Château de Veullerot, 1904

Welcome to this blog which is all about the château de Veullerot and its evolution through time as can be seen from old pictures.

My family bought the house in 1912. Indeed, on the bottom of the left turret, the date 1912 is carved in the stone, embraced by the two letters C and D which stand for (Léon) Chavenon and the maiden name of his wife, Dayras.

I will insert a small genealogic tree here in the future, but suffice to say now that I'm 50 years old, that I write this in early 2018, and that the Chavenon couple are my great great grand parents.

In 2017, after 105 years of ownership, my family sold this house to Robert and Helen Watson for them to start a new adventure of maintaining and embellishing it. So it's time to share with them some details and stories that would otherwise disappear.


The earliest postcards I found were all taken seemingly at the same period and date back from 1904 or before (based on stamps and dates I found on postcards that were written and mailed).

The spelling of the location is Veulerot (instead of Veullerot, one L is missing).

View from the main alley (North West)

These 2 West views are the same picture, but in different shades and different editions.

This West view picture below was taken on another day, but still in 1904 or before (see the date in the writing)

A list of differences with what can be seen today on the house:
-the chimneys are much taller, maybe one meter or more
-there is no entrance on the North side, the regular door we use today was a window and no stairs were leading to it.
-there was a big roof-window on the West side, above the triangular pediment

Still in early times, Veullerot views

Here is a rare view of the Eastern side, that was probably considered less attractive and thus less pictured.

This postcard was mailed in 1905 and is very interesting for several reasons:

-it shows a now missing extra chimney on the right of the Eastern roof side

-the tiny tree that is shown in the center grew a lot before felling during the 1999 storm. We measured it at 27 meters long when it lied on the ground.

-the left basement window is now the basement Eastern entrance.

-there were white fences around the garden

-the spelling is weird, Veulerant instead of Veullerot

Two more pictures before we reach the period when my family bought the house (1912):

This is the same view twice, but one picture was colored. The view is taken from the end of the "water channel" that fronts the house (put there as a safety in case of fire). My grand father barred the end of this channel to build a swimming pool in the round part. The photographer would today be right by the swimming pool side.

Veullerot in the early Twenties

At last, my family purchased the house.

I know they did modernize the heating system and had the second lake dug in the park.

But the house was modified in subtle ways I will indicate:

see that bench? It still exists !

As you can see, the chimneys have been seriously shortened.

-also the North stairs have been added

-the big West roof window is gone

-more important, the walls of the whole ground level floor (basement) have been decorated with concrete fake stone which are still very strong today

This is once again two version of the same picture, one colored and one black & white, from the future swimming pool location

La marquise et le tennis

In French, a "marquise" is either a marchioness or a glass canopy. This is the latter one that we will now see.

Based on the stamps or dates at the back, we can be sure that for a limited time, there was a massive glass canopy that was added on the West façade on top of the main stairs. It was there in 1925, and I don't know when it was removed.

You can see that probably both pictures were taken on the same day, with the proud owner on top of the mainstairs, but I can't say if we see a man or a woman posing.


Below, an interesting view of the Eastern side, showing the tennis court that graced the garden with its presence for a while. My grand-mother told me that they finally decided to destroy it and make a new one further in the park (the platform is still visible today) because the players and balls were too noisy!

Also you can see the that the strange third chimney on the right has been removed and replaced by a simple stovepipe. Even that pipe has since been removed

modern times

We are modern, so now pictures can be taken from airplanes !

Here is a nice view taken in the fifties or sixties

My grand-mother has added the flower beds on each side of the stairs. See the tall pine tree right behind the center of the house ? It's the same that we saw as a shrub fifty years before in the early East view. http://chateau-veullerot.blogspot.fr/2018/04/still-in-early-times-veullerot-views.html


The last postcard that I know of has also been taken from an airplane. It dates probably from the Seventies:

if you look closely on the roof, you will see my grand-father Noel PARDON doing some repairs.