A house with character: the history of the house and its inhabitants

Chavannes-sur-Reyssouze - Heritage: The Château des Darbonnets was an artist's house

To: Le Progrès - May 26, 2016

This residence from 1830, locally known as "Le Château des Darbonnets", is notable for its rich history. Catherine SOULLIER, widow of a prominent inhabitant of Pont-de-Vaux, had it built as a summer residence on a part of the agricultural land she owned, together with the farms in the hamlet.

The heiress

After her death, her granddaughter (Léonie Marie) Rose inherited the house. She would become the central figure in a large family of musicians, painters, politicians, writers, and a pharmacist. With the death of her first husband, a poet, Rose SOULLIER (1846-1926) became a widow at the age of 27. She married Henri LENORMAND (1855-1938), a musician. He was a pianist and would later become a conductor and composer, as well as the organist of the Mâcon cathedral. She had six children, all of whom went on to remarkable futures, and she became known as "Grandmother Rose."

A famous granddaughter

Her granddaughter, Marguerite BOURCET (1899-1938), would become a poet, journalist, and novelist. In this house, she began her first novel in 1922, L'Héritière de Ferlac (The Heiress of Ferlac). 

This was initially published as a serial in La Semaine de Suzette, before being issued by Gautier-Languereau. Some fifteen books followed, from L'étoile de Navailles in 1925 to Un couple de tragédie: le duc et la duchesse d'Alençon in 1939. She provides a poetic description of Les Darbonnets: "The surroundings: hidden in a maze of sunken lanes lined with willows, a true park, modestly called a garden, surrounded by walls and hedges, with its wide sandy paths, its flowering lawns, its particularly robust trees - poplars, chestnut trees, conifers, tulip trees; elegant vistas designed by a renowned landscape architect at the time of the construction of the house."

From success to success

Margherita's sister, Marie-Rose, married Dr. René FOUCHÉ (1893-1974), a pharmacist and inventor of "Boldoflorine," the famous herbal tea for the liver whose slogan was taken up by Charles Trenet. He would become one of the pioneers of radio advertising. He would found the radio production company in Paris.

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