CHATEAU DE CORMATIN

Only one wing survives of the old Chateau de Cormatin, near Cluny in Burgundy, built 1620-26, but these three rooms inside it are truly wonderful. Decorated for Marquis Jacques du Blé, an ‘intimate’ of Queen Regent Marie de Medici, before his death at the siege of Privas in 1629, the antichamber, above and below, has simple panelling painted in the Parisian high style of the time: bright colours, trompe l’oeil effects, emblems, botanical and decorative motifs taken from engravings, inset landscapes and Diana the Huntress in grisaille. I love the warm, faux bois framing with azur blue borders and the slightly naïve paintings: it has such atmosphere.

A small cabinet , above, has more painted panelling. The present owners, three friends who rescued the neglected chateau in 1980 and restored it over 15 years with government help, have set this up as a cabinet of curiosities with bits of porcelain, coral, shells, a blowfish; it’s hardly Schloss Ambras, but it’s charming. Next door is the grandest room in the chateau, below, known as the Cabinet of St Cecilia, although it looks more like a small State Bedroom with its hugely lavish gilded decoration. Elsewhere in the house, bottom, an Empire tiled stove reprises the gold-and-blue colour theme: a modest reminder of the glory of earlier times.