Chateau Of Dreams

A childhood visit to Champ de Bataille in Normandy set interior designer Jacques Garcia on a decades-long quest to restore its buildings and gardens. Naomi Slade admires the astounding results

It should be difficult to hide a vast baroque château. Even in a country the size of France, the unexpected treasures and off-the-beaten track discoveries are usually bijou. It comes as a surprise, then, to trip over the Château du Champ de Bataille in Normandy, which is little known, decidedly magnifique, and has a romantic tale to tell.

Used as a hospital during World War II, the château, in the Eure département, was then grimly refurbished and more or less abandoned. But when interior designer Jacques Garcia visited with his father, the elegantly wasted stonework, weed-filled gardens and dusty corridors sparked a fire in his 12-year-old soul. One day, thought Jacques, I will live here and it will be beautiful.

He nurtured this dream for decades; visiting and re-visiting the château. Meanwhile, a serendipitous jigsaw of skills, interests and talents gradually came together. His father, a railway worker with a taste for art and music, taught the young Garcia about collecting and recognising objects of value in junk shops and flea markets. Long holidays spent with his mother’s family – French country gentry – connected him firmly to the land. He had a talent for design and a passion for beautiful interiors, and these he honed in Paris at a series of art schools.

He began work with an agency, designing window displays in fashion stores and rapidly progressing to more ambitious projects as he made a name for himself. This provided him with the means to indulge his passion for collecting, and he sought out pieces from the periods of Louis XIV and Louis XVI, together with treasures of greater antiquity still.