The Chateau De Arcy-sur-Cure

French Journal Day 125 (Travel Diary Day 205)

The 18 foot steel gates were open – a sight I never thought I’d see. Rolling gently up the gravel path, we pulled over long before we reached the chateau. Somehow it didn’t seem right to enter the ancient grounds with Lucien’s car. We got out and made our way towards the long-abandoned building on foot. The tall, leaf-less trees either side of the path cast shadows of long fingers that lead right to the grassy courtyard.

This was not an inviting place, and that, I think, was part of the allure. Crumbled cottages and rubble around the grounds suggested that this was once a home and a place of work. Now, the Chateau de Arcy-Sur-Cure is little more than an unwanted memory, a derelict past that can’t be sold, apparently. Even after meeting the asking price of millions, the work would be so great that only a complete stripping and rebuilding of the structure would make the place habitable.

The forecourt, once a hub of activity no doubt, is simply a grassy plain with the faint outline of a pathway circling around. A strange rocky feature sits flush in the centre of the yard. With the exception of a gentle breeze rustling overgrown grass nearby, we are surrounded by silence. I’m not a coward, I’d say. I once dangled over the lip of a volcano at 5:00am to get a photo of the surprise within. However, the boarded windows of this life-less place was enough to make my hairs stand on end. I desperately wanted to enter the building but we’d been told not to. My companion was adamant that we respect the owner’s wishes.

Trying to compose the photo you see, I spent minute after minute attempting to line the building up – it just wouldn’t sit straight. I later came to understand that it never would. Years of subsidence had left this building noticeably misshapen. In fact, the back part of the chateau is lying at the bottom of a hill.

Searching the internet, I was thrilled to find an old photo of the chateau. Seeing its well-kept grounds, plants in pots, open windows and former inhabitants, I was able, for the first time, to imagine this place as it was meant to be.

A message written on the back of this photo can be found on the forum where I originally found this shot. The author remarks that they spent many a holiday here in their youth, playing games. The fondness found in the author’s tone cannot be found in the grounds today.

I circled the building and found ruin after ruin. I was reminded of the frailness of everything when my foot went through a pile of rocks I was standing on and I almost fell.

Wine cellars, barns, mysterious buildings with caved-in rooves, all of it forgotten – even the locals barely notice the chateau on the hill. To have the opportunity to visit these grounds is a privilege. Yet being there, in that once magnificent place, is a stark reminder of the temporary nature of everything, of the degradation that will eventually befall everything.

I shouldn’t speak too soon, however. It may one day find a buyer, someone who will bring back the beauty and elegance of its former glory, who will fend off its degradation and prolong its life. And who knows, it may once again be the chateau on the hill that demands our attention.