AS THEY CONTINUE A VERY SPECIAL RENOVATION THE COUNT AND COUNTESS LEPIC SHOW US AROUND THEIR BEAUTIFUL AND HISTORIC CHATEAU IN NORMANDY

Jean-Ghislain and Eléonore, Count and Countess Lepic, couldn’t ask for a home with a more distinguished history.

- VICTORIA DE ALCAHUD

Set in the verdant landscape of Normandy, the spectacular Château de Louÿe dates back to 1180, when Richard the Lionheart built a fortress there to defend the lands he held in France.

The Lepic dynasty also has an illustrious story. By the time JeanGhislain’s ancestor Charles Edouard de Viel-Castel acquired Louÿe in 1882, other relatives of his, the Dukes of Bassano, had been giving loyal service to France’s Napoleonic emperors for the best part of a century.

WORKING PROPOSITION

But despite all that, Jean-Ghislain and Eléonore don’t consider themselves to be classic chateau owners. Rather, they are, she says: “A working couple renovating their family home. Big, yes; historic, yes; but a family home.” And, they add, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that they’d be living here at all.

If the couple aren’t entirely conventional, their family isn’t either. The happy clan at Louÿe includes seven children: Achille and Theodore, Eléonore’s two from her first marriage; Evangéline and Axel, from her second; JeanGhislain’s son and daughter Adrien and Clémence; and finally the youngest, Hortense, fruit of their own special love story.

ROMANCE RENEWED