Expansion of the town's hotel, the Puits Doré

Click on the small blue letters Puits Doré in the 'labels' at the foot of this post to call up photos of the various stages of the reconstruction.

It is impressive that this small rural hotel has had the entrepreneurial courage to expand into this fully 'listed' rear extension and thus increase its commercial viability by increasing the bed spaces.  In doing so, they were obliged to restore the façades, remove the 19th century commercial shop fronts and incorporate facilities for handicapped people within including a lift.

Good luck Puits Doré - we hope tourists will now flood in.

The Puits Doré extends...

The hotel located on the main place du Marché has acquired the property to its rear and now includes the entire hôtel particulier - or mansion - located next to the Châtellerault gate that leads from the ville idéale to the duc's domainal parc.  The restoration works are now well under way, and we show pictures of recent stages of the construction phase.

The hotel seems to be prospering and the additional rooms that will be provided (and indeed the new lift) will increase the hotel's income and commercial viability.

looking towards the porte de Châtellerault

the design and contractor team

looking onto the place du Marché

the side elevation onto the Grande Rue

No doubt, the works will be under the detailed scrutiny of the town's dragon of the STAP and architecte des Bâtiments de France, Mme. Adrienne Barthelemey, who will ensure that the restoration of such an important element of the town's architecture will ratchet towards the hoped-for emphasis on the original designs of the 1630s, created by the brothers Lemercier for the cardinal and King Louis XIII.

half-timbered construction - colombage - in the courtyard

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The 'Puits Doré' starts to expand

The town's hotel , the Puits Doré - 'The Golden Well' - is expanding its premises.  The building works have started on the rear wing of their hôtel particulier on the south-western flank of the main town square, the place du marché.  The expansion will provide the hotel with more bedrooms, which in turn will ensure the continued viability of the business.  We have been told that the Puits Doré has been an operating hotel almost from the founding of the Ideal Town in the 1640s.  

Meanwhile the hotel continues to receive visitors and set  a jolly tone on the south side of the square.

It must be important for this little town that tourism can support and sustain such a hotel, as tourism and its grandiose history, cultural and architectural, are the aspects of the town that differentiate it from its myriad neighbours, each struggling to find a purpose in a dispersed agricultural world where the farms are de-populated by modern mechanisation.  Richelieu remains a centre for quite a large farming area as the good Cardinal had the farsightedness and ruthlesness to ensure that his new town did not have urban competitors closer than about 20km - Loudun, Chinon, L'Isle Bouchard, St Maure de Touraine, each at arm's length.  This 'isolation zone' maintains the serenity and tranqillity of the place, but sets it a bit aside from the mainstream.

The main front of the hotel on the place du Marché

The façade onto the Grande Rue, showing the part under renovation.

The hotel finally occupies the entire hôtel particulier, 2 Grande Rue.

the new rear façade to rue du Chantier, next to the Porte de Châtellerault.

the mason's sign.

It will be interesting to see to what extent the Bâtiments de France will require the renovated premises to be 'restored' to a more authentic state, and whether the strict line they have taken recently will be continued.  We will follow the works over the next few months and find out.

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