Rambouillet (Yvelines). Retro telephone, Radiola television on, shaving brush carefully placed in the bathroom… At the Château de Rambouillet, time seems to have stopped in the 1970s. The site, which had served as a summer residence for the Presidents of the Republic, has enriched its visit itinerary. Until now closed to the public, the presidential apartment is revealed in its period decor, as Valéry Giscard d’Estaing knew it. “You have to understand that at the time, almost no one came in here! »recalls Isabelle de Gourcuff, administrator of the national domain of Rambouillet. The result is a singular mix between presidential decorum and personal tastes. Unlike the Auriols, the Giscard d’Estaing couple preferred traditional decor, in a classic style, where mahogany and gilded wood furniture mixed with more modern and comfortable pieces. Mobilier national, which had both advised on the layout and provided the furniture, was responsible for refurnishing this apartment identically.
“We chose to restore the apartment as it was in the time of Giscard d’Estaing, because it corresponds in some way to its last historical state. François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac subsequently occupied the premises, but the layout remained practically unchanged. explains the administrator. With these seven newly accessible rooms in a row, the visit is enriched by 250 square meters. The visitor wanders through the president’s bedroom with its sumptuous Louis XVI bed, discovers a boudoir adorned with a floral hanging with matching curtains, crosses Madame’s bedroom actually occupied by the eldest son, or two well-equipped bathrooms. In these restored settings, the presence of sound testimonies, old photographs and everyday objects makes the visit particularly embodied. Vintage telephones play the memories of different personalities invited to the very first G6 summit, organized in Rambouillet in 1975, while the television plays the news of the time on a loop.
Vestibule of the presidential apartment of the Château de Rambouillet.
© Céline Clanet / CMN
“A presidential apartment, we don’t know exactly what it looked like. We know the list of furniture, but no photography was obviously authorized. Our luck is that Mrs. Giscard d’Estaing, their son and their butler gave us a lot of information on the way the presidential couple lived. underlines Isabelle de Gourcuff. Two years of archival work and then careful reconstruction were necessary to accurately recreate this daily life. From the grapefruit that the president liked to eat in the morning to the English thrillers that he read, nothing was left to chance.
Reopen the entire castle
Supported by the Center for National Monuments, for a total cost of 530,000 euros, this redevelopment is part of a long-term vision: reopening the entire castle. In 2023, a first campaign made it possible to restore Napoleon’s apartment, five guest rooms and the marble room, while part of the furniture ordered under Vincent Auriol (1947-1954) had found its place. This year, in addition to the opening of the presidential apartment, other small changes are being made throughout the visit. The common thread: telling how Rambouillet, as the setting for multiple international meetings, gradually became a center of diplomacy. From the red carpet spread out on the steps, where the handshake protocol took place, to the few hunting elements which recall the diplomatic instrument that constituted presidential hunts, including the return of the iconic furniture from the marble room, emptied in anticipation of the G6 of 1975… The official mixes with the intimate in this unique example of a residence that is at once royal, imperial and then presidential.
The Château de Rambouillet.
