Tenacity & Fortitude: Château Cantemerle, 2015 – 2024
Caroline paused for a moment, and looked out from the main window of the bureau. Her gaze immediately fell on two young trees planted just a few pieds du roi – the young widow was still unaccustomed to using the newly mandated metric measurements – from the walls of the château. As her mind wandered, her head filling with old memories brought forth by the sight of those trees, her hands slowly relaxed, loosening their grip on the letter she held.
The letter that would open the door to her latest challenge.
Caroline, or Caroline Joséphine Françoise Josèphe de Villeneuve de Durfort (1783 – 1866) to use her full name, had already lived an eventful life. Born into the Lalande family, she was raised in the company of nobility, and was extremely well connected. Her sister had married Raoul de Pichon-Longueville, the very Baron for whom Pichon-Baron is so named. Caroline had also married well, her husband Jean de Villeneuve Durfort (1757 – 1834), proprietor of Château Cantemerle, was another descendent of the Pichon-Longueville clan. His great grandparents included Jacques François de Pichon-Longueville (1649 – 1731) and Thérèse des Mesures de Rauzan (born 1672); both names crop up in a number of Bordeaux profiles on these pages.
Sadly these noble connections were insufficient to protect Caroline from personal tragedy. Her husband survived the Revolution, fleeing France for Holland and only returning when it was safe, but he was rather older than Caroline – 26 years older, in fact – and in 1834 he had passed away, on paper leaving the running of Cantemerle to their son. This was Pierre Jules (1815 – 1844), but as he was only 19 years old at the time of inheritance in truth it was Caroline who had shouldered this responsibility. And then in 1844 Pierre Jules also died, leaving Caroline bereft, with no-one by her side, and no-one else ready to come to her aid.
She had thus continued on, running the estate in solitude.
One of her first actions was to plant those two trees, one for her husband, and one for her son. They still stand in the grounds of Château Cantemerle today.
