UPDATE per February 2007:

CONSTRUCTION

Numerous construction projects on the property went on in 2006.

In the main building, the attic was refinished with new wooden floors over 300 m², new electrical installations, satellite TV, finishing of the laundry room with industrial capacity washing and ironing equipment - yes we have to provide for up to 15 beds, 12 bathrooms and 6 kitchens - a lot of laundry!

The apartments on the first floor were finished, a new kitchen installed. As you can see from the photos, furnishing and decorating the rooms is in progress.

On the ground floor, lots of changes. The company office was moved from the second floor to the ground floor, into one of the rooms with a vaulted ceiling. Quite enjoyable to work with an open door onto the inner garden, or in the wintertime, with a crackling fireplace. A number of Franklin stoves were procured from a British vendor and the Esse Dragon fits very well into the office's fireplace.

 For the entrance hall we found an old French bistro bar and refurbished it - hopefully to serve drinks to visitors and friends in the near future.

The main kitchen is now furnished with a 18 century refectory table, decoration includes the reproduction of a fresco we found on one of the walls we had to rebuild because it was crumbling. Our gifted mason-stonecutter-artist and jack of all trades Pascal painted the fresco with lime-based paints, as might have been used in old times…

Outside, the towers of the perimeter wall got a lot of attention. One of them was transformed into a pottery, with modern pottery equipment, for those of our guests who might want to try their hand at ceramics.

 A corner tower which had collapsed about 40 years ago was rebuilt and our skilful stonecutters/masons rebuilt a gothic arch using ancient methods and materials. The lovely circular room could serve as a chapel, as the one which once certainly existed in the old fortress has disappeared.

Main jobs were the finishing of the second guest cottage and heavy masonry and carpentry work on the third one. Both are quite large with over 100 m2 each, with cathedral ceilings 10 meters high, basically designed to receive one couple each. Cottage 2 still needs some finishing and decorating touches, on cottage 3, a lot of work remains to be done.

We hope to have the first rentals by July 2007 and a web page with additional information on the cottages, prices, and reservation details will become available by the end of March 2007.

 The garden saw the addition of a fine greenhouse from Hartley Botanics in the UK. It is proving quite useful to bring the thousands of plants of Montmeilleur over the winter and to prepare even more flowers for the coming season.

In October roughly 200 m3 of tree trunks stored on the upper platform were chipped, to prepare for the heating season 2006/2007. Besides obvious ecological considerations, the rise in fuel oil prices is more than justifying the choice of a wood chip furnace heating system. Our all-in costs for wood chips have been calculated to cost only 40% of what fuel oil would cost today.

EVENTS

In 2006, Montmeilleur became even more popular as a venue for cultural and sporting events.

The season of cultural events started early in Montmeilleur with the Musical Play „Le jeu de la Grenouille” by Jean-Philippe Rameau staged in two showings for well over 250 people on February 16. The performance of the group where some members already participated in the Salzburg festival plays was a great success with plenty of audience participation. Some pictures can be found under events.

In July we had the visit of about 70 retired folks from the local association Club du Bel Age de Mens. Many had known previous owners or had even worked at Montmeilleur in their youth. It was fascinating for them to rediscover the old castle and fascinating for the newcomers to listen to their stories of old times. A makeshift picnic was organized inside while electrical and electronic equipment got hit by lightning and toasted. It was a lively afternoon.

The July 16^th Fête des Cavaliers was a big success with at least 500 visitors. Boys and girls, young ladies and squires in beautiful historic attire demonstrated their prowess on horseback.

The blazing hot afternoon came to an unceremonious end with a violent thunderstorm. Despite bean-sized hail and a lashing storm, fortunately nobody got hurt, though many got a good soaking. Refreshing!

In August, Montmeilleur came to life with the Mens Alors festival. Again hundreds of visitors crowded the garden for a picnic, for music and lights displays, and for some pretty spirited dancing to the sounds and sights of medieval musicians and jesters.

During the milder, sunny days of September, Montmeilleur was host to the Rallye des Cathedrales, to a show by the Tractions du Dauphinée and to a local car rallye. With all those visitors, one would have thought that everyone from far and near had already been through the castle and its grounds - yet  the Journées du Patrimoine again attracted many hundreds of visitors. Montmeilleur's staff was glad to show them the main building, the guest cottages and the park.

The year closed with the fly-in of the Mountain Pilots' Association in October, 42 aircraft taking advantage of the glorious weather. For a few hours, Montmeilleur's airfield was as busy as Heathrow. This being France, after the rigours of flying, a picnic in the gardens of Montmeilleur was in order.

2007 PROJECTS

Construction is going on to finish the third guest cottage, hopefully it will also be possible to complete building work for the sauna in one of the outbuildings.

2007 EVENTS                                                                              

The following dates have been retained:

UPDATE per January 2006:

Some events for the summer season have already been confirmed.

At the end of February the swimming pool was still frozen with only a little snow left.

The renovation works have continued on the inside during the cold months. A bathroom and suite in the main building have received their floor covering and the kitchen and bathrooms adjoining the main “knight’s room” are nearing completion.

“Gite # 3 “ the third guest apartment has been started with the dismantling of the ceiling opening to a tremendous high open beam roof architecture reaching up more than 10 Meters !!!

On the outside of “Gite # 3” the remnants of an old tower have been found, which apparently has been a counterpart to the tower on the east end of the chateau. Efforts will be made touse the remnants as the fundament to resurrect the tower to at least its base structure serving as a terrace for “Gite # 3”.

“Gite # 1” has is nearing completion and the vintage spiral staircase which leads up to the sleeping attic has been installed and is being finalized.

UPDATE per August 2005:

The summer sees many events in Montmeilleur (see events). The Chateau is increasingly developing into a popular site for performances and reunions of an artistic and cultural nature which draw visitors from near and afar.

On July 26 the reknown pianoforte pianist Pierre Bouyer gave a concert as part of his 60 concert tour through France. More than 100 guests filled the knight’s room and the candlelight only atmosphere complemented the selection of Mozart’s works to create a very unique and memorable evening.

A Saturday Afternoon medieval performance on July 16 of more than a dozen costumed horses before the backdrop of Mount L’Obiou attracted several hundred visitors. The “Open House” day in the Chateau with guided visits showed the renovated interior to more than 500 visitors.

Before the summer break, the main kitchen and the entry rooms in the Chateau have been completed, as well as the “Gite de Chatel”, the second guest cottage, which can be used in a basic way and where finishing touches will lead to completion in the Fall of 2005.

The Runway has seen much more grass growing and continues to be used by local and international pilots and visitors. Besides the Savannah a Dynaero MCR 01 is now based at Montmeilleur.

While the renting out of guest cottages will officially not start before the summer 2006 season next year, we already had some visitors on an impromptu basis.

April 17, 2005:

"April showers bring forth May flowers"

UPDATE per January 2005:

It has been a busy 2004 with many events, especially during the summer, at Montmeilleur as one can see in the "events" section. The renovation has seen the Garden House come to completion with the first friends staying there, much to their pleasure, especially due to the great views straight to Mont Obiou from the bed-side. While we have not started any rentals - this is planned for 2006 - there has been quite a busy coming and going of friends and family from France, Austria, Germany, USA, Switzerland and England all year long. The pool has worked well and the Hot Tub has been a frequent source of joyful evenings watching the sunset on the mountains while soaking in warm water.

In the main building all floors and major masonry work has been completed. Now, during the cold months, when outside work is difficult, the interior work is being advanced. The heating installation work has been finished and the heating worked well all winter, burning environmentally friendly wood-chips. All heavy structural work has been completed with 5 additional windows being installed after a time consuming process of obtaining clearance from the Historic Landmark Authorities for it (pictures in the gallery are coming soon). Work on Guest Cottage 2 is progressing well and will be completed in June. Work on Guest Cottage 3 and the Sauna / Fitness Cottage renovation will start this spring.

On the other hand and much to our surprise and joy, the inquisitive and watchful eye of the Historic Landmark Authorities has helped to discover a Chateau de Montmeilleur coat of arms in quite a remote place, which shows three bears with quite long tongues. It is the coat of arms of the Morges family which occupied Montmeilleur fortress from the 12th to the 16th century. While this leaves much to fantasy in its interpretation, we have used it on the new fire-place in the great knight's hall and will use it on the Montmeilleur stationary.

The runway is usable just for light aircraft, which can handle dirt strips well. But the lack of rain and water in 2003 and 2004 have not permitted a good grass cover to grow. To foster the growth of grass we have closed the runway temporarily and use special fertilization techniques, with some success. However it will take until at least the end of this spring to attain significant progress. As a consequence we have stopped landing with the Malibu as well, until the situation improves and the Piper Cub is in Austria for maintenance. Furthermore presently there is about a 1 ft snow cover on the property.

The site has obtained permission to operate as a farm and we produced 110 tons of hay, besides the occasional truffle, walnut oil, walnut brandy and... A small hangar to cover and store hay has been built. The hangar can house the Savannah ultralight as well, which is now the only Aircraft on the site. With its big tundra tires and a take-off roll of not much more than 50 meters this suits the local circumstances ideally.

With respect to the job offer, we have found good local support for the time being, withoutany piloting background however. Any aviation related activity will hinge upon the weather gods having mercy and bestowing rain and good climate for the grass finally to grow on the runway in order to start more flight operations. Once this will have happened, we will fill the job vacancy as originally anticipated.

One of our fondest memories of the year is a lunch we had on the upper Runway Platform in September on quite a spectacular day. Thanking you for visiting our site we wish you the best for 2005 and leave you for now with a picture in a state of "everything ready" for this luncheon, and we hope you find it as appetizing as we did.

UPDATE per February 20, 2004:

A view pictures of the renovation and some nice shots of the Chateau have been added.
For the "Latest Images" gallery, please click here...

UPDATE per January 1, 2004:

Happy New Year to all those visiting this site, with a Holiday greeting card from a recent flight passed Mont Blanc with the Malibu !

The renovation of Chateau de Montmeilleur is progressing and the new heating system using wood chips is being put into service presently. The runway has been unusable due to heavy rain & snow and the still missing grass, a situation which should improve once spring will get the green coming out. Given that it is still some time off before newly renovated accommodations will be available, no hiring decision has been made yet, concerning a couple to reside in the chateau.

It is now pretty exactly one year ago that we put our ad in Trade-A-Plane. As a German saying goes: “Gut Ding braucht Weile” (Good things take time). Not a saying much up to our times nor our attitude, but we are learning its merit anyway !

Bear with us !

All good luck for 2004 and best wishes to visitors of this site !

Ernst, Irmgard, Hannes.

Chateau Montmeilleur News as per the end of July 2003:

Where sometimes progress appears slow, it is the inner makings that progress and then allow a more rapid finish. Thus it currently feels at Montmeilleur, where the pace is visibly accelerating after important ground work has been completed.

Renovation:

Progress on the Montmeilleur renovation has started to be quite visible. A Jacuzzi entered service with stunning evening views of 10.000 ft Mount Obiou. Even more importantly in these extreme temperatures the pool is usable by now. The south of France has the worst heat wave since the official recording of temperatures was started, with barely a drop of rain in more than 3 months.

The external and roof renovation of the largest guest house has been completed and now work on the interior is progressing. New Pictures can be found under Renovation News. Completion is expected by November of this year. This guest house will serve as a temporary residence for the Montmeilleur host family, once we will have concluded the recruiting process with a decision, before the permanent quarters are finished.

In the main building all the structural work has been completed, wiring and pipes have been renewed and the new floor heating pipes have been laid in the second floor with a new cement layer which has been added. Now the floor is ready to be covered in a traditional hardwood flooring.

Madame Catherine Angot, a local artist, has been commissioned to paint two images of traditional Louis XI hunting scenes which are hung in a new apartment unit (see pictures). Legend says that Montmeilleur has been the king's favourite hunting castle in the late 14th century.

Runway:

The runway is in operation and works great since a few months. Some first visitors have been quite impressed. Under the heading Runway you find pictures of our first Malibu takeoff (being in the air just after the runway midpoint !), of visitors' airplanes and some pictures of the final approach taken from our Ultralight. Additionally there are two standard visual charts with a legend. Please read before you request permission to land at Montmeilleur as the field is PPR (Per Prior Request). Together both charts can be downloaded directly from: airfield charts

The field is an official "private airfield". On the popular www.nav2000.com site you can find approach procedures and helpful local hints as well.

Unfortunately due to the lack of rain the grass has not started to grow on the Runway, making any landing and takeoff quite dusty and showing the Runway in the land-scenery very prominently from afar. By next year with more water and grass hopefully growing it will be a prettier sight.

"Bise de Connest" Event:

On July 13, a local cultural society organized a medieval folkloric event at Montmeilleur, which was very well attended. For the first time in decades Montmeilleur was open to the public. The response was tremendous and more than 600 visitors took advantage of a tour of the Chateau's interior, guided by the owners. Needless to say we were quite exhausted ! More than 20 horses participated in knights' horse exercises. Horses and riders were all dressed up in medieval costumes. Games were set up for children in the gardens of the chateau and many took a refreshing dip in the pool. Over 140 visitors participated in a evening courtyard dinner and local folk music and dancing was performed on a stage set up in the courtyard. Some pictures under the heading of Bise de Connest Event give an impression of the day's happenings.

A local newspaper "Dauphiné Libéré" had three articles about the event which are attached as well.