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  • Writer's pictureCarsten

Beauty and the Beast


Over 500 years, strange things are bound to occur in a château. Of those episodes related, this one stands out the most in my mind.

In spite of her appeals, the painter's model and lady of the house, Suzanne de Gramont, did not have any children. She therefore sought to leg the château to her niece with the one condition that she marry one of the nephews of her late husband. Well, there were 12 of them and they were ready to kill each other as she was apparently a beauty of exquisite humor.


Her choice went to the Marquis de Saint-Chamond, Ambassador to Italy and England, General Lieutenant of the King's Army. It turns out that he was so desperately jealous of his young bride that he confined her for the rest of his life in a tower room of the château (one such room is featured here, and was later made into a chapel before falling into disuse).


After the Marquis' death, she vowed her devotion to his memory until her own death 30 years later.

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