DOMAINE DE LA TORTINIÈRE
Anne & Xavier Olivereau
Route de Ballan
Les Gués de Veigné
37250 - VEIGNE
Tél. : 0033 2 47 34 35 00
Fax : 0033 2 47 65 95 70
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The History of the Chateau Hotel Domaine de la Tortiniere
The history of La Tortinière and its surroundings begins with the roman era. The path going
from the entrance of the park following the walls of the property towards the Indre river is
part of the ancient "Via Romana" that led from Tours to Montbazon. Because of its chalky stones
it was called the "White Lane". At "La Courtille", the path continued towards Sorigny with the
more recent name of "Lane of the Fat Oxen ".
The tower of Montbazon, which can be seen from the terrace of La Tortinière, was built at the
end of the Xth century by Foulques Nerra, also known as the "black falcon". Not content with
his holdings in Anjou, he coveted the province of Touraine. Because he was afraid to directly
attack Tours, Foulques Nerra encircled the city with fortresses at Langeais, Sainte Maure, La
Haye (Descartes), Semblançay, Amboise, and Montrichard. One can still see, not far from La
Tortinière, remains of a mound called "Bazonneau" (small Montbazon), where Foulques Nerra seems
to have lived during the tower's construction. The tower's strategic position in the Indre
Valley was important for the Counts of Anjou in their struggle against the Counts of
Blois.
After Foulques Nerra's death in 1040, the castle of Montbazon became th property of Philippe
Savary, then of the Craon and the La Rochefoucault and the Rohan. In 1459 King Charles VII
dwelt there and the Duke of Britany paid homage to him inside the castle. Around 1490 Louis III
de Rohan received the domain by marriage. In 1588, Henri III turned Montbazon, into a great
revenue paying Duchy that the Rohan family possessed until the French Revolution.
Before the invention of the electric telegraph, a visual Chappé system of semaphore was
installed on the southwest corner of the Montbazon tower, which operated until 1850. On the
opposite side, a statue of the Virgin was erected on a wooden support in 1866. It stands 28 ft
high (9.30 meters) and is made of copper plate screwed together and filled with rubble and
concrete.
But to return to La Tortinière's history, the first Tortinière was a rustic country manor with
2 turrets. The archives mention that in 1562, the Domaine belonged to Jean Forget de Villedieu,
"Sire de La Tortinière", who was mayor of Tours in 1599. In 1638 it gets into the hands of the
Compain family, a family of silk manufacturers who keep it until the end of the XVIIth century.
Tours was at that time one of the silk producing cities.
La Tortinière then becomes successively the property of the Raymond, Roujou and Petit families.
We don't know much about them but the fact that Louis Denis Petit du Chastenay who was
Inspector of the explosives factory of Le Ripault sells La Tortinière in 1845 to Françoise
Bastard and it is on the 2nd of March 1861 that Pauline Dalloz purchased La Tortinière from the
Bastard for sale by auction to the amount of 65.000 Frs of that time.
Custom has it that Charles Perrault (1628-1703) was inspired to write "Sleeping Beauty" while
wandering in the park, although the Château of Rigny-Ussé is the setting of Sleeping
Beauty.
Nothing is known of those who planted the enormous variety of trees at La Tortinière. Besides
species typical of this area, the rarest are two three-headed sophoras next to the turrets, two
cedars of Lebanon planted in 1795, and orange-trees that died of old age some time ago. There
is even a sequoia, extremely rare in this part of the world. The two-hundred-year-old holly
edge, lining the farm, north of the road, is familiar to the villagers, who pick it at
Christmas time.
Before the plans for the present manor were drawn, its environment already existed. In 1866,
the present Château was built by Pauline Dalloz, the widow of a famous lawyer who printed the
code for civil law that is still used today. This Château was inspired by Renaissance
masterpieces like Azay-le-Rideau, and, at the same time, by the solid construction principles
of XIXth century.
Jacquemin Bellisle who was the architect of La Tortinière descends from a long line of
architects who designed the General Hospital in Tours, the Law Courts and renovated the
Cathedral.
The property was inherited by Louise Désirée de Rigny, one of the three daughters of Pauline
and Armand Dalloz. She was the soul of the house, the one who revived the rooms after the long
and dull winters to welcome children and grandsons ; and every summer the house used to sound
again with children's shouts and laughter. The Renaissance Pavilion was the children's domain
for games. Camomile used to dry on the first floor and prunes used to be in the bread oven of
Pressoir. Louise and Albert de Rigny had 2 sons Roger and Daniel ; Roger had no child. He sold
the Domaine in 1924 to Paul Saillard and his wife for 600.000 old french francs. Mr and Mrs
Capron bought La Tortinière from the Saillard family in 1954, and transformed it into a hotel
in 1955. They had 4 daughters. It is the eldest, Denise Olivereau-Capron, who, during 40 years
carefully looked after her guests.
It is in 1989 that her son Xavier joined her, and Anne her daughter-in-law, in 2000. They are
both graduated from the Hotel Management School of Lausanne in Switzerland (where they met…).
In this family, they personify the 3rd generation of hoteliers. They have 3 sons : Victor,
Adrien and Jules. As far as a 4th generation in this business is concerned, whatever will
be…
The most important historic fact about La Tortinière was the signature of the surrender of the
town of Tours to the Germans during the 1870 war in the sitting-room decorated with lemon-tree
furniture. During that war, in March 1871, Frederic Charles who whas Guillaume Ier nephew and
Frederic III King of Prussia and future Emperor of Germany came through La Tortinière.
Our souvenirs of the Second World War are more precise. While all the Châteaux of the
surroundings were converted into convalescent homes for the injured german soldiers, La
Tortinière was accommodating the Head Quarters. A camp was built in the park for the
soldiers.
When the germans left La Tortinière on the 30th of August 1944, very strangely all the chimneys
of the Château were smoking in spite of the fact that it was a hot summer day ! May be they
wanted to burn compromising papers before leaving. But doesn't one say that, as happy people,
happy houses don't have history !
Since La Tortinière was converted into a Château-Hôtel we have had the privilege of welcoming
many key figures coming from different horizons. In 1973 Georges Pompidou who was President of
the French Republic on a private visit ; soon afterwards Valéry Giscard d'Estaing then Minister
of Finance, the russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter, the writer Françoise Sagan, the film star
Audrey Hepburn, Simone Valère, Jean Desailly and Pierre Bertin from La Comédie Française,
Gérard Depardieu, Pierre Richard, Pierre Perret, Juliette Binoche, Sabine Azéma, Jean-Hugues
Anglade and so many others...
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Domaine de la Tortinière
S.A à Directoire et Conseil de Surveillance au capital de 75000€ Veigné
R.C Tours 55b94
Siret 554 800 946 00010
N° TVA Intracommunautaire FR 26 554 800 946
IBAN : FR 76 1870 7006 4400 1210 4926 651
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