So it feels like the first proper feature that I’ve gotten to show some of my own work on my own website, now, where better to begin than with our visit to that extraordinary place that will forever be a photographer’s dream.
I love being able to say this: “Since the turn of the century…”
Sounds good doesn’t it? Anyway, since then I’ve spent a lot of time in France…Brittany and Basse Normandie in the main and I love it there.
Through biking and driving, I know some these areas well, over the years made a lot of great friends, most of whom I remain in touch with thanks to social media.
So over time, even though remote you get to see what your people get up to, what they like, their families, their works, their travels and it was via their posts that this place came to my attention.
Of course, as is the way of these things, it’s location was kept secret, nodody would tell me where it was and then one day, my gorgeous friend Melle La Fraise (the strawberry girl from Caen) posted a selfie taken in the ball room.
In the comments one of her friends let the cat out of the bag and gave out it’s informal name “Chateau de Singes”
So the search could commence, over the winter web searches and satellite imagery being scoured until, on one urbex site a guy gave out it’s coordinates: 49.210238, 1.597834
So there it was.
Not so far out of the way of our regular trip to Caen located in a hamlet of some dozen homes and a couple of small holdings called Cahaignes situated within the Departement d’ Eure between Paris and Rouen.
Now, before we continue, before you start thinking “That’s a bit me” and rush off down there….please read the rest of this article before you waste your time 😉
Consider that; if was a free for all, then I’d never put it at risk by introducing to to people. I would never disclose it’s location. It is only now that I feel safe to do so….read on and see why.
So, in early March 2015 we set off making the detour to visit.
The approach is via a country lane, a climb over a two metre high mound of earth intended to prevent visitors and then up a long muddy path…being careful not to step into the obscured 4m deep moat which would not be a comfortable landing, being heavily overgrown with lots of spikey thorny stuff.
The 17th century building coming into view you see that the east wing had recently collapsed alerting you to the potential danger that is inherent to any abandoned building. The main body looking in good condition, the roof of west wing already leaking and collapsed a couple of years later.
Entry was easy, stepping in through an opened door straight into the marble floored ballroom though it was in fact the library for some time….
First thing you notice is that someone cares for this place, the floors swept the graffiti washed away, and gerenerally tidied, however by the time we got there the large mirrors over the fireplaces has been smashed. A terrible shame.
Once established what was reasonably safe and what wasn’t I was left alone for a few minutes whilst the camera gear was collected from the car.
Absorbing the uncanny surroundings, although outstaingly beautiful felt soulless. Standing there contemplating the experience I felt nothing, heard nothing, not even a feint odour of anything particular…
Pleasure Palace
Chateau de Cahaignes it seems is what I can only describe as a high class call girl of a building.
Her one and only raison d’etre being to make somebody, her owner, look good in front of his peers was my impression.
It seems clear that it had never been a home, just a place to show off, carrying a pretence of haute culture according to the alabaster frescos around the ball room and such….let’s take a look:
Moving into the main section of the building more things come to light….light being the one thing whoever the architect was, he understood very well.
Having been initially disappointed by the cold dull day, that soon changed as the soft light and artful design made photographing this place a delight.
What I said about it never having been a home becoming clearer though the tour. No sanitation, no mains water let alone hot running water and just two light switches to be found in the entrance lobby, none anywhere else they can be seen in the following photos….
Now we come to the most outstanding internal feature…it’s famous marble and iron staircase. Sadly some oik had been in making graffiti though whoever the caretaker was, had done what they could to erase it.
Here’s the full effect!
Upstairs…
The beauty of the marble flooring leads you towards bedrooms, guest rooms presumably, none looking particuarly opulent…
Mostly also in remarkable condition in terms of timbers that could oh so easily have fallen victim to dry rot which, had that got a grip would have eaten this building away in no time at all…the water tightness of the magnificent original build saving us from losing her.
Having said that, it was mainly due to the wooden flooring having been removed meant that one wrong step could have been bad…and we really didn’t want to do damage to us nor the chateau and there was little to view in the vacant rooms.
Lofts…
So we move on to some really interesting parts, I can hardly remember now the exact layout but there was a tiny stairwell to go right up into the rafters.
Here you witness a superb bit of carpentry…again, didn’t go too far in…not so much for the footing but for care of not having my steps cause plaster below to dislodge.
As you can see, someone has stored many of the original displaced wood panels here, some used as flooring were they collect pigeon poop. Not the most sanitary area.
Overall it was dry as can been seen.
though, at the far end we can see the holes in the roof that were allowing the water ingress that had caused the damage in the guest rooms and ante room below.
More fallen parts had been put here by persons unknown…whoever that was they probably saved quite a lot of rare components and original materials that would be potentially irreplacable.
Next along, the loft above the ballroom, fairly cosy and showing signs of unoffical inhabitation.
A “person nest” lined with hundreds of newspapers….the French version of Racing Post
Before back downstairs to the servants’ quarters let’s have a nice arty full scale photo!
The darker side of the building is the west wing. Decorative marble flooring gives way to something more appropriate for us poor serfs…I’d actually love to have these hexagonal terracotta tiles in my own kitchen!
Show what a cheap date I am but these, in the servant rooms make for some very moody photos.
Most of what you’ve seen so far will be medium format digital, (I am the only guy here allowed to use digital….it’s my site, I make the rules!) so I want to now show some stuff shot on film, Kodak Double-X being the tonal weapon of choice for the 35mm shots that day.
Here we see that the all the original fitting remained in place, Chateau de Singes at this time would have been worth a fortune in reclaim. What the bath was about we have no idea….there’s no mains water!
Just wandering around this part of the building…the photos just keep coming
It’s in this short series that two of our more emotive ever shots came from. On the debris we see is the ceiling no longer adhered to the laths due to the leaky roof above, that roof was collapsed not long after.
The halter, the flowers…they were already there. Why the flowers? You can only speculate.
We didn’t touch a thing throughout, take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints. Those are the rules.
It’s growing fast this article isn’t it! We have more to go yet including the part that gives it the colloquial title….so a walk by the ante rooms and along passage that runs the window lit length of the building.
We can better witness the overall state from these haunting photographs…
Those mainly 35mm but a couple of digital as the colour profile failed….here’s some more in glorious 16bit medium format colour:
So why is it called…
…Chateau de Singes which translated means Castle of Monkeys when it’s named is the Chateau de Cahaignes?
Answer: it acquired that title due to the hand painted 17th century wall papers…that had mostly disappeared by the time we got there.
Decor adorned with picture of monkeys, wooing people by reading or playing musical instruments.
It has also been known by some as the Chateau de la Folie…a term reflecting a once joyous place…
Here’s that one room that still displaying remnants of that opulent decor, probably a reading room, that adjoins the collapsed and treacherous east wing.
The decor, made by skilled craftsmen would have been an extremely luxurious and expensive indulgence in the following photos, one intended to compliment and emphasis the cultural ethos of the chateau…passing the overgrown main entrance you would be greeted with calm….
Rules of Urbexing….
Before we move on to the safety of the exterior of Chateau de Singes, lets to say a few words about this Urbex stuff as it’s called
1) Remember, on entering the bounds of a building or it’s environs, be certain that even if a door is open, you are not invited and as such you are essentially trespassing. That’s illegal.
2) NEVER go alone. Abandonded buildings by their very nature do not get maintained thus are not safe places. If something bad happens you will need help.
3) Don’t touch anything. Leave stuff alone, it’s someone’s property it’s not yours, plus it could be dangerous and most importatnly, never take anything away with you. That’s theft.
4) Mind where you tread, things like dry rot can leave wood and mortar looking normal but with the strength of tissue paper….we nearly went down a couple of stories on an affected stairway once.
5) Why is it that “urbexers” feel the need to over edit, and HDR the life out of what was possibley once a nice photo until it looks like a Pixar scene gone dreadfully wrong. Please don’t do that.
So we have seen most of what there is to safely see inside, we’ve been a bit awe struck by this fairy tale of a place but it’s time to go…
Outside is a bit of a mess too. Less honourable uninvited guests having dragged stuff out there and left it.
A recently resprayed Renault….god knows how they got it there, the place is surrounded by a 1.5m ditch!
Here’s a serious of fifteen photos that are self explanatory except to say that the stables, you’d have thought that they would have been converted to garaging for internal combustion powered transport.
Not the case, still horse stables as if still in the 17th Century, even a Letang Brothers of Paris fodder shreader still ready to make feed…
Don’t run away just yet…!
We may have come to the end of my photographs but we have more to say about this wonderful place including “Richard’s Potted History” and the latest news about Chateau de Singes.
Remember I told you not to rush down there? You’ll soon see why…
Past, Presents the Future…
Remember I told you not to rush down there? Yes? Good.
Bravado
We did breeze by in 2018 by which time the Chateau was borded up with all sorts of “No Tresspassing” signs around. At the time rumour had it that a Parisian dentist had bought it.
Rumours are great aren’t they, but circumstances had clearly changed and being good people, we respected those signs and went happily on our way.
However there is more recent and very factual news; a sale has taken place and it’s new owner, an extreme sportsman and entrepreneur has great plans for it.
Plans that will eventually mean that yes, you can go and visit it, perhaps even stay there and see it in it’s full restored magnificence.
At this point we can even mention his name, it’s not a secret;
We genuinely and sincerely wish Taïg Khris the very very best of luck and encouragement in an undertaking that we think is a braver thing than his famous rollerblading jump from the first stage of the Eiffel Tower!
Seriously, this one is one project requiring someone gutsy so we shall send him some photos for his records. He should have some…below is a video he’s made for FranceActu whom, in their section for the Eure area posted a lovely article about the new owner and his plans.
We have also been naughty and stolen the following video (it’s in French) from ParisNormandie news!
Over the years we’ve made a limited number of pieces, including the trio of these very special canvasses.
Two sold, the other still wowing customers to this day and can be seen in our shop: Nik & Trick Photo Services in the Old High Street of Folkestone
We make fine art prints of most any size just contact us here:
~ Everything made to the highest standard at best pricing ~
Richard’s Potted History of Chateau de Cahaignes
For those new to Photographyinmyblood I do this…my way of sharing some knowledge and background history that I hope will inspire you to look over our photos once again, to share the feel of this remarkable site.
I’ve had to steal a few images in order to do that I’m afraid but I hope my victims won’t overly mind since they clearly love this place too.
We’ve scoured around for the orginal build date and who might have commissioned it but there’s almost nothing that dates back that far…no wonder as there appears to have been a revolution since then!
A list of more “recent” proprietors we just found at patrimoine-de-france.com who refer to the directory of castles which gives a chronology of the occupants and or owners at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century starting in 1897 with La comtesse de Boisdenemetz et le comte et la comtesse de Cornulier through to Le comte de Bois de Nemetz carrying on through to 1935 with La comtesse de Cussy.
Wikepedia of course seems to have attracted the best but concise information
Normandythenandnow offers a more informed tale:
“Chantal Le Gall was elected mayor of Cahaignes in 2008 and her passion for the village extends to all its inhabitants. Of course she knew of the Château and her heart ached to see the moonglow of ancient limestone fade to grey as its life became increasingly precarious.
She visited it’s owner Ernest, then 88 years old, to talk and to offer assistance. Three times she visited and each time was rebuffed by a redoubtable gentleman with pride as big as his house.
One terrible day a fire broke out, smoke seen from the village bought the pompiers, the firemen. Bristling with efficiency and professional knowledge the pompiers approached the Château.
Whereupon much to their surprise and horror a furious Ernest Hubert Jean Picot hurled abuse at them, threatened to shoot them all and generally failed to be at all grateful.
The pompiers were forced to retreat but fortunately quite a lot of Château remained.”
Unless that caused the collapse of the east wing, on site in March 2015 we saw no evidence of burning nor fire damage anywhere so…
Best of all the lovely people at Glaqueland show us a historical series of aerial photographs that appear to show the farm and the chateau apparently in some form of occupation or other until the new millienium.
So, I think that does me…if you want to know more then it’s over to you 🙂
Thus it only leaves me…
To thank you for coming right down here to the end of this mammoth feature…and to say a grateful farewell…until the next time!
