Restoration of an Abandoned French Chateau. Presented by the Owner.
The Château de Meauce was purchased in 2016 by Cédric Mignon and his wife Séverine.
Abandoned for 150 years, this castle located in the Nièvre (near Nevers) is being reborn from its ashes, thanks to the determination and dedication of this passionate couple.
Supported by an army of volunteers and many craftsmen, supported and advised by public institutions (Ministry of Culture, DRAC, ...) and by lovers of old stones (crowdfunding), they are succeeding in their bet : give new life to this "sleeping beauty".
In this video, you will discover the history and the interior of this castle, as well as the restoration works (completed, in progress and to come), with the best possible guide: its owner.
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In one word, fabulous 🎉 Thank you for saving this gem ❤ JIM 😊
Award Winning Restoration
Thank you. I love to see remodeled castles that aren't ruined by indiscriminate modernizing.
An absolutely perfect example of how a restauration of a medieval/historical building should be performed, with respect to all the different phases of its history, but also being pragmatic when it comes to making choices.
Unbelievable amount of work, underpinned by absolute passion ( and I shudder to think of the cost). Really enjoyed this, thank you.
les mots me manquent, fabuleux !!! et la passion de ce monsieur pour son château est communicative ! bravo !!!
Your passion and integrity shine through this fantastic castle. You have brought her back to life! Thank you for sharing your story, it is so inspirational.
The roof is spectacular.
An architectural masterpiece.
Incredible. Outstanding. Such a gloriously beautiful and historically fascinating castle. Thank you so much for sharing this, I am full of admiration for your passion, sensitivity and dedication.
Incredible restauration work! Really fantastic the care taken to leave all the marks of the Chateau history intact whilst having to deal with such enormous undertakings to secure the structural integrity, it's a balance most don't manage this well. Clearly an all- engulfing, complete immersion of lifestyle dedicated to uncovering, restoring and protecting this treasure trove of regional and national history. This takes such passion, perseverance and multitasking creative thinking few people possess. It's wonderful you've received support both from volunteers and private financiers, and especially from the ministry of culture (which I understand involves alot of paperwork and patience-challenging negotioations). I really understand the concerns of how to bring in revenue on the grounds without compromising the sensitivities of this meilleur. This is not a Chateau project for huge events, masstourism, luxury hotell stays. I'd like to envision part of this estate dedicated to education and research, perhaps of ornithology as it seems to be a property of significance in that respect. If there are outbuildings that could be designated for this.... I don't know how much funding there is for such educational research centers, but it's an international niche with alot of private interest as well, a world of its own. And a very ecominded community who wouldn't require luxe facilities. There are many other potential areas that might be explored for at least seasonal educational purposes. But would involve teaming up with people looking to run such enterprises. And involve some designated facility on the grounds tailored to this. The problem these days is anything involving culture isn't a dependable source of revenue. People want fast "instaworthy" (optical and fantasy based) kicks. So the only way to go I think is as "niche and nerdy" ie specific as possible, providing a rare opportunity for a select crowd, perhaps unrelated to the Chateau story itself. I read about a young family man who bought a few small ruined houses in a more or less abandoned rural villeage, and ended up buying almost the entire village and restoring it from ruins thanks to teaming up with Apple and creating an Apple educational center in one of the townhouses. He'd worked for them earlier, so that was likely key, but it was an example of how a historic village with less than ten remaining residents in ruins in unique national park surroundings was saved at the last moment and turned into a blossoming ecovillage catering only to visitors interested in nature, biodiversity and students in digital technology. Thinking outside the expected box can bring interesting solutions. I hope you find a way that brings economic balance and interest for the future. The chateau (and its history) is entirely unique and the restoration incredible. This was a wonderful tour, thank you, and best wishes for the future!
Semplicemente MAGNIFICO! Grazie infinite per la bellissima storia della passione e dell'impegno!
🙀 beautiful place and thank you for the great restoration you have done incredible. 👏👏👏
This is amazing! This is one of the oldest ones I’ve seen!! And I love how the graffiti was preserved! And that window! I can’t believe the ministry of culture argued with them about that beautiful old window!!
It is usually the idea to restore a building to a particular time period, usually to a most important one, least destructive one that is viable. So medieval details do not fit with overall vision and status of the building in 18th century. Also medieval details often are more simplistic, less well preserved, you need to destroy newer details. As in this case some exceptions are being made for educational purposes to show other, older parts. And he fought for quite a few of them.
*Grattose!* 👏👏 Definitely learned something new there. Merci! 😉
It sounds as though the situation in France is similar to that of the UK in relation to the restoration and renovation of historic properties. The regulations are so rigid that they (almost) make these tasks impossible to the extent you get the feeling that the preservation bodies would prefer these buildings remain so pickled in aspic to the point they end up falling down, lost forevermore to future generations. The lack of flexibility also doesn't reflect the reality of climate change. Therefore, the prospect of making them fit for liveability in the future is more and more unlikely; I'm specifically referring to insulation, climate change friendly heating methods, hot water provision and all of the things that go into comfortable modern living. You've made some very conscious decisions regarding how much to restore and how much to leave alone; there's nothing wrong with that. But many owners keen to restore and preserve old properties would love to use the modern equivalents of, say, lathe and lime plaster finishes. You can get lime plasterboard or hempboard and finishing it with a lime plaster to give the same effects as it had originally. I don't see anything wrong with this approach [so long as] like you have chosen to do, make it possible to 'read' the buildings history for current and future generations. There's even a 10mm thick insulation now available that has the same R Value as 30-45cm of foam insulation and was developed for NASA for the International Space Station, Spacewalk spacesuits, and spacecraft. Insulation like this would be wonderful for the retention of highly decorated interiors as you could (carefully) take the decorations down, store them, insulate, before restoring the rooms to their former glory (without) losing very much in terms of the original decor. In fact, if done with sufficient attention to detail, I doubt that visitors would notice any difference. I doubt someone would get the planning permission to use such materials, but it's this kind of flexibility that would (increase) the likelihood that there are more romantics like yourselves willing and able to take on these huge projects. Maintenance & running costs are a key reason so many historic gems were abandoned in the first place.
Fascinating and so old! Such history.
So beautiful 🤩
Amazing restoration. Congratulations!
너무너무너무 아름다워요 ❤
Nice to see your smiling face,I very much missed your presents on you tube.
Just amazing and thank you for the tour, how difficult is it to bring 2 parties together, 1 the owner and the other the heritage council to preserve the integrity of the building ? but it must be an eyeopener when all parties participate to resolve issues and solutions, would you have known all the facts without the archeology finds ?
WOW!
Perfect place to raise a family with ti's just right size. Structures need to be occupied so they don't fall apart like how a rabbit needs a buddy so it won't die of loneliness. That property would be a great for a small farm such as bee hives & winter time hydroponics vegetable farming with LED grow bulbs. Real Wasabi that's not faked with horseradish is extremely difficult to grow therefor the picturesque aesthetics of that property would fit an innovative Wasabi grow operation.
Awesome!😊
Very impressive
The roof line is interesting - I noted when you used a drone for an aerial shot that it looks like a seam at the top!
I love your videos and I know this is a selfish request but I really wish you had an English audio track for these ones that are in French. I see the subtitles but I like to kind of listen to documentaries in the background thank you
Hi Jasmine. We are aware that watching the video and reading subtitles at the same time can be quite challenging sometimes, especially when the owner speaks fast. Unfortunately, KZhead doesn't yet provide the option to add another audiotrack in English. Otherwise we could dub our videos in English and let viewer choose how they want to watch our videos. I know that KZhead is working on this feature (some big youtube like MrBeast already have access to this multiple audiotracks feature). Hopefully it will be available soon for all content creators.
@@SoChateauxTV Interesting to know thank you for the info. I thought all channels were able to do that. And again in my case it’s not that it’s challenging it’s that I like to listen to it as an audio program like a podcast while I do other work and unfortunately I don’t speak French
@@jasminespencer3992 Ok. Understood. Anyway, in the future, on this channel, we wiil publish only videos recorded in English language. We will slowly switch and add english subtitles on all videos on our French Channel : kzhead.info This So Châteaux TV Channel will have only videos with English audio tracks.
@@SoChateauxTV Oh that sounds wonderful good to know. Something else I’m realizing today is in French the word château is interchangeable with the word castle. Whereas here in the US I think the word château means a huge French mansion while a castle is something more like King Arthur with Tourette’s and things like that. Just something I kind of realized today looking at the translations and things like that on your channel
I like the subtitles and hearing the French! So if we can had both options please
Jaime le pedestal . C'est come une piece moderne qui a ete teleporter au millieu dune piece antique. Vous decender du pedestal et vous arriver au 18 sciecle
Beautiful property. I hate to think how much money this is costing. I would like to know a bit about the owner’s past.
Lets just be happy a castle got restored. I often browse maps and internet searching for old palaces and there are still some that get demolished or fall apart in France.
Rather silly of the Ministry of Culture to imagine that anybody would be willing to take on such a restoration project (without) including permission to install toilets and running water throughout the building where necessary. There's [got] to be an application of basic common sense.
Son francais est tres imagé
Should use ENGLISH...extremely difficult to follow, and is a turnoff for many that would like to follow you. .... not subscribe.
@15Patriot Don't be ridiculous! It's a French castle, in France, with a French owner, so why should it be in English? Can't you read the translation?
this comment is USA's donation to worldwide culture
Looking great
Great Hut, room for a dog and 10 cats, just in case
how does a castle have windows at ground level?
It has held up a whole damn castle for hundreds of years. you only get one guess why windows are at ground level