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24 November 2017 Rev 5.12.17

 

DRAFT WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE

 

MANOIR LES GAILLARDOUX 

Manoir Les Gaillardoux is a 17th and 18th-century maison de maitre, located 3.1km from the village of Montdoumerc (506 inhabitants in 2010), a commune of the Lot, Departement 46, in the Occitanie Region of south-west France. ( https://www.annuaire-mairie.fr/mairie-montdoumerc.html )

The Manor is known for some of its notable owners, successive rebuilds and the vernacular architectural heritage that it represents in the locality.

Contents

1.     Origin of name

2.     Location

3.     Construction

4.     Origins

5.     Local Economy

6.     Ownership

7.     Early Political Background

8.     Owner’s Political Involvement

9.     Great War 1914-18

10.  The Second World War 1939-45

11.  Post-War Ownership and restoration

ORIGIN OF THE NAME LES GAILLARDOUX

Gaillardou is a family name which features in the genealogy reference: (http://www.geneanet.org/genealogie/fr/gaillardou.html)

Though not a common name throughout France, it is strongly represented across the South-West, in the Dordogne, Midi-Pyrenees and Aquitaine regions.( https://www.filae.com/nom-de-famille/GAILLARDOU.html.)

In this rural part of France smaller place names tend to derive from the names of people who lived there, so it is likely that the Gaillardoux were a family living at this location.

LOCATION 

The property is located on an elevated limestone plateau, known as Les Causses du Quercy Blanc, for its substantially exposed white hilltops and stunted oak trees (Quercus) which grapple for a hold in the shallow soil and provide a source of black truffles. ( https://www.lalbenque.net/truffes/ ) 

Longitude: 010 29’ 03” E

Latitude: 440 17’ 42” N

Elevation : 775feet (236 metres)

The property lies approximately 19km south of the cathedral city of Cahors and 11km south-west of Lalbenque.

CONSTRUCTION

The cream-coloured, dressed and finely dressed, limestone blocks which form the Manor and outbuildings, present a rare example of local rural construction on this scale. From the exterior, it presents a picturesque ensemble of outbuildings and habitation. Its stately internal features are the result of successive investments by owners who built and renovated the property. (Picture)

( http://www.maisons-du-lot.com/region-pierre.php )

Unlike typical farm buildings, which tend to be oriented facing East/ West and have small windows to keep the sun out in summer and heat in during winter, the Manoir has its main rooms facing south and the interior benefits from the luminosity of windows 1.90m high in the principal accommodation rooms. (Plan cadastre or aerial photo)

Today, the buildings on the remaining 1.25-hectare site consist of:

·       Main house - principle accommodation on two floors divided centrally by a monumental stone staircase.

·       Laundry and store, connected single-storey extension at the western end

·       North wing, accommodation on two floors.

·       A metal and glass veranda

The habitable buildings have an internal floor area of approximately 500 m2

The outbuildings consist of:

·       Cylindrical pigeon tower (One of five in the area). ( http://www.alaingillodes.fr/patrimoine/pigeonnier/lot.htm )

·       Colonnaded carriage shed or préau.

·       ( https://www.cordial.fr/dictionnaire/definition/pr%C3%A9au.php )

·       Cattle barn (Dimensions)

The outbuildings cover (M2).

ORIGINS

An inscription on a lintel above the south-facing window of the north wing announces, “PERIE 1686”. (Photo)

Périé, is a common family name in the area and also the name given to a nearby stream which feeds into a tributary of the river Aveyron, to the south.

That lintel may have been originally placed a year after the opening of the palace of Versailles for King Louis XIV of France in 1685, or possibly recycled from another site.

The original buildings consisted of a small house and adjoining stable, where the lintel is now, with a since-demolished cattle barn to the west. (Source plan cadastre) Together, they formed a powerful means of survival for the family who constructed the buildings in a place where success required skillful application of labour to land.

 

LOCAL ECONOMY 

The Lot department is one of the least densely populated areas in France with 32 people per km2, compared to Paris with over 21,000 per km2.

(Source: https://www.frenchproperty.com/news/french_property/population_densisty_departments/  )

Though the land is poor and stony, being on a limestone plateau, it provides a combination of well-drained pasture for sheep, scrubby juniper for goats, and damper meadows (Combes) of richer grasses for cattle.

WINE

Vines were originally introduced by the Romans and by the 17th century, the area around Les Gaillardoux was planted with the '''Malbec grape variety. (Link)''' Vineyards profited from the stony, south-facing slopes and sunny climate and barrels of wine were shipped down the river Lot in barges to be traded at Bordeaux, much of it exported to England.

One of the most cataclysmic events in the economy of the Cahors area was The Great French Wine Blight, (Link) (Phylloxera aphid) which destroyed over 40% of French vineyards in the 1860s and 70s. The blight had a serious impact on Cahors Malbec Black Wine and it devastated the income of the Manoir.

A large proportion of the already thin population was obliged to migrate, mainly to the United States and Canada. It has been said that the grape phylloxera epidemic cost France more than twice the indemnity (5000 million francs) paid to Germany after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. (www.smithsonianmag.com/.../american-bugs-almost-wiped-out-frances-wine-industry)

The phylloxera beetle epidemic of 1860, continued into the early 20th century, across south-west France and the economy progressively reverted to subsistence farming for nearly a century until vines were replanted in the 1960s and 70s with resistant varieties from the USA. Some of the new vineyards are now producing high-quality wines such as the nearest significant vineyard, Chateau de Haute Serre, (Link https://hauteserre.fr/en/history.html ) AOC Cahors (17km from the Manoir), which has reliably improved over the years, and the more local Coteaux du Quercy which has achieved recognition as an AOC (Appelation d’Origine Controlée).

A parallel recovery is also apparent in general agriculture as modern farmers around the Manoir have gradually acquired larger land areas to overcome the estate divisions required by French inheritance laws, and by their investment in modern farm machinery, have at least partially offset low availability of local manpower.

PIGEON TOWERS (PIGEONNIERS) 

The South-West of France is dotted with pigeon towers which stand as curious and often majestic vestiges of a past economy. These very old constructions had a special place in social history and the economy throughout France. Manoir les Gaillardoux is fortunate to have a well-preserved cylindrical tower dating from around 1750-1800. (Photo Michel Lucien) It was possibly built by Dr Guillaume Jordanet in 1776.

Pigeons were an important part of the economy from Roman times, especially in poorer regions, for several reasons:

·       Food

·       Fertiliser (Used or sold for cash)

·       Messenger services (As late as 1945)

In Northern France, only the aristocracy and the church were allowed to build pigeon towers before the Revolution in 1789, when the restriction was lifted, but South-West France benefitted from more relaxed statutes:

Simon D’Olivier, Councillor at the Toulouse Parliament said in 1682, “It is reasonable to permit everybody to build pigeon towers”. (Ref Michel Lucien book)

The earliest surviving pigeon tower in the Lot department, at Assièrs is dated 1337, (Dominique Letellier book) and from the 14th century, square and round towers were built in areas where grain crops were grown. Many towers remain as part of the heritage, despite the wear and tear of time; witnesses to what previous generations built to capture the revenues from raising pigeons. For example, 100 litres of pigeon droppings would have sold in 1837 for 25 Francs, a useful contribution to the income of the Manoir. (Dominique Letellier, Pigeonniers de France, Privat, ISBN 2-7089-9172-8 ).

The agriculture of the area also benefited from one of the best fertilisers available. It was particularly good for fruit trees and melons.

After 1789, the economic value of the towers faded with the availability of alternative fertilisers and they became more of a fashionable outward expression of wealth.

The one standing at Les Gaillardoux is a clean and simple version of the cylindrical towers containing about 80-100 pigeon nests, which in this case consisted of wicker baskets hung on hooks. (Photo of basket)

The topping spike is a ceramic finial sitting on a four sided lantern.

Below that is a hexagonal roof covered with flat tiles

There is a pierced monolith set in the south side of the tower with six flight holes.

Below that is a projecting corniche around the circumference, which acts as a perching or landing rail and presents a barrier for climbing predators.

There are three superimposed access doors facing east.

The ground floor was used as a multi-purpose store-room, now a pump and filter room for the swimming pool. (Photo today)

The first and second floor doors access the main tower where a rotating ladder facilitated care of nesting baskets and cleaning.

(Link to Wikipediea Pigeonniers)

 OWNERSHIP OF THE MANOIR

In 1776 Les Gaillardoux was owned by the Jordanet family from Mondoumerc. The Jordanets and later the Bessières family belonged to the well-off local class of “notables” who owned extensive vineyards and land in the area.

Dr Guillaume Jordanet upgraded the property from a simple farmhouse and outbuildings to a maison de maitre, (Manor House) by adding the grand, central section, containing an impressive stone staircase. (Photo) (Dr Guillaume Jordanet and his brother Pierre may have been clergymen rather than medical practitioners. Much of the local lands, wealth and power had been in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church since the middle ages).

The square-pillared coach house (Photo) and the adjacent pigeon tower  were probably also built at this time (1750-1800, according to Michel Lucien, author of Pigeonniers en Midi-Pyrenees (Massin ISBN13: 978-2-7072-0557-5)

http://www.pigeonniers-en-midipyrenees.fr/

This is the time when the property became known as Manoir Les Gaillardoux.

In 1776, the Jordanets also built and lived in what is now known as the Logis de Reyjade next to the square in the centre of the village of Montdoumerc. (www.lelogisdereyjade.com/)

Dr. Guillaume Jordanet was the great-grandfather of the Bessières brothers: Raymond, who was a tax collector at Montdoumerc, lived at the Logis de Reyjade, and Louis Achille, who became a barrister; lived at Les Gaillardoux in the mid to late 1800s (He never practiced law, preferring politics).

Louis Achille Bessières was born at Montech in the Tarn et Garonne department on 31 May 1817. As an adult, he lived from rents and other sources of revenue by following the common practice of letting land to tenant farmers who cultivated his extensive domain, and as Bessières’ political career developed, he lived and worked mostly in Cahors, using Manoir Les Gaillardoux as a secondary residence.

The family name, Bessières is also the name of a village in the Haute Garonne department. It means a place planted with birch trees and today there is a small plantation of birches in the south-east corner of the Manoir property. http://www.jeantosti.com/noms/b6.htm

EARLY POLITICAL BACKGROUND

In the1700s, there were three layers of society in France known as Etats (estates):

·       The first Estate, nobles and other large landowners

·       The second Estate, the clergy

·       The third Estate, the popular classes

Together they were represented in the National Assembly of the 3 Estates..

Before the Revolution of 1789, only the third estate paid taxes.

As notables, the Jordanet family would have been embroiled in the events which led to the French revolution.

France generally was in a bad way. The King Louis XVI appointed Jacques Necker as director of the treasury (in October 1776) to resolve a major financial crisis. The king supported most of Necker's reforms and economies, but the costly French intervention in the American Revolution more than cancelled the savings, and Necker's borrowing greatly swelled the debt. Necker's attempt to gain greater control over policy by courting public opinion was rebuffed at court, and he resigned in protest in May 1781. None of Necker’s successors was able to ward off bankruptcy. When the interest-bearing debt had risen to a huge figure, the King called an assembly of notables and asked their consent to tax the privileged classes. The notables agreed to a few minor reforms but refused to consent to taxation.

The three Estates were then convened in Versailles by King Louis the XVI to sort out the affairs, but discontent in the 3rd Estate was mounting rapidly and led directly to the revolution in 1789. (Source)

OWNER’S POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT – RELATIONSHIP WITH LEON GAMBETTA

In 1855, at the age of 38, Achille Bessières, the owner of Les Gaillardoux, was elected Mayor of Cahors in the first of his two mandates, 1855-1860. During this time he lived in Cahors and visited Les Gaillardoux when his work schedule permitted.

( http://www.francegenweb.org/mairesgenweb/resultcommune.php?id=6895 )

He was mayor of Cahors in 1859 when he signed Leon Gambetta’s French Domicile Statement as, “ Louis Achille Bessières”.

Gambetta left the family store in Cahors and went to Paris where he qualified as a barrister in 1861 aged 23. He made a name for himself as a defence lawyer and from1868 devoted himself to the Republican Party.

http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/L%C3%A9on_Gambetta/120756

Following the Prussian invasion and after France had capitulated to Bismarck’s forces in 1871, Leon Gambetta was elected to a new French Government of National Defence, becoming the Interior Minister.

Bessières’ second term as Mayor of Cahors lasted from 1863-1870 but his election put him in an ambivalent position. He was a Royalist serving in tumultuous times in what had become a Republic and he was eventually ousted by an extreme Republican group, including Gambetta, who was trying to force out any potential counter-republicanism in the provinces.

Bessières retired to Manoir Les Gaillardoux to relax and recuperate. ( https://books.google.fr/books?id=PmDtvTzXohIC&pg=PA392&lpg=PA392&dq=Achille+Bessières&source=bl&ots=1eLIyVp7Mq&sig= )

Bessières is mentioned in the book by Henri Dutrait-Crozon entitled, “Gambetta et La Defence National 1870-71”. ( https://books.google.fr/books?id=PmDtvTzXohIC&pg=PA392&lpg=PA392&dq=Achille+Bessières&source=bl&ots=1eLIyVp7Mq&sig= )

On 31 May 1891, Achille Bessiéres was appointed a Chevalier of the French Legion D’Honneur. ( http://www.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH017/PG/FRDAFAN83_OLO224005v001.htm )

Place Achille Bessières in Cahors was named in his honour. (Photo)

Achille Bessières died in 1900 aged 74 and the property at Les Gaillardoux passed to descendants in the De St-Julien family from Montech, 50km south-west of Montdoumerc.

GREAT WAR 1914-18

After the Phylloxera disaster, economic life continued at a much-reduced level in the Lot Department, with the long-departed vineyards returned to pasture and farmed by tenants until the outbreak and aftermath of the first-world-war (1914 to 1918), when rural male populations were decimated by the war, then survivors were attracted to opportunities in towns.

Manoir Les Gaillardoux was no exception; ownership of the property had passed from the Bessières family to a branch of cousins and the first of these was Baron Marie-Joseph Francois De Saint-Julien. He was killed in 1916 aged 35. His military record states that he was a landlord and a Corporal in the 342nd Infantry Regiment, 21st Company. (Source)

Depopulation led to much of the poorer land being abandoned. The Manor House at Les Gaillardoux passed to the ownership of Marie-Joseph’s son Joseph, who was born in 1911, but the house was uninhabited from 1930 to 1939 and from then on it was used only by a shepherd, Lucien Auger, who lived mainly in what is now the library. The room had a stone sink, kitchen facilities and a monumental fireplace, which remain today, and Auger kept the fire going constantly for cooking. So much so, that the inside of the house became smoke blacked throughout. He was known to have kept sheep and chickens in the house until the 1950’s.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1939-1945 

Manoir Les Gaillardoux stands about 1km from the main Route Nationale N20, which runs north-south from Paris to Spain. During the Second World War, despite the Vichy government’s expectations that the Germans would stay out of the unoccupied southern half of France, German fears of a possible allied invasion from the Mediterranean gave rise to the order from Hitler to reinforce the south. Accordingly, companies of the Waffen SS Division “Das Reich” were assigned to several bases in the area including Montauban, 42 km south of the Manoir. Those Gestapo troops pursued a merciless campaign against French resistance fighters. Their policy was “Any resistance – burn”.

When the Das Reich division was called back to defend Normandy against the allied invasion in June 1944, they drove north up the N20 road, passing the Manoir, stopping overnight 12 km to the north at the Chateau de Cieurac, which they set fire to on leaving, largely destroying the 15th century building . http://chateaudecieurac.pagesperso-orange.fr/Presentation.htm

On their journey northwards from Cahors, another company of the same division was responsible for the notorious murders at Oradour-sur-Glane to the North-West of Limoges.

(Reported in La Depeche. (Article republished 1.3.2015. https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2015/03/01/2058062-division-das-reich-l-horreur.html )

After the war, a few surviving perpetrators were identified but pleaded that they had been recruited into the SS against their will. The French legal system failed to achieve any condemnations. 

 

POST WAR OWNERSHIP AND RESTORATION 

In 1945, Joseph De St Julien arrived home after escaping from a German prison camp. He had suffered such severe frostbite that his hands and feet had to be amputated. He died in 1953 at the age of 41.

The ongoing tenant of Manoir Les Gaillardoux, Lucien Auger remained in the house when it was sold by the De St Julien family in 1948 to an Italian lady, Mme Congiou (her maiden name). She married Monsieur Dodane, a local man, born in 1898. His family home, Le Périé, is about 2 km away from the Manoir. M. Dodane was described (Described where XXX?) as an “Inspecteur des Hypothèques”, a highly remunerated civil service appointment created in 1771. ( http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualites/2008/02/07/01001-20080207ARTFIG00018-les-tres-choyes-conservateurs-des-hypotheques.php )

The Dodane’s lived at Le Périé, but frequently travelled overseas, leaving their daughter Colette, born in 1923, in the care of her aunt Marthe, an unmarried sister of Mme Dodane.

After Monsieur Dodane died in Tunisia, his wife undertook some restoration at Les Gaillardoux. The old barn that stood to the west of the main house was demolished and replaced by a new cattle barn that stands today at a right angle to the coach house and pigeon tower. Lucien Auger continued to live and work at the Manoir.

In the 1950’s, Collette Dodane, inherited the property from her mother. She married Claude Thomas, who at some point in his career had obtained a licence to manufacture food products under the Italian, Motta brand, at a factory in the Haute-Vienne near Limoges. (http://www.gourmandisesmotta.fr/histoire/)

The couple needed somewhere to live and looked at Les Gaillardoux. Although it was in a poor state, (Quote letter from Colette to her aunt) they fell in love with it and subsequently set out to restore the dilapidated buildings and services.

There was one fly in the ointment – Lucien Auger did not want to leave. The couple offered to restore a nearby house for him and it was agreed that Lucien would transfer there.

However, on completion of that refurbishment, which included a new square pigeon tower, Auger announced that he was going to Toulouse to become an estate agent! The Thomas’s then sold the second house to Mme Lamine. (Dates)

The Thomas’s rebuilt the collapsed “old house” (The central portion of the Manoir), which is now the dining room, and re-laid its floor with antique tiles reclaimed from the site of an old prison demolition. They restored the Manoir to its former glory and laid out the garden, redeeming rough pastureland, and planting most of the trees that have since matured. The Thomas family continued to live at Les Gaillardoux and brought up their two children, Charles-Andre and Catherine at the house. In 1971 a swimming pool was added.

The pastures and arable land surrounding the property were still farmed by tenants, but in 1975 they were sold to a tenant, Hubert Berc from neighbouring Roubert. Hubert Berc created irrigation ponds which can be seen from the Manoir and improved the quality of the land to enhance cultivation. Today it is used mainly for seed production, creating an attractive rural setting around the Manoir’s remaining 1.25-hectare park.

Colette Thomas died from cancer in 2004 and in 2005 Claude Thomas sold Les Gaillardoux to Robert and Josiane Wileman from Haslemere (UK), who carried out a major programme of sensitive modernisation, whilst retaining and restoring the traditional character and features that make the charm of Manoir Les Gaillardoux. Mr. Thomas retired to Sète on the Mediterranean coast where he died in January 2012.

As part of the 2005/6 restoration, all the services were upgraded and modernised to create a homely and efficient residence. Eight bedrooms with two toilets and bathrooms were reduced to six double bedrooms, each with its own en-suite facilities. The house was insulated, and fitted with a new roof and ventilation system. The swimming pool was reshaped, lined and equipped with modern filtration and heating systems. (Photo of house in winter 2005 or works traffic on site and recent summer photo inside or out)

On the other side of the Chemin de Roubert, in 1999 the second house was acquired from Mme Lamine by M. and Mme Davila who stayed until 2009 when they sold it to Mr and Mrs Rowland from Sheffield (UK). The Rowland’s have recently completed a substantial renovation project.

In 2012, M. Jean-Paul Berc, Hubert Berc’s son, acquired Le Périé and in 2014 he acquired Manoir Les Gaillardoux.

Since 2006 Manoir Les Gaillardoux has been used privately and for holiday rental and events. In 2012 the property was awarded the rare 5-star rating by the French Ministry of Tourism in the “Meubles de Tourisme” category.

(www.manoirlesgaillardoux,com) 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

 

I am grateful for the historical detail and references provided by, in particular:

Mrs Josiane Wileman, Manoir Les Gaillardoux.

M. Claude Thomas, Previous owner

M Hubert Berc, Deputy Mayor of Montdoumerc until 2016, and owner of Roubert.

M Didier Cope, Owner of Logis de Reyjade, Montdoumerc.

Jean-Luc Marie, Photographer, and author, who provided contacts and information

Michel Lucien, Published author who also provided photographs and advice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY