An exploration lost in the south of France. A real little operetta castle, with its stucco bas-reliefs and cornices and its Italian coloured frescoes...
The castle was originally a simple country house built in 1763 by the architect Dussine; it was completely transformed in the beginning of the XXth century by Mrs Combes, née Saint-Macary. She spent huge sums of money to build the actual castle.
The main highlights are the neogothic chapel in which was an old crucifix from Seville; a reassembled cloister (with, as one can read on the rotten sign: "marble twin columns and capitals from the XIIth and XIIIth centuries style hispano-french art").
The last known owner of the castle was the general French police mutual insurance company. Only subscribers were allowed to stay in the castle for holidays. The last known allocation of the castle allocation was a mutual insurance company for the French police. Unfortunately after many ups and downs the castle had been abandoned.
The castle was a victim of a fire a few years ago and a "temporary" tin roof has been added to limit the damage, but disfigures the castle, thus imperfectly showing how splendid the castle could have been in the past...
The park, chapel, gardens, ornamental lake and water reservoir have only been listed as historical monuments since 2005. Hopefully this will protect the castle from the random events an abandoned castle might encounter...
What a gorgeous place. Who knew it had been neglected since after WWII!! Here are some more pictures and other history about the Chateau Bijou; so amazing https://bit.ly/2OAtPK7
Regards from Poland! You did amazing stuff here, really great photos! I hope one day I will also be able to visit some of those France castles :-)
Hi there Around2004/2005 I met the owner P. Nobel of Chateau Bijou. It was his big wish to restore this castle.
I loved to see the place there in Labastide but it never came so far. Nice pictures you take! Best wishes MM
Il n'est pas réstauré? L'année dernière dans le village on m'a dit que ça devait se faire sous peu... C'est dommage de le laisser ainsi!
je peux vous dire le chateau bijou est un site vraiment exceptionnel ma mere ayant travailler pendant plus de 20 ans dans ce chateau et ayant moi meme y habitait pendant quelque mois pour vous dire qu'il est vraiment merveilleux je suis vraiment accablé que des voleurs des escrocs y vivent de nos jours a l'interieur de celui ci je voudrait tant que pour les autres personne on le restaure car c'est vraiment tres beau a voir avant tout le dernier propriétaire de ces lieux était M.Nobel
I showed this to my mother, becasue she loves beautiful architecture, and she could not believe that this was abandoned. It's such a shame that it's just sitting there, but wonderful that you were able to take some splendid photos of its decaying splendor. ;D
This whole Site is so interesting. Im so glad that someone took the challenge of restoring the Chateau Bijou. When i saw my first intuition was to buy it on the spot.... Well i hate to be curious but i'll ask You anyway. Who did You buy it from? What was the price and eehh how much do reckon to put in the restoring project. and can we see more pictures from the work in progress? and do you intent to have bed and breakfast.... maybe you have your own website. thats about it
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C'EST BON
Thanx everybody,
Have been off the net for a while, but succeeded to get internet working at the Chateau. Have been reading all the messages and are very happy, me and my wife. Don't let anybody fool you, we can be reached at:
harigeharry.bijou@gmail.com
The email is working and we will be installing a blog for everybody to follow the work we are doing and the progress we are making.
To all the visitors we had, hello and hope to see you back soon or on email, and for the ones who want to visit, just send an email, and we will confirm a contact by mail or by phone.
Thanx again to everybody and hope to hear from you soon.
what an amazing place! the park is a dream which hopefully will be retaured to its former glory the owner is most welcoming but sadly for the time being there are no plans to fix the main house and I am afraid that it will slowly decay as obviouly this will involve a great deal of money if the main parspective to the lake is cleared donw the rather ugly modern building erected during the time the place belonged to the French police will have to go as it will spoil the whole thing anyway living near by the opportunity to visit the place was a thrill and I am looking forwad to see the garden cleared down A long walk in this forgotten park is a must thank you for opening the place and sharing it with us
Hi, I visited the chateau bijou and the park yesterday, I absolutely loved it and will be going back with my pruners and gloves to give a hand in the park. The new owners are lovely and very welcoming! They also have a book for sale 10 euros very interesting. Regards Carol p.s. I live quite near and I speak and write french.
Hi HarigeHarry,
I'm absolutely in love with Bijou! Perhaps you could give me your email adress, so I could visit..?
Thx in advance!
Susan
Great picz, very good job ! Hope its´gonna be stay some years ! See you once Rafael
hello HarigeHarry! congratulations to your new small piece of heaven in the great southwestern corner of france! if i ever come back to the territoire basque i will contact you :-)
Hello HarigeHarry! Do you speak french?! I'm living in a small town close to the Chateau Bijou and every morning I can see this georgous place when i go to work. This place is so "mysterious" and incredible this is why i write to you because i will be so happy if i could visit this place! Could you contact me pleaaaaase!
Congratulations HarigeHarry on your legacy. This is one of the most glorious spaces I have ever seen. The world needs more visionaries like your self. You will be immortalized if you preserve it and glorify it by making it accessible to those who can appreciate it.
Just to tell all of you that Chateau Bijou is soon to be a "no longer a forbidden place". We have started the work at the main gate and soon it will be possible to visit legally by passing the main gate. It will take some time to get it all back in shape, but we have to start somehere.
Just to let you all know that it is, as the illegal visiters know, a small piece of heaven on earth and we want to share it with the rest of the world. If you want to visit, just send us an email and we will open the gate for you.
Hope to hear from you and not to find you.
The new owner
I love this site... never fails to cheer me up. :D keep up the beautiful pictures!
this is incredible. who knows the exact lokation of this chateau? we want to make this place a tango heaven.
What a environment !!, your pictures gave me sweet dreams ; thanks (good luck with the expo ! looking forward expo comming to belgium ! ) Groeten, Jens
Keep up the good work. This site is amazing.
This is awsome stuff, great work slyv!
Ha ha thanks bsidez, I knew you'd like this one, you chateau-addict :-)
hi, i have been to the chateau 2 weeks ago; a very beautiful place. the whole property is marked with "private" signs and it seems like somebodys starts to care about the house; the ground floor is locked with new iron-bar doors and some new windows are fitted. just to tell you about the recent status :-) actual picture on my homepage http://tdv.dl.am in the "Diverses" gallery on page 6. greetz, Victor
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