Manoir de la Grand'Cour

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

The manor of Grand'Cour, dating in part from the 17th and 18th centuries, is now integrated into the built-up area of Saint-Avertin, on the south bank of the Cher, 6 km from Tours, in the remains of a wooded park largely developed in the early 1970s. The access gateway has been registered on the I.S.M.H. since 1946 and the main wing of this building since 1965, at the request of its owner, the writer Jules Romains. The current owner purchased the property in poor condition in 1992 and has been restoring it since then. He discovered a panoramic decoration of 32 drops of wallpaper in grisaille depicting the passage of the railway between Lyon and Saint-Etienne. This rare ensemble, from the Pignet manufactory at Saint-Genies-Laval, executed around 1840, was classified as a Movable Object by order of 26 May 2000. It is preserved in a part of the orangery built in the 19th century near the main dwelling. The building is entirely representative of this type of construction: a long building, built in tuffeau. Here, the blind rear wall serves as a boundary to the street and the garden wall is widely pierced to benefit from maximum lighting. Wide round-arched openings open to the exterior, and two doors give access to two vast rooms. A partition wall separates them, in which was arranged a heating system, no longer functioning, which allowed heat to pass through small adjustably openable hatches. The panoramic wallpaper is preserved in the smaller of the two rooms, above a wainscot at dado height. Jules Romains, who had found the room already fitted out, had installed his summer study there.