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ColdwellBankerLuxury.com | 23
Chateau du Grand-Lucé
Loire Valley, France
$14,200,000 (furnished)
Represented by Ron de Salvo
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
O: 310.777.6200 | C: 310.560.9388
“Some of the rooms are feminine, some are masculine,
one looks like an Army general’s room from the 19th
century and other ones look more flowery. They reflect
both guests who have stayed and people now that
may have different styles.”
With multiple chateau restorations under his
belt, Corrigan was perfect for the task of rejuvenating
the property. “It was daunting, but it had all the original
paneling, original wood parquet floors and fireplaces.
There was so much that was a great beauty, and great
values, so it wasn’t like you were starting from scratch,”
says Corrigan. “There were virtually no bathrooms and
the kitchens were located outside the chateau, so I had
to put things in like that, but it’s what I do for a living.”
Of the 29 rooms, Corrigan’s favorite is the
Chinese Salon (Salon de Chinois), with canvas walls
originally painted by 18th-century master Jean-
Baptiste Pillement, one of Marie Antoinette’s court
painters. Only two rooms in the world exist that he
fully painted. “A small painting of Pillement’s will go for
hundreds of thousands of dollars, so having a whole
room is absolutely priceless,” says Corrigan.
Even the gardens offer “rooms” of their own. As
you step out of the limestone walls of the chateau the
formal gardens (parterre) begin, with “green rooms”
drawn in a maze of boxwood and garnished with as-
sorted sculptures and a glistening antique waterfall.
Descend a level to find a section of exotic gardens that
offer unexpected tropical plants, followed by kitchen
gardens, replete with squares of planted fruits and veg-
etables. Past the gardens, the enchanted landscape
unfolds into an ungroomed, natural terrain with a lake
and a 42-acre wooded park.
The chateau is its own private sanctuary, but
nestled up against the property on one side, just
outside its main gates, is a small village — a common
occurrence given the economic abutment of wealth
a grand estate brings. “My favorite thing about the
chateau is you can walk outside the gates and get a
baguette or a croissant at the bakery,” says Corrigan.
“On the property, it’s like your little country, but then
outside you have this wonderful village. You get the
best of both worlds. It’s definitely one of the best selling
points.”
With symmetrical, classical French architecture
that achieves an ideal “peak standard of beauty,” and
an interior that Corrigan describes as a “comfortable”
signature touch in an otherwise formally planned
home, Chateau du Grand-Lucé is ready for its next
owner and subsequent part of history.
Considered to be one of the most excep-
tional examples of 18th-century French
neoclassical architecture in the world,
Chateau du Grand-Lucé is a sumptu-
ous 40,000-square-foot, 16-bedroom,
fully restored French chateau. Occupying 80 acres of
exquisite gardens and woodlands, the chateau is in
the Loire Valley, a region of landscape known for its
cultural monuments and great beauty that evokes the
sense of a “once-upon-a-time” fairytale.
The chateau is owned by award-winning Ameri-
can designer Timothy Corrigan, who acquired private
ownership of the property in 2005 and chronicled its
thorough restoration and design process in his 2013
book “An Invitation to Chateau du Grand-Lucé.” Built
between 1760 and 1764, Chateau du Grand-Lucé
indubitably has a rich and fascinating history, and thus
is protected as a French National Landmark.
Former visitors to the chateau include luminaries
from the Enlightenment period such as Voltaire,
Rousseau and Diderot, and, during his time there,
Corrigan has shared the space with many friends and
family members. “I purposely made each bedroom
totally different, so that each one would reflect a
different type of person, or personality,” says Corrigan.