Château La Lagune: Jean-François de Lavaud
Thanks to some well-kept records in Ludon we know a fair amount about this very early proprietor of Château La Lagune. It was, it seems, Jean-François de Lavaud who was responsible for the construction of the château here, a rather understated single-storey affair in a chartreuse style, erected during 1731 and 1732. It is often said that it was designed by Victor Louis (1731 – 1800), the famed architect of the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux, but as he was a newborn infant at the time this would have been a remarkable achievement. In fact he carried out a later remodelling, and the identity of the architect of the original construction is, as far as I am aware, unknown.
Jean-François de Lavaud was – perhaps unsurprisingly, in view of his various offices – not a man to be messed with. As well as sorting himself out with a handsome maison local records also describe his taking a local labourer named Maurice Jeantet to court in Agassac in 1734. Jeantet’s crime had been to allow his cattle to graze on the Sieur de Lavaud’s land, and for doing so he was threatened with prison. Thankfully he seems to have avoided this fate, but only when others intervened. He still had to pay costs, including 30 livres, no small sum of money, which was given to the poor via the Charité de Ludon and the Confrérie du Très-Saint-Sacrement, both charities being based in the church in Ludon.
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