THE Château de Chiffrevast in Normandy belongs to that thrilling group of places not to be found in the guidebooks. An estate wall several miles long guards the domaine, with lofty gates and railings at each of the drives.
The main entrance — with twin gateways for added grandeur — opens into a long drive that trails through wooded parkland in the English picturesque style. The château comes into view only at the last minute, as the drive sweeps down to a courtyard where the entrance front is as massive as a fortress. The corner towers are like bastions, slightly pointed rather than square, with the steep pyramid roofs found in Scottish castles.
According to the official listing, the château was completed in 1618 by Henri or Hervieu d’Anneville. The two abbots who in 1899 wrote La Normandie Monumentale described it as a redoubt or citadel which needed a whole garrison to defend it. A contemporary Scot described it as a house “where thieves shall knock ‘ere they enter”.
By 1899 the château had been rescued from dereliction by a local industrialist, Eugène Bretel, who has a niche in history as purveyor of butter to Queen Victoria. His handsome house and factory in the nearby town of Valognes is illustrated on a delightful poster for Beurre d’Isigny produced by Bretel Frères. It is his descendants who are now selling the property because it is too large for their needs. Christian Le Doux says: “We have sent seven lorryloads of contents to Paris to be auctioned.”
The architectural detail is sparing, with shallow triangular pediments over the windows and stone dormers with paired arches which look more modern but are found on 17th-century houses in these parts. The windows speak of a low vaulted ground floor with a noble étage, containing grand reception rooms, a bedroom floor only marginally less lofty, and an attic for the servants. The central front door is approached by pretty balustraded steps opening into a very Italian staircase, which rises under tunnel vaults with a wooden balustrade along the walls and trophies of arms and armour above.
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The first-floor landing opens dramatically at the back on to an imposing stone arched bridge crossing the broad dry moat to a parterre garden now grassed over. The main rooms, in characteristic French fashion, look out over both fronts with fine parquets à la Versailles. Tall casement windows on both main floors bring abundant light into every room.
A fascinating discovery is to find that the immensely thick walls are threaded with narrow service stairs connecting to the basements and attics and allowing servants to enter any room without using the main doors or corridors. Hidden doors in the panelling open into secret passages, garderobes and privies similar to those in medieval castles. Here loos and bidets (some now choice pieces of Edwardiana) have replaced the thunderboxes that served in earlier centuries. “A fantastic place for hide and seek. You could stay hidden all day,” says Le Doux.
The intricately carved panelling found in many rooms is older than the château and appears mainly early 18th-century, with typical ribbonwork, though sometimes in a rather archaic style. Most of the woodwork is painted white with the ornamental features picked out in gold leaf. There are also a few examples of delicious Rococo shellwork detail. Many rooms retain handsome marble fireplaces, and there is a very pretty chapel with an outside door for farmers, a gallery for the family and a small window above the altar through which the marquise could follow the Mass unseen.
The present château is the third to stand on the site. The first, dating from the middle of the 11th century, was built by a seigneur who accompanied William the Conqueror on the invasion of England. Hélène de Chiffrevast, who held land in both England and Normandy, is mentioned as a donor to a nearby abbey in 1080. Two centuries later the seigneurs fell foul of the powerful Godefroy d’Harcourt, who arrived with 500 men and destroyed the château, stole the cattle and corn, and blocked the wells.
When the last Chiffrevast died without heirs in 1371 the domaine passed first to the Percys and then the d’Annevilles, who rebuilt the château in 1450 (it was rebuilt again in 1618).
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Until the Revolution the main courtyard was enclosed by three wings of estate buildings. One remains, solidly built in stone, with stables and mangers for hunters and carriage horses and a cider press and dovecote in the end tower. The walled vegetable garden at the other side of the château still contains apple trees but cries out for replanting as a formal potager.
Like many French châteaux, Chiffrevast retains a superb carpentry roof. This is less massive than some, but comes with rafters curving outwards at the bottom to create the characteristic splayed edge.
In the kitchen the broad arched hearth has been transformed into an inglenook with stone seats. Below the window is a légumier — a series of seven square grilles, like the rings on a modern cooker, heated by a fire below and used for boiling and steaming vegetables. Other intriguing features are a massive Victorian iron radiator inset with a cupboard for warming plates, and a key rack with hooks neatly numbered from one to 50.
For an English buyer, the château is just half an hour’s drive from Cherbourg. The Cotentin, as the Cherbourg peninsula is known, is a gloriously rural and unspoilt part of Normandy, with pasture and woods that appear not to have changed in centuries. For anyone who wants to step away from all the harassments and intrusions of modern life, this is the place for you.
Château de Chiffrevast is for sale for €3.15 million (£2.13 million).
Contact Conseil Immobilier International, 00331 42681111, www.philiphawkes.com