The Château Bijou de la Bastide-Villefranche, helped by the Mission Patrimoine

Stéphane Bern’s Mission Patrimoine has decided to give a helping hand to save a new ignored and endangered gem of Bearn heritage. Château Bijou in La Bastide-Villefranche is an area of ​​17 hectares with a lake. In the center, an old 18th century bourgeois house was completely remodeled and transformed from 1913 to 1924 by the owner at the time, Charlotte Combes Saint-Macary. Thus visitors could discover a cloister, a large basin, a chapel and many landscaping which today are to be completely redone.

After having been transformed into a holiday center for the Mutuelle Générale de la Police, today the estate is in a state of ruin. It was looted, burned and vandalized. The urgency is therefore to put the building out of water and out of air, which should cost nearly two million euros. The start of work is expected for the spring of 2023. This will only be the start. A total rehabilitation of the estate could take several years and cost several million euros. The set was classified in 2008 as historical monuments and bought in 2009 by the current owner (a private) who wants to make it an artist residency, open to the public.