EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS
SHOW US AROUND THEIR BEAUTIFUL AND HISTORIC CHATEAU IN NORMANDY
Jean-Ghislain and Eléonore, Count and Countess Lepic, couldn’t ask for a home with a more distinguished history. Set in the verdant landscape of Normandy, the spectacular Château de Louÿe dates back to 1180, when Richard the Lionheart built a fortress there to defend the lands he held in France.
The Lepic dynasty also has an illustrious story. By the time JeanGhislain’s ancestor Charles Edouard de Viel-Castel acquired Louÿe in 1882, other relatives of his, the Dukes of Bassano, had been giving loyal service to France’s Napoleonic emperors for the best part of a century.
WORKING PROPOSITION
But despite all that, Jean-Ghislain and Eléonore don’t consider themselves to be classic chateau owners. Rather, they are, she says: “A working couple renovating their family home. Big, yes; historic, yes; but a family home.” And, they add, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that they’d be living here at all.
If the couple aren’t entirely conventional, their family isn’t either. The happy clan at Louÿe includes seven children: Achille and Theodore, Eléonore’s two from her first marriage; Evangéline and Axel, from her second; JeanGhislain’s son and daughter Adrien and Clémence; and finally the youngest, Hortense, fruit of their own special love story.
ROMANCE RENEWED
Eléonore de Boysson, a top executive with the luxury LVMH Group, and her husband, a financial expert, first met when they were barely in their teens. After a short but delightful romance their paths diverged and by the time they crossed again, in London, both were married. After that, it was to be another 20 years before they even set eyes on each other. When they did – at a singles dinner organised by a mutual friend – they finally knew it was meant to be. That was in autumn 2005, and they haven’t looked back.
