HIDDEN Royal Chamber Never Seen Before - Priceless Art Survived The Revolution

Bonjour everybody! We're here at Château de Champs-Évriers and this is going to be an exciting experience because we are here to witness the château's last hunt for the season. As you can see behind me, there are a lot of guests, a lot of visitors. We're also going to be meeting the owner of the château and she is going to take us on a great exclusive tour of the Very few châteaus carry tradition the way Château de Champs-Évriers does. Not the stiff polished kind behind glass cases, but living tradition. The kind that feeds the hounds, tends the fields, and keeps the barns working just as they did centuries ago. As picturesque as this château is, it isn't for display. It's not a postcard, it's not Versailles, and thank God for that. This place still works for a living, still family owned, still family run, 11 generations deep. Today, Gustave Hamilton and Laurence Bizarre Hamilton, quite possibly the most effortlessly charming hosts in the Loire Valley, are opening the gates and revealing the hidden secrets of this beautiful château that they call home, including a secret room that they reveal only for the Saving Castles community, never before seen on video. This is Saving Castles and welcome to part one of Château de Champs-Évriers. Preparations for the festivities are quietly underway, boots being polished, horns waiting to be sounded, and a palpable sense of ritual in the air. But while the estate hums with tradition behind the scenes, Laurence takes us on a different kind of adventure. This castle was bought by my ancestors in 1728, and since then it has always been inhabited by my family. We are the 11th generation living here. There are three generations living together at the castle. My father, who is 95, with my mother, and me, my husband, and our son. And what is very interesting at Champs-Évriers is that it has not been turned into a museum. It has kept its original functions like stables, kennels, farms. It's very genuine. It's a working estate. It's a working... Like it's always been for hundreds of years. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it is what makes it very interesting. And we work hard to maintain it as it should be. Your family brings life to it. Absolutely. Yes. I hope so. Yes. Keeping a place like this running is a way of life where one walks a fine line between preservation and participation. Champs-Évriers is a listed historic monument. With roots dating from the Middle Ages, most would rope off the past and tiptoe around it. But here, they live in it. Every hallway, every room. And when you choose to inhabit history fully, tradition stops being performance. It becomes muscle memory. It's a fascinating rhythm, this life inside Champs-Évriers, bound by centuries of ritual, protected by law, but somehow still personal and still warm. That reverence to tradition wasn't inherited blindly. It was earned over a thousand years of history when the foundations of Champs-Évriers was built over a goat herd, or in Latin, Campus Caprarius, which lent Chateau de Champs-Évriers its name. The first stronghold here belonged to UG de Champs-Évriers. By the 16th century, it had become a Renaissance residence with mullioned windows still visible today. The great dovecote, massive, circular, with room for over a thousand birds, speaks to the scale of the estate. The chapel has stood since at least 1540, tucked into the layout like a quiet promise. Later came the moats, the gardens, the east-facing terrace that opens toward the forest. This wasn't built in one vision. Rather, it was shaped over centuries, layered, modified, and inherited. It welcomed royalty, withstood revolution, and remained in the same bloodline for nearly 300 years. So it's not only a national heritage place, it's also a family place, but with royal memories because we've welcomed two kings of France, Louis XI and Louis XIII, who came hunting. Two kings once walked these grounds, and not long after, one ancestor made sure the chateau was worthy of their view by building the terrace. When he built the castle, he really wanted to make it look better, and he built the terrace. So he added a lot of sand, and the terrace created a very nice view towards the forest. He created big avenues in the woods. The concept is a little bit like in Chambord. You have the forest all around the castle, and you can follow the hunt, more or less, from the terrace or on certain alleys in the woods. I see. Yeah. Now I will show you, maybe, how it looked. It's a rare thing to witness restoration in motion, especially when the challenge is bringing the past forward by making important parts of the chateau accessible today without breaking faith with traditional techniques. We have this humidity because it has not been built properly when they built the terrace. They didn't do, we say, a ditch by the front. And now we did a big ditch. It was a huge work because we had to dig more than two meters for the walls to be able to breathe. The wall had been falling apart because humidity was climbing, so we had redone the front some 12 years ago, and it was not enough. We could see that the humidity was coming back. Still. And the big problem with this is that there is salt in the water, and the salt in the water will become bigger in volume. Yes. And it will crack. And it cracks. And then it falls. So it's awful. So you have to act before we ruin, again, the whole wall. So we created the whole big ditch, drainage system, and it's covered with small gravels in front of the castle. And then a beautiful floor, I don't know if it's floor, and with lines so that the water can go directly into a drainage system. And it goes into the moat. How long do you anticipate this part of the project to take? We started doing some research two years ago, but now we are in the middle of it, and we don't know if we will be able to finish it. Restoration takes more than artisanship. It takes care, patience, and support. Because even a place that gleams like this needs help beneath the surface. Because when you protect the walls, you protect the stories that live inside them. Stories like this chapel has, where our tour continues, now joined by Gustave. Well, this chapel is from the Renaissance, from the middle of the 16th century. So there were already some baptisms, some christenings, and some weddings. We got married here some 15 years ago. The best day of my life, they say. They say, it's true. Yeah, probably. The chapel stands humbly as the place where the most important life milestones were celebrated, quietly and over time. The kind of family moments that never make it into history books, but shape a place more than any royal visit ever could. You also get a sense that it is layered with memory. This kneeler, for example, has been here for generations, reupholstered to be used for more recent celebrations. They were made, they were covered and upholstered, especially for our wedding. And after that, I think it is our son who used it for the christening and for the first communion of our son. So, you know, family, family events. It's a chapel built to be used. Simple wooden pews softened by time, stone floors worn in all the right places. The altar, a deep red marble, still catches the morning light. Its gilded centerpiece, a ring of cherubic faces. Stained glass throws streaks of blue and red across the walls, fleur-de-lis framed by centuries-old geometry. A family crest watches from above, still holding its place like everything else here. This is what devotion looks like when it's lived in. If the chapel is the soul of Champchevrier, then what comes next is its memory. Woven thread by thread into some of the most beautifully preserved historic tapestries in the world. Few ever get to see them this close. And it's like stepping into a story that refuses to fade. Well, I think we can even say that it's unique in the world because they are the first part of a set of eight tapestries. The drawings were made by the official painter of the King Louis XIII, Simon Roy. And they date back to the first half of the 17th century. They are unique because it's a set and in magnificent conditions. So the colors are very, very vivid. And this is definitely something extraordinary to think that through generations they have been able to keep those tapestries together in such good condition. The first set you see here illustrate a mythological theme, depicting the loves of the gods. Venus and Mars caught in their eternal entanglement with cherubs tumbling out like a divine afterthought. There's Hercules' muscles and mythology on full display. And Jupiter trying his luck, only to be met with a refusal mid-seduction, saying the gods don't always get their way. Centuries old and still in remarkable condition. Next to the tapestry room is the royal bedroom, where the myth continues. The second half of the series hangs here, just as vivid. Gustaf shares the quiet work behind preserving them, because when history hangs on your walls, care becomes a daily ritual. When I came here, I learned a lot of things, especially from my mother-in-law. So I was taught that, you know, when it's sunny outside, we have to close all the shutters, because sunlight is our worst enemy. Not the worst, actually. The worst enemy, apparently, is moonlight. And I was very surprised when I heard this, because for me, moonlight is a reflection of sunlight. So I didn't really understand how it could get worse. But so even at night, we have to close the shutters. So we're living in constant darkness. No, it's not true. We just pay attention not to have direct light. It might be said in jest, but the idea of living in constant darkness doesn't seem all too unreasonable, if it meant keeping these tapestries this vibrant for another few centuries. And it turns out some of that vibrance you see here, like the silk on the bed, was homegrown. It was the second baroness. She had a very good idea. Because at the time, Tours, we are close to Tours, was the silk center of France. Then it became Lyon. But at the time, it was Tours. And so they had the idea of planting mulberry trees on the estate. And on mulberry trees, you have silkworms. And that's how you get the cocoons and how you get the silk. They gathered 580, I think, silk cocoons over two years. And they made all the silk you see in here. And I think that's actually rather extraordinary. That is absolute. From the room where King Louis XIII once slept, we move to a quieter kind of royalty, the music room, where a harp crafted by Marie Antoinette's own Luthier still rests, delicate and defiant. Here we are in the music room of the chateau. And you can see there is a piano, but there is also a beautiful harp, which was made by the lutemaker of the Queen Marie Antoinette in Versailles. So it's really one of a kind with the original varnish Martin, that's the name of it. Just like the chapel, it's impossible to talk about this room without stepping into the family's story. My grandmother and her siblings, our wedding, we were just outside of the chapel. My parents' wedding, my brother, you know, my brother and my sister are co-owners of the castle together with me. Me, when I was a little bit more young, a little bit younger. Very fashionable, I think. If you have a look here, you just have to trust me. We have our coat of arms, which represents little Robert crossing. And here you have her wife's coat of arms with an olive tree. Isn't it beautiful? All that family history quietly embraced by yet another set of remarkable tapestries. The tapestry in the music room is striking, but not loud. It pulls you in with deep greens and shadow trees, a forest scene, moody, yes, but oddly also calming. Trees, forests. We also have a little river in all those tapestries. And they were made in the second half of the 17th century. So this is amazing. They all have an exotic animal, a bird, or even a little pig, because the 17th century was a time of exotism. But the tapestries don't overshadow the furniture that holds its own weight in family history. They are special because, you know, they were bought together with the castle in 1728. And, you know, in Champs-Élysées, it's not fake decor. You see decors that have been kept the original way. Not only my ancestors sat on those armchairs, but also the previous owners. And that makes it even more special. Speaking of ancestors, our next stop feels a bit like a family introduction. The Portrait Gallery, where generations of Lawrence's lineage look down from their frames, not with formality, but with a kind of knowing warmth. Well, this is the Portrait Gallery of the castle, which is nearly 100 square meters big and decorated with portraits of the family members who have been baron and baroness of Champs-Élysées. Among them, the first baron, first baroness. In fact, she is the only one I wanted to look like when I was a child. Her son and his wife, who stood their ground and held the fort, so to speak, here at Champs-Élysées during the French Revolution. She was an orphan, and he, an heir to a castle. During the terror of the revolution, they took the risk, didn't go into exile, and decided to protect the château. Despite their marriage not being approved of by the family, it was the love that conquered all. But as much as the castle has opened up to the public, it still holds many secrets. Stories tucked behind doors, not everyone gets to open. And in this next part of the tour, a few of them come to light. So this is the archive room. The archives are kept in a secret door. Nobody noticed that little door hidden in the wood panels, but this is the access to the archives. The archives, which are studied on this desk in front of the moats. We have also beautiful tapestry, which is the oldest of our collection. You see the hair at the top on the left, very big hair. Apparently, this tapestry was woven in the Flemish part of Belgium nowadays. And at the very beginning, I thought that there were some proportions problems with this hair surrounded by the hounds. But in fact, all the Flemish people tell us that they have a special breed of hair called from Patagonia. Apparently, you can feed up to 12 people on a hair. Oh my gosh. And just outside the archive room, we find an interesting letter that reveals a funny royal moment. But this is the story of the King Louis XIII when he came to Champs-Évriers. He stayed over four times, and we know very well what he did because he was followed by his private doctor, Éroir. And Éroir wrote a diary. And what I like very much is about the description of the weather at that time. Éroir says it was already very, very warm. And what you might not guess is what happened to the King. He was only 18 years at that time. It might explain a lot because he was probably a little bit more foolish. After dinner, he could not fall asleep on the satin couch that had been prepared for him in the royal bedroom. So what did he do? Gustave, can you tell us? The thing is, I mean, all castles have a royal bedroom, more or less. And why would you have that? It's because you never know. King might turn up and he could not call ahead. You said, you know, I'm coming in a couple of hours. Please prepare a bed. So people have been sitting for centuries with their beds made. And here, the same thing. So finally, the King comes. And then what do you ask for? He asks for some straw to be brought into the room. So he slept on the straw on the floor. Deception total. Because, of course, they've been sitting there for 200 years with the bed made. And then he doesn't even sleep in it. What a wonderful story. Just above us are two rooms that may hold the greatest treasures of Champs-Évriers. One, a treasure of life where generations began. This is where the women of the family used to give birth. This is a room which is decorated also with beautiful tapestries. And this is a room that was called later on the ambassador's room. Because Champs-Évriers welcomed the UK embassy. Because the embassy had to escape from Paris to the fast advance of the German. So they established their headquarters here at Champs-Évriers during several weeks. And you can imagine the UK ambassador sleeping in this room, side by side with some little memories. Height measurements of the children of Champs-Évriers across generations etched into the doorframe like a hidden family tree. But that wasn't the only thing hidden. Here, Laurence shows us the chateau's biggest hidden treasure. We asked if the chateau shows this to every guest. Now this is for you. You will see it's not easy access. So this is one of the reasons. And the second reason is that this is a big restoration project. You see the door. Tiny, tiny door hidden behind another door. And now I will try to put some light on for you. This is a cabinet which was made for the King Louis XIII. Covered with golden leather. But in fact, it was the fashion of the Renaissance at the time of Louis XIII. This was the room built for King Louis XIII. A private space fit for a monarch lined in golden leather and covered floor to ceiling in hand-painted detail. Every inch was made for the books. When we first began editing this footage, we noticed a strange illusion. Call it a glitch or something else. Look closely. The shadows don't sit still. Is there more than one figure? The heads don't align. The contours suggest another presence. Something looming, watching. Could it be myth? This was a room unseen. But now the silence is broken. But like any room that hasn't known life in a long time, it's showing its age. And this definitely needs restoration. It's very complicated to restore because the leather shrinks and dries. And so there are very, very few specialists. This room hasn't been restored. Not for lack of care, but because it takes specialists, time and resources. It's one of the great challenges of a place like Champchevrier. Knowing what's worth saving and finding a way to do it. For now, its fate rests with those who understand that beauty like this doesn't come back on its own. You are one of the few people who saw this room after Louis XIII. You can imagine the privilege. It is a rare privilege. I feel like I stepped through a time portal. This is absolutely that. We understand the privilege of being among the first to see this room in a very long time. But if La Rance and Gustave had their way, it wouldn't stay hidden. They'd rather see it restored and seen by many exactly as it was meant to be. Outside, centuries of ritual come alive again. We've only just scratched the surface. In part two, more will be revealed with plans to open up the estate in ways few have imagined. What we saw here left an imprint. Not just the tapestries, the gold leather or the portraits staring back through time, but the feeling that everything here, every memory, every story is still in motion. La Rance and Gustave are stewards of something that still breathes. And that breath is what lingers with you long after you've stepped outside the gates.