Enfilade

In the current issue of The Magazine Antiques, Joan DeJean offers a first-person account of the château de Montgeoffroy, “an exceptionally rare survivor of pre-Revolutionary French style . . .  [that] remains much as it was in the 1770s, right down to the tables, chairs, and copper pots—gracious, comfortable, and mad for chintz.” Professor of French at the University of Pennsylvania, DeJean is the author of The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual and the Modern Home Began and The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour.

Joan DeJean, “Living with Antiques: Eighteenth-Century Modern,” The Magazine Antiques:

Château de Montgeoffroy, view along the window wall of the grand salon

I first visited the château de Montgeoffroy in the summer of 2006 when I was researching a book about the eighteenth-century French home. I found there something I would not have thought possible: an eighteenth-century residence so perfectly preserved that, as you walk through its rooms, you have the feeling of stepping right into what is often regarded as the golden age of French architecture, interior decoration, and decorative arts. . . .

Today, nearly two and a half centuries after its completion, Montgeoffroy remains almost exactly as in 1777. Its preservation is the result of several remarkable developments. To begin with, it was among the few great houses in France to survive the Revolution of 1789 unscathed. Unlike many aristocrats, the maréchal de Contades refused to emigrate. (Had he done so, the château would have become state property.) Family members lived at Montgeoffroy throughout the Revolution and thereby helped to protect it. . . .

The full article is available here»

Located in the Loire Valley near Angers, the château de Montgeoffroy is open to
the public each year from the end of March through November.