[fr] 
[es]Château Bijou
| Type | Country | Date | Status | Rating |
 Private building |  France | 2006-12-27 | Endangered | **** |
Site panoramic: cloister, chapel and castle - Click to enlarge!
One More Forgotten Jewel
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").
In the chapel - Click to enlarge!
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...
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
Victor
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
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
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.
Keep up the good work. This site is amazing.
What a environment !!, your pictures gave me sweet dreams ; thanks (good luck with the expo ! looking forward expo comming to belgium ! ) Groeten, Jens
Ha ha thanks bsidez, I knew you'd like this one, you chateau-addict :-)
This is awsome stuff, great work slyv!