Palais Idéal, France 🇫🇷 2023

Date: 3rd July 2023

Travelled: 120 kms from Hauterives to Saint-Agrève  

Visited: Palais Idéal, Hauterives  

Stayed: Saint-Agrève Aire CC, free, N45.01020, E04.39310  

Budget: 42 days @ €93 per day

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During Covid we watched a French movie titled Facteur Cheval, on World Movies from memory. Simply put it’s based on the life of Ferdinand Cheval the local postman in the small village of Hauterives. From 1879 Cheval will spend 33 years building his Palais Idéal (or fairy castle), then another 8 years constructing the family crypt. Ostensively he starts the Palais for his daughter who later passes away at 15 but he continues on in her memory. Simply put his life is beset by tragedy and obsession. We loved the movie so we put a marker in our Google map just in case we were passing.

It was a noisy evening in Hauterives. There was a concert held at the Palais Idéal last night and Pam tells me there was lots of yelling and carrying on after mid-night but somehow I slept through it.

So we’ve come to this out of the way village, seemingly a long way from anywhere to visit the Palais Idéal, the postman’s obsession. But Pam’s keen for a walk first so we go off to explore the village of Hauterives.

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Hauterives, Valence, Drôme, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Metropolitan France, 26390, France

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Whilst the village is neat and tidy it’s relatively small, we walk here and there but only manage a few kms. The high point of our walk was spotting the sign to the cemetery and going down to view the Postman Cheval’s family crypt pictured below. Cheval named it his ‘ ‘tomb of silence and endless rest’ on completion in 1922, he was 86.

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Our morning walk done and breakfast complete we lock up and walk off the short distance to the Palais Idéal, pay our €9.50 pp entry fee and go in for a look.

It’s visually stunning yet confusing. It mixes a postman’s dream of a palace with his perceptions of what a Hindu temple and a Muslim mosque may look like as well as wild beasts and mythical animals he had never actually seen.

My words cannot do it justice.

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Within the Palais is a labyrinth of openings, passageways and hidden alcoves to explore.

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So with our visit to the Palais complete we walk back to the Hymer and make ready for the road and our next adventure. To get there we have a long drive across the French Massif Central so it’s going to be a long day.

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Michael + Pam