Pierre Loti’s house, the backdrop for travel souvenirs

A sober, crazy facade, typical of the bourgeois house of the 17th century. From the outside, nothing suggests the brilliant shades of colors, emotions and memories that assault when you cross the threshold. Pierre Loti’s house (1950-1923) is, like his novels, an invitation to reverie and travel to distant regions. A residence that the writer has known since his childhood and that he will shape according to his desires, throughout his life. Julien Viaud, future Pierre Loti, was born on January 14, 1850 in Rochefort and grew up in these walls. From this family home, he has a memory imbued with melancholy: “It was a very modest provincial house, where Huguenote austerity felt, and whose impeccable cleanliness and order were the only luxury,” he described in The novel of a child (1890). In 1871, then aged 21, he bought the home from his mother, who had inherited him from his parents. After the death of his brother Gustave, the young Julien Viaud passed the competition of the Naval School to crisscross the seas of the globe. Algeria, Türkiye, Senegal, China, Japan … Each mission brings its share of experiences but also of objects, exotic finds which it amasses and hastens to report during its permissions. Very early on, Pierre Loti reveals a certain inclination for accumulation and decorative overload. A taste that testifies to a horror of the void, but also a well -established fear. Tormented by death, the writer makes his house the guardian of memories of his journeys, a place where time has stopped.

His house, his theater

In each meticulously decorated room, cosmopolitanism and sentimentalism intertwine. The Red Salon, a family room of the house, retains its yesteryear atmosphere with its opulent furniture, its precious chandelier of Venice and its family portraits against the background of crimson velvet. Then, little by little, Loti transforms his house into a maelström of cultures and eras, without planning anything beforehand. In the old bedroom of his aunt Berthe, he develops a Turkish living room, reminiscence of the oriental stay which inspires him his first novel, Aziyadé (1879). This room, which he repeatedly reshuffled, becomes one of his favorite places in the house. Stucco ceiling inspired by those of the Alhambra of Granada, Bigarrous carpet, fabrics and earthenware brought back from East, Andalusia and Morocco … Pierre Loti designs his house as a theater, where each room transports in a fantasized elsewhere. A Japanese pagoda, of which almost nothing remains today, is full of furniture, weapons and trinkets reported from Nagasaki. The Gothic room, fitted out in the old painting workshop of his sister Marie, is inspired by the universe of medieval legends. Wooden fireplace, stone stalls and heraldic decor stained decor then rub shoulders with dummy and furs weapons which then littered the ground. With his literary successes, Pierre Loti, who became an academician, bought the two adjoining houses in 1895, then in 1897, which he tried as best he can to connect to his main home. With these new spaces, he gives free rein to his decorative frenzy. Arrangement in turn room of mummies, mosque, Renaissance room then Chinese room, Pierre Loti expresses all his love for the staging. Far from all these fantasies, the blue living room, with its Limoges porcelain, is much more conventional – a concession granted to his Ferrière Franc de Ferrière wife, which he married in 1886. From this heterogeneous ensemble, another piece detonates: the room where Loti likes to write and rest. It strikes with its almost monacal counting, with its whitewashed walls and its iron bed. But, behind the simple crucifix and the small Buddhist statuette, again appears a writer in search of an elsewhere, this time spiritual.

Major restoration

To celebrate the inauguration of his pieces with great fanfare, Pierre Loti multiplied costume festivals. Large “Louis XI” dinner in the Renaissance room, where the guests in medieval outfit conversed in old French. Memorable feast in the Chinese room, where no less than 250 guests gathered! If the writer has always liked to receive, his house was not intended to become a museum. But when the city of Rochefort bought the place from its son Samuel, then opened it to the public in 1973, the arrival of thousands of visitors greatly weakens the building. He already suffered countless redevelopments led by LOTI, to the detriment of its structure. And the recurring infestations of mushrooms and xylophagous insects have accelerated its degradation. Due to its poor condition, the house closes its doors in 2012. Emergency work is then carried out, but the maintenance of the site really only begins in 2020. A major operation, encrypted at nearly 14 million euros, which required the intervention of 35 trades. All animated by one objective: to reconstruct the house as it was on the death of Pierre Loti, on June 10, 1923. The effort first focused on the safeguard of the spectacular ceiling of the mosque, plagued by termites. This meticulous restoration work has also applied to all the heterogeneous decorations and collections that the house contains. Tapestries, fabrics, paintings, furniture, weapons … Loti accumulated both rare jewels and small everyday objects, which found their splendor thanks to the expertise of craftsmen from the four corners of France. To this restoration work was added that of restitution. Several rooms which had been dismantled when Loti died, required significant reconstruction work on the basis of photographs. Thus, the Chinese room has found its majestic imperial throne (a very successful facsimile). The architecture of the disappeared Spanish chamber, where Pierre Loti hosted his guests, was recreated with his wooden sections and his false gargoyles. So many beautiful interventions that have given back to the house all its extravagance and its past splendor.

The mosque

The mosque is, undoubtedly, the flagship piece of the house. In addition to the precious ceiling from a palace in Damascus, Pierre Loti brings back ancient ceramics from Syria, mosaics, refined carpets, woodwork and cenotaphs covered with embroidery. Part of the decor comes from the Omeyyad mosque, ravaged by a fire in 1893. To the historical interest of the room, was added a sentimental value since the novelist places a copy of the stele of his beloved Aziyadé, next to the central fountain.

The Renaissance room

Inspired by his stay in the Lot, Pierre Loti mixes in this Spanish furniture room, Basque, Dutch tapestries and chandeliers. The spectacular staircase, flanked by pilasters surmounted by Lions, was designed by local craftsmen from drawings by the writer. The latter regularly received in this room. To impress his visitors, he expected them firmly on the stairs, placing himself on a higher or lower walk depending on their importance!

Textiles in abundance

From floor to ceiling, the house is covered with precious shaded fabrics. Speeps, blankets, carpets … Some Ottoman fabrics, very rare, date from the 17th century. All these rich textiles, which form the most substantial collection made up by Loti, required a very meticulous restoration, which has sometimes proven to be particularly complex. The bottom of the Ottoman tent of more than four meters, suspended in the Turkish living room in the 1880s, was for example very difficult to remove.

Intimate garden

The garden was an important place for Pierre Loti. A child already, he particularly appreciated this relaxing place, animated by cats and turtles. A small paradise with lush flora, with the appearance of a cloister, which reflects eclecticism and the nostalgic atmosphere of his house. Next to a gargoyle, stands a family stele borrowed from the cemetery of Rochefort. Another vestige of the past, the precious basin offered by his brother Gustave, who died at sea. For a long time distorted, the garden has now found all its luster.