We are here 10 kilometers northeast of Bergerac in Dordogne. Montastruc is a complex site with caves and châteaux and fortress. What you are going to see is a place where when we arrived in 1998 with my wife, we found holes in the roof, the fortress was falling into the valley, a house falling on itself progressively, the water was coming through lead pipes, the electricity was still the 1920s system which would burst out immediately as soon as we would plug anything reasonable on it, the house was going away progressively. So after a year or two of thinking process and discovery and camping I would say in the house, we were forced into heavy works, restoration works, because of the storm that ravaged the south of France end of 1999 and the holes became much bigger, there was no way to wait further. So that was the beginning of the restoration work. We have done a lot, the house is modernized, it's extremely comfortable today, nothing is in danger anymore, however we still have at least half of the work outside to be done. The interiors are nearly done but the outside is asking for help urgently. We are going to see all that, you are going to feel the history of the place and so follow me inside and we'll develop all these facts. So what makes this place quite unique, both inside and outside, is this sandwich of periods that continue to build one on each other. You go from the troglodytic sites which are the Hittic-Gallois period, you have the Roman bastions, you have the high middle-age and middle-age fortress, you have the gothic chateau and you have the extension of the 18th century. This is very rare because normally until 19th century people would be destroying everything that was old and replacing by new and here all these people loved so much their place, they wanted to preserve its integrity and just complement it with new construction. And so you have this very surprising puzzle of constructions of different periods and this is what is so unique and extraordinary in Montastruc, is to go from the Roman period all the way to 18th century with perfect connection from one place to the other. When we will go out of the chateau again, we'll definitely visit the troglodytic area, the caves and you will discover the Venus of Montastruc. This is the entrance, the ground entrance of Montastruc with the ground stairway from the 1730 period. Replacing the old tower that was at the junction of the two wings of the gothic chateau, it was a typical stairway going up all the way to the roof, replaced by this recurrent stairway in the 18th century. You can still see the print, the shape of the tower with this round profile. We have preserved the former window overlooking the Cour d'Honneur before the building of the 18th century went in front of it, so you will see that when we go up the stairway. On the ground, we call that the pisé, which is typical of Dordogne. It's like a pavement made of small stones that go quite deep inside in the sand and the chalk and are polished by the shoes, the wood shoes of the people of the house through the ages. Even only 300 years old here because this portion is from the 18th century. Before entering into the old chateau, let's look at the extension part which is typical of the 18th century, which means high windows, a lot of light, very pleasant, very much open to the terrace and the gardens. So this room again is a part of the extension, is very typical of the 18th century. This fresco here actually was realized by a cousin of ours who found that we needed a bit of help to create color into our place. It's an exotic scene that actually goes very well here. Let's keep going. We will later go downstairs to visit the grand kitchens of the 18th century, but before that let's visit the ground floor. All right, so this which is today a dining room was initially the main room of the gothic castle in the middle age. There the lord of Montastruc would make justice. This is called the aula in the latin word and this is where everything in the house is converging. It's really the core, the heart of the house. Here we had poor restoration work done in the 1950s with white paint covering the original blue taint and the fabric was very poor quality. We had to replace all that, it was all falling apart. So we found back the authentic color in some places that were hidden and never aggressed by time and we found the original colors of all the woodwork that we could restore. It's made of five layers of paints which are chalk based paints. The first color that you can see here is a dark blue and it's covered by layers that go progressively into extremely light gray and it gives a very soft light blue color with a bit of depth and it's ending with a saponification layer that creates a silky effect on the paint. Extremely difficult to realize and made by very very talented people that you find very much in Dordogne. The fabric is from the house Pierre Fray and it's a re-edition of an 18th century. So it's not handmade but it's quite mechanical and not heavy industrial, not so much automatic and this is really reserved for this sort of restoration in these sort of houses. This cupboard here that is from the 1730s is quite interesting because it is decorated like if it was supposed to be open but you don't want to have that open all the time so actually you forget to close it when you expect your guest to arrive. Of course they can see how beautiful your china is and your crystals and then you apologize sorry I forgot to close excuse me and you do that but in between they have seen this extremely beautiful ironwork and woodwork. Everything is detailed it's to be seen but not too long so excuse me I forgot to close it. All right let's move to the ground living room. So this is the ground living room of Montastruc where we also had to do heavy restoration work. The fabric was falling apart there was a lot of and the painting was gone. There when we started the work we found that all this white was very flat and we were losing the sense of depth in the woodwork and we asked the painter what can we do about it. He said I'm sorry I've not finished my work yet and he asked us to buy a beer and we we prepared a bucket of beer and we added two spoons of pigment of chalk pigment which is actually sienna and this is an ochre reddish and with this foamy mixture we had a sponge we washed the painting that was just fresh white and then we cleaned again with fresh water and what happens is that the pigment residue hides into the deep carving of the wood and gives suddenly this 3d effect and this depth again and the miracle happens and suddenly it looks like it has not moved and changed since the 18th century. Apart from the Queen Marie Antoinette that is here famous painting from Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, the other portraits are from the family. This one was the captain of the noble guard which means the musketeers and actually the family was in charge of this musketeer duty from generation to generation. This one is from the Louis XV period and actually this portrait is a portrait done as an engagement portrait. It was given to the Duke of Montechamp in England who had a daughter candidate to marry Gabrielle de Fittes and another portrait was exchanged the other way around where this one of the daughters of the Duke of Montechamp was presented through a painting to this young man and the marriage was organized like that and it was a happy marriage in the end but that's a wedding portrait or a pre-wedding portrait. Above the doors you will find what we call trumeaux. We couldn't see anything anymore from these paintings when we arrived here they were dark brown and by just cleaning with expert hands people very qualified for listed houses like ours they removed the varnish and we realized that the painting was intact absolutely intact the colors were all there it was just dirt on it and we cleaned it re-varnished it and this is today as it was in the 18th century very colorful the floor is made of walnut squares and pine in the middle and it's from the 18th century as well so everything you see in the house actually if it is not gothic it is from the 18th century there is nothing that is newer than that and that's why the soul is so preserved in the house the house has not suffered any major changes some chimneys were adapted in the 19th century with little curtains of iron to prevent from the airflow of winter but that's the only thing that would be a kind of change of aspect to the house let's move to the music room but before we go to the music room let me show you one thing here we call this gentleman who is the count of Marcellus we call him the blue man because of his coat he died in 1788 in a duel and this is his wife she has around her neck something added in the 19th century which is a memory of her death as a martyr of the french revolution during the terror time in 1793 when you see a painting with that little thing around the neck of a lady it's because she was beheaded during the revolution difficult times dangerous times in the music room we'll find her son Marie-Louis Auguste Père de France which means he was on the top ranking of the hierarchy of state men helping the the kings with the 18th child the 10th in the management in the government of France the son of Marie-Louis Auguste is Lodois de Marcellus who is here and his wife here Valentin de Forbin Lodois is important to us because he's the man who bought and brought back the Venus de Milo you have certainly seen in the Louvre in Paris this extraordinary statue of the Venus de Milo this is a man that we have to thank for this acquisition from France in 1822 he offered it to the king of France who offered it to the Louvre so you will see later why the Venus de Milo is also part of the history of Montastruc today and then these four engravings here are quite interesting because they are they represent the battle of the Nile which is the first naval battle between the young Napoleon Bonaparte and the British armies or fleet I believe Nelson was on board and you see the French fleet facing the British fleet but progressively frame after frame we see this disaster where the French fleet was destroyed and the British fleet won there was a warning from the from England to France saying don't touch our navy we are masters of the sea then still in this room on this photography coming from the very early pictures of photographic times there is a little girl on the knees of her mother and this little girl is one of my great-grandmother she's sitting on the knees of my great-great-grandmother and standing is my great-great-great-grandmother which means if you put back with dates she's actually contemporary to the blue man that we saw earlier with this powder hair and court royal court face and this is today modern times industrial times in the 19th century people who have seen each other quite interesting so moving from the music room let's go through the dining room again to the to the rest of the ground floor so you can see one of these typical small rooms on the way that were reconverted from the gothic times into the 18th century modern times let's let's look at that on the way let's say hello to Louis XIV this painting is from the 18th century and not from his time because at the end of the 18th century the French monarchy is a bit losing its prestige and so at that time people are repainting Charlemagne, Henry IV, Louis XIV, all the heroes of the previous times of the monarchy to beef up a bit the reputation and remind people of the great times of the past so I'm moving into the west tower which is a round tower and inside the round tower we find square rooms with extremely thick walls and this room that should be a gothic room with probably a vault initially is actually today an 18th century very typical very detailed room but very simple at the same time if you look at the way the the wood floor is made it's extremely simple quite even rustical no pretension and same goes with the paintings they are very simple hunting scenes farmland in the middle an imitation of Watteau famous paintings with our dog represented in the middle because we had here a problem with the original that we had to reinvent it so we recreated a new form of scene so sometimes we can be creative in the restoration work as well so now our way to the first floor we can say hello to the Venus de Milo this is actually all grandchild of the house is talking to her on the way up hello Venus how are you doing today giving a little nice gesture to her she's part of the family of life of the family why is she here as you remember I told you that the count of Marcellus is the one who acquired the Venus of France and offered it to the king who offered it to the Louvre at the marriage of my sister in a large house that is called Chateau de Marcellus before I knew anything about that family I realized in the grand living room of this beautiful chateau near Marmont not too far from here was standing a Gibson cast of the Venus de Milo and I was told this is the original Venus offered by the Louvre to thank the count of Marcellus for this beautiful gift he had made and this is the first cast ever made of the Venus in the condition she arrived in France which means with wounds because she had been taken through the rocks and had a certain bad time before restoration they had done this statue and at the wedding of my sister suddenly I see a space opening in front of me and a gentleman making a picture of his four daughters at the foot of his Venus and I was wondering why does he call that his Venus actually he was the count of Marcellus and one of the beautiful girls looking at in front of me is my wife today so I met her for the first time in Marcellus with the Venus de Milo above her and for the celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary I asked the Louvre if I could get a copy of the Venus and they said please go like everyone to the boutique to the shop and buy one and I said I'm sorry but they are like that I would like a real one no no we don't do that anymore this is for museums and no way and I explained I said sorry but my wife is Ségolène de Marcellus she's directly coming from the family that offered you the Venus maybe you could think it through and after a few days I got a call back from the president of the Louvre from his office making an offer for a resin of the Venus restored like it is in Louvre today and this is exactly the cast of the Venus de Milo like it is in the Louvre with the same patina it's a replica that is in perfect condition from the best work craftsmanship possible today in the Louvre on the top of the stairway it is the Marquis de Lafayette who is contemplating the Venus with an air of dissatisfaction which I'm not sure why and we continue the the visit with nice little rooms this one is extremely typical of the 18th century so this is what you call the princess room my daughter takes this room when she comes and you have a very exquisite fabric from the same house Pierre Fray the Braconnier collection that is also in the Grand Trianon in same fabric so it's a very elegant 18th century fabric and this room is frankly the absolute representation of how feminine room would look like under Louis XV a lot of windows open to nature a lot of fabric and flowers and this comfort of the alcove with a bit of intimacy for the bed and next to it a bathroom that takes back the main decoration of the room with its alcove again for the bathtub this room is a grand family room that has kept most of its gothic aspect at minima restored during the 18th century which means no new chimney we still have the gothic one and actually the big wall on which this this major monumental chimney stands is from the 1280s 1280s so we are in the end of the 13th century when we came into Montesquieu in 98 it was covered with gypsum we couldn't see the chimney anymore the ceiling was covered with a gypsum ceiling as well but cracked with holes everywhere and we could see that there was something much nicer behind it this window was was shut with a wall there's no way to and it was looking empty behind so we we found back the room by removing stuff and progressively we found back the volume and the beautiful details of the gothic period so a lot of work in this room although it looks very simple it's a huge undertaking from this room we distribute like in the dining room where it is below us we distribute again the main wings of the house here is a large master bedroom here is the oratorium the chapelle and access to the roof here is the abbey chamber and here is a library of the house so let's start with a chapel this is the the chapel of Montastruc and this room shows us again something absolutely unique because you see here the the former vaults that were destroyed during the hundred years war between england and france and towards the end of that period the lord of Montastruc Bertrand d'Abzac was perceived by the french side to be a traitor who would have chosen to be on the side of the duke of Aquitaine the king of england actually it was neither french or english for him it was just that his house was on the side of the border moving border every day between france and england or aquitaine and the rest of france and so he had to be punished because he was the most visible senior of the area and to serve as an example and to intimidate the other lords of Dordogne the king of france Charles VII decided to punish death actually Bertrand d'Abzac and to punish the house as well that was supposed to be destroyed and erased to the height of the infamy which means nothing should be left however we are in 1438 at the end of the hundred years war they have no time to demolish entirely Montastruc so what they do is that they remove something that was extremely elegant but fragile and easy to destroy the wall here that was receiving on little pillars the vaults of this gallery that was a bit in italian style but gothic french gothic aspect with the vaults and the pillars and a beautiful beautiful balustrade of carved stone very easy to push down to the moat the roof was destroyed partly also but the house remained intact abandoned but intact for years it was raining inside however the war ended the new king Louis XI decided to give back to Aquitaine its business and the tax that would come with it and he ordered the reconstruction of most of this castle dismantled by this the hundred years war Montastruc is part of it and he ordered the reconstruction but there was not enough money to bring back the artist and to redo this beautiful work of vaults and sculpture so we have a heavy wall with four windows that is on this facade today and since then this room that has a very strange spirit in it serves as an oratorium a chapel but the real chapel of the of Montastruc historically is actually the the church of the village down down the chateau one of the other things that i can highlight in this room is the assumption of virgin mary this painting is realized in Cusco in Peru we found it there where the typical Cusco school is to include precious metal into the painting the oil painting and here the virgin mantle includes has inclusions of gold the funny thing is that the angels that are elevating the virgin mary are having face are typical of the suburbs of Cusco and are not exactly the typical baroque angels that you will see in rome so from the chapel we can access the roof and the beautiful structure that holds it we are here in the roof of one of the wings of the gothic building and this is what is left of the reconstruction ordered by louis the 11th in 1475 so the the wood the pieces that you see here that are extremely high more than 15 meters for most of them in one piece is dating from 1475 and it's one of the last ensemble of a carpentry that is intact from the 15th century from the reconstruction after the hundred years war this wood is coming from oaks that were 500 to 800 years standing in the nature part of nearly the primitive forest still there in Dordogne that had been put in water for many years where the soft wood disappears and what remains is the heart that is like steel and this is why the roof has this longevity and the wood persisted despite the holes in in the slates the the wood doesn't it's like petrified the the wood resists even the water for a few years at least if you come in fast enough to repair like two or three years later you can still save it so it's quite interesting that's how it survives one of the interesting piece of work here is in the tower we can see three levels the first one on the nearly at our height second and the third one further up these plateaus are meant to assemble the the diagonal forces of the and to recenter the the weight of the tower vertically and in the middle and that allows for the walls of the tower to not open up with the pressure from the wood but to the contrary to have the the weight coming straight vertical on it and the walls absolutely don't crack don't move there is nothing through centuries no single movement of all this work in this portion of the we can see another interesting thing on the walls this demonstrates here that all this room was insulated completely covered up with straw and mud and then chalk and a white bedding on it which means that it was an airy well insulated room which had a very large chimney a bit like the gothic one we see downstairs there was here and it's a noble floor actually although we are in the roof we are on the noble floor so quite original but we have to remember that in these gothic places there was one room per wing we have two wings ground floor first floor and attic which means even if you use the the roof you have only six rooms in the house so despite the ground aspect of it it's not such a large house after all but people were much living in this open air space so that's why the towers would represent the only place of intimacy that you would have on the side of these bigger rooms we just left the chapel and on the way to the library we can give a look to the abbey room as we are next to the chapel this is a room that is very much having the same inspiration and with these strong colors these are actually authentic from the 18th century and you see a very simple room a bit spiritual a bit like a monk cell just a bit better all from the period from the 1730s the floor the chimney everything is intact as i mentioned the master bedroom also opens on this large upstairs living room so let's go here that room is also in a large room in just above the grand living room on the ground floor beautiful proportions it is more in the middle age of the ceiling 17th century for the chimney this was restored prior to the extension of the 18th century so it has still a connotation of old times and our restoration work here was again to remove all the excess of gipsum to put back the chalk and the right colors on the pigment and on the wall here we have a fabric from the rebelli italian house that is a italian renaissance fresco reproduction but you see all through the whole house we remain at all times very simple it's good quality walnut and oak or pine or chestnut wood but never any overdone work it's always very simple but always the best quality and with the same inspiration we try to preserve the skin of the house so the chalk and the pigment on the on the body shawl the ground everything is as it was middle-aged tiles but the bathroom is functional so we don't bathroom we do the very modern on the old skin of the house so the soul is there but the functionality is of modern times and last but not least we now go to the library so this is the library of Montesruc there was a lot of work from our young generation students preparing their access to the best universities with a lot of success actually so we are very proud of the spirit that grown up in this room because we are in Dordogne you will see a certain specialization of the books one wall entirely dedicated to cuisine and to wines but probably the largest of all is to history philosophy law here the novels english literature and children literature so there are themes all around but for the youngest ones the mystery of this room resides in this particular piece of the library that opens to a secret cabinet the table is also interesting it was the table of the ministry council when they were uniting their thinking process when they visited the president of the french parliament of the national assembly in paris where a room was reserved for them where they could assemble as a conseil des ministres so this is what is left of the long long desk and we reconnected the last pieces of it and this contributed to the creation of the french republic in probably the third and the last two rooms of the house on this floor are here with a reverse plan but look at how high we are here we are only on the first floor and vertigo takes you when you are looking down the moat it must be at least 12 or 15 meters higher than the water and now we are going to go to the same gallery on the ground floor it's actually reversed this one is looking to the moat the other one is looking to the cordonneur but it's symmetrical like a mirror let's now have a look at the rooms the gallery is serving we start first with the count bedroom the count of montastruc was living in this in this area here the valet was here then the countess and then the antechamber of the countess bedroom and you will see it's quite simple look at the count bedroom here so this very simple room is where the count of montastruc was residing all is the cabinet that is here which is interesting because it's included into the wall the look at this beautiful work it's like a furniture in itself but it's integrated into the wall and all the paperwork of the history of the family Dabzak was actually here from the origins with all the feudal rights all the essential papers describing their duties and their power through their estate and the county but otherwise it's a very simple room again the wood floor is extremely rustical it's just enough of elegance to remember that it's the count of montastruc living here but there's nothing else no gold and no marble whatsoever the valet room has been transformed into a bathroom now that is shared between the count and the countess and the countess bedroom that has a relatively interesting wood paneling work that is of the same quality that you would find in the dining room or in the ground living room except that here it doesn't go into any complex color and depth this is very simple this room has its extension here that is the antechamber of the countess where she could host her visitors lady visitors typically in a less formal way than in that is another example of how the chimneys in the 19th century were modernized so this black marble is probably not as beautiful as the real chimney that is behind it that would be mid-18th century but however we have not taken a chance yet to remove the marble to discover what is behind but when we did it in other rooms we discover beautiful much more elegant chimney behind this one so far is as we found it it's mystery for later so let's go to the ground kitchens of the 18th century just imagine all the way from these stairs bottom of the stairs to this through this door to a little reserve and then to dining room it's a long way to go for the meat for example to be served the pheasant to be prepared and so they had a little room on the side where they could adjust the feathers of the pheasants to be looking great in all its parure and served at the table but i would not be sure that the meat would be warm when it reached the the guests these are the grand cuisine of the 18th century in these kitchens we would prepare the food for all the people living in the house being the lord and his family or the servants and the visitors you could say that more or less every day you had to feed about 40 people four zero that's a lot so a lot of activity you can imagine here a long table with a system from the ceiling with pulleys and rapes that would lower the suspension where all the pans copper pans would be suspended and you would help yourself with the cuisine wash them and when everything was done you would bring them up back up there and have all the air for your movement around in a large chimney here you would prepare the ropes and you would have various chains with the soups and the sauce and everything keeping hot but particularly interesting here is a brooch where you put a full lamb or a pork on that thing and here on the side a little chain would connect with this machine here that would turn like a clock mechanism with a little rope going up to this pulley all the way here and down with a weight and that would provide two or three hours of roasting very soft and you put it at the distance of the fire or in the fire depending on how much you want to cook on the side of the big work area and fire you have the small oven in french when we talk about the typical cocktail pieces we talk about petit four it's because they were prepared on the side of the big chimney in the petit four in the small oven and the expression has remained for the little pieces which could also be brioche but it's not an oven for bread there you would have a little table and l shape with holes into the bricks that build it and there they would put burning wood and ashes warm ashes to keep the table warm remember we want to keep this warm as long as possible all the way up to the dining room before the guests will eat the food you don't want it to be cold when it reaches the guests here this pump still capable of working if it was restored but the mechanic is there and the piston that is here pushing the water doesn't work anymore only because the membranes that block the water to avoid that it falls down are made of leather which means they are they have rotten since then and it's useless now but it would be enough to just replace them with modern material and the pump will produce water from the springs that are coming from the next forest on the side there and not from the water of the moat it's very good water that comes here you would have water for the kitchen fresh water spring water but you will have also water going all the way up with a lead pipe not this one directly to the countess water room next to her bedroom so despite the reputation they were very clean and have fresh water in their apartments we are going to see now the dining room of all the kitchen people and the bakery of the chateau this is where the cooks would eat interesting enough we have made some fires in these chimneys regularly when we do large parties and i can tell you when you are arriving in montastrique in the cordon you can smell this beautiful wood fragrance and so i bet that when the chef was preparing something for dinner and the guests would arrive in the evening through the cordon they would know what they were going to eat later in the evening because of the smell floating in the air arriving in montastrique before entering the bakery area we can see here the stairway this is a service stairway and this is where all the wood to feed the the bread oven and the various furnaces on the other side this is where the wood would come however you can to do that every day day and day after day so when the owner when the landlord was not here they would probably throw away most of the beams through the stairway and 300 years later the stairway is in these poor conditions it has to be entirely redone remade because it's broken it has been exploded by the shocks of all these beams falling on it now here we are in the bakery this is the bread oven so all the village would come here to bake its bread and this is interesting because it allows the chateau to be well aware of the life in the village and so people talk they chat about everything happening but it creates a familiarity between the people of the of the village and the area and the chateau and during the revolution instead of beheading the chateaulains in the country or the country the inhabitants of la mosey protected them they were part of the family and that creates a big difference there was an intimacy between the people you can imagine the quantity of wood to feed the beast and you could it is still intact you could cook bread or a pizza but you would have to start up the fire three or four days before because you cannot do it brutally you have to warm up very progressively otherwise the bricks would crack and the oven would fall apart so it has to heat up very slowly reach a very high heat after a few days a lot of wood in the end and when you end the work you have to keep also going down very slow ideally you never stop and so that's why you do bread every two or three days but you never stop your fire hence the number of beams of wood that had to go down the stairway as we saw before so what is characteristic of Montastruc is this mix between the rock and the construction and it's often difficult to understand exactly where ends one and start the other here into the rock we have one of the main caves of this troglodytic site let's go inside and see the Venus so we are now inside the main room of this complex troglodytic area and you can see on the rock the traces of the tools that the people have used to carve out to extend the room from the natural cave of the origins it's extremely old probably used under the prehistorical periods definitely proven to be used in the Goloar time the Celtic moments during the Roman occupation as well and at the fall of our own Roman Empire it is highly probable that the people took refuge from the invasions of the gods into these caves at that time they carve Venus into the rock and this is a goddess of the earth a goddess of fertility that the Druids to whom they were giving homage into ceremonies celebrating the fertility for the agriculture that Venus is actually what we call paleo-christian having a mix of christian symbols like the aura around the face and she's a naked woman she's not a virgin she's a goddess and that's the beginning of the christianization of this druidic culture of Perigord that started in the years 350 after christ the fox that is also carved here is uh carved later probably in the late 1500s around 1560-68 probably where the protestants were in the in Montastruc and obliged to abandon the fortress or become a catholic and get back the dove is actually the symbol of the protestant church during the religious wars so what you have here behind me is the remains of the initial construction of the romanic times where the fortification used the troglodytic site and the rock to create terraces of observation and defense and there is a stairway carved directly into the rock that goes all to the first level here with a chicane which means a sort of a double 90 degree system where you get trapped if you are not welcome extremely difficult to come without being eliminated if you are not expected then a bit further away this canyon here is not natural it's uh after the uh annexion of uh Aquitaine by Clovis in the years early years 500 that they decided to abandon the former romanic uh or roman construction i would say and focus on the last piece of the rock to create an island a 45 island with a drawbridge in wood and probably all the fortification was initially in wood and then in the 11th century in the years 1000-ish they start to build the walls in stone again and what you see under the matriculation is actually the last piece dating from the times of the 11th century a very impressive wall where the limit between the rock and the construction is extremely difficult to uh to guarantee it's all a mix everywhere so at the time when they create the 18th century extension they just don't want to have all this uh uh military uh system and construction that hides the beautiful neoclassic extension so they erase all these buildings and with the stones of the patern the s the drawbridge all this system that was uh the entrance and all the garrison buildings in the cordonare eliminating all that they do the stone bridge with old stones from the middle age but it's built in the 18th century initially when they had removed this block to create the Yatusso canyon actually they removed only the ceilings and the upper levels of the caverns that were there because this was a truly litig village going all the way through with various caves communicating one with the other so here um there is a demonstration again of the integration of the buildings the 18th century on my right the gothic building on my left and the fortress walls at the junction between the century and the old building and the chateau itself was alone with no fortification by itself on the rock and it's the 18th century when they removed the military constructions that they use also the remaining rocks to extend the fortress wall into a terrace that you can access from the ground living room and that creates the option to go outside and not be prisoner of your fortress and be more into the lifestyle of the 18th century so very old stones used in the 18th century it looks like from the middle age because the stones are from the middle age but the construction is actually from 1730 or 50 so this is the the middle age face of Montastruc the most preserved however we see it after reconstruction after the hundred years war we have to remember that before 1430 this was made of two levels of loggia with little columns and vaults on two on two levels and you can see still the triangle of the extremely high elevated roof made of slate so quite severe facade here and protected by a moat with water this what we call the passive defense of Montastruc while the other side has active meaning you permanently look at the potential invasion or attack on the active side which is the side of the road of Périgueux to Agen while here you don't expect anyone to arrive on that side so you put water to delay the potential attack and have the time to switch defense on we come now at the junction of the former gothic castle and even older with the extension of the 18th century what is striking is the very poor condition of this facade that is looking west so getting the storms directly in the face but i must say that the Cours d'honneur and it's very beautiful blonde facade today was in the same condition when we arrived more than 25 years ago and so it's encouraging to know that we can do it and one day it will look like the other one however it's a bit overwhelming to see all the work that remains to be done on this facade so on this face of Montastruc we are as i said looking west and facing storms but also in winter the frost bites furiously and we have for example the top there at the corner you can see how the stone is damaged and needs to be replaced it's the case in many places around there we also have to repair some of the areas that have been attacked by the salt and by the corrosion natural corrosion it's three more than 300 years since this building has been constructed with no maintenance since then so as i said earlier it's feasible but it's why is it overwhelming because we need first to restore the moat and the hydraulic system of the moat to be able to control the level of water remove the mud fortify the restore the the walls that hold the the moat then scaffold all the face of the house do the restoration work on the rock on the on the stones but as well on the roof and on the windows it's kind of a drawing drawers exercise where as soon as you close one you have to open the other one before you can finish and dismantle all your scaffolding it could be more than one year of work but it can be done it is interesting to see the nuance of color between the restored area and the area that remains to be done so these are the former stables of Montastruc i'll explain later how it is structured it's quite interesting and on that side we can see the collection of trees that we are planting every year a collection of varieties of rare origins and then on the top we find the dove tower the dove coat and it's a classic basin where we have restored in a modern functional way the bottom of the dove coat but on the top we have all the functional holes for the pair of pigeons for the so we are again here like every Montastruc assembling modernity and preservation of historical remains Montastruc is rented occasionally and when there is a wedding here people the young married couple loves to use the dove coat's chamber or room as their honeymoon suite for one night so this building the former stables is actually built around the the usage of one coach about up to four horses that were there at the first door at the end next to the chateau is where the family of the Palfrenier the one who cares for the horses was residing and he has a window in a chimney the next door where where you put the coach then the small door in the window is where you keep and restore the leather and the irons then you have the horses up to four of them with a paved room and here you have all the tools for maintenance and repairs and you have a straw and hay that was stored on the level of the roof so all this is built really for one coach and all the people who care for it all right so i hope this tour was uh of interest to you you liked it the mount and other styles the happy mount you have noticed through my explanations during the tour that the people who lived in here had the passion for their building wanted to preserve it by all means despite the wars and the and the wounds resulting from them with the same passion and a bit of a crazy tone in the approach we have started our work 25 years ago and you have seen what remains to be done the restoration of the hydraulic functions around the moat the walls of the two large phases of the building over the moat the bastions the gallo roman bastions the caves my god there is so much more that needs to be done plus we start again on what we have done 25 years ago where we need to repaint again all the windows and the shutters and we need to redo part of the roof already after 25 years but with the same passion and little crazy tone where you want to to count too much and you want just to to accept some sacrifices it's really worth it if you want to know more about what we have done and what remains to be done and about the history of montastrique i recommend you visit our website www.montastrique.com and don't hesitate if you are in the area during the european heritage days every year so the weekend of september i think every year where we welcome the public free admission and with the help of the local reading club we guide you through the house in flesh if i may say so hope to see you soon bye