Le domaine du château d'Ettevaux

The history of Ettevaux castle

 

Zacharie Bertrand de Rivière, mayor of Larochemillay, bought the castle in July 1748. It then was passed to the de Galembert family in 1852 thanks to the wedding of Louise-Marie-Joséphine Bertrand de Rivière with the viscount Anne-Marie-Charles de Bodin de Galembert.

The Ettevaux estate belongs to the 6th generation of the de Galembert family, Charly and his 4 children. Together they decided to run a project revolving around these values in 2011:

hospitality, regeneration, nature and peace

Based on this reflection, Charly started the repurposing project of the Ettevaux estate into touristic accommodation by building two huts on stilts. They were made entirely with the property’s wood. One is located on a small romantic pond and the other on a more remote fish-filled pond. He then set up two charming guest rooms in the renovated part of the castle and a typically Burgundian small gite. Last but not least, he started renovating the Ettevaux Stables gite with an environment-friendly process. It now can accommodate groups of up to 15 people and seminars.

Our sustainable development philosophy

To make our huts on stilts, we tapped into two different sources: the concept comes from family reflection, and the making was made possible thanks to our friends who created the model for those huts.

Our initial idea was to create a local project in South Morvan centred on sustainable development, which would allow us to set up places for regeneration and well-being in a natural setting thanks to unusual accommodation environment-friendly built.
With this aim, we took the timber wood from our property; it was cut down and sawed in situ. We carefully selected the varieties of trees based on their natural properties like mechanical strength, water and bad weather-resistance and for their beauty.

Our sustainable development philosophy

To make our huts on stilts, we tapped into two different sources: the concept comes from family reflection, and the making was made possible thanks to our friends who created the model for those huts.
Our initial idea was to create a local project in South Morvan centred on sustainable development, which would allow us to set up places for regeneration and well-being in a natural setting thanks to unusual accommodation environment-friendly built.
With this aim, we took the timber wood from our property; it was cut down and sawed in situ. We carefully selected the varieties of trees based on their natural properties like mechanical strength, water and bad weather-resistance and for their beauty.

We took an active part in the building process and we got help from local craftsmen whose expertise is renowned in the region (“Cabanes sur pilotis” in St Didier S/Arroux and the portable sawmill Wimmer France in Luzy).
Our commitment to sustainable development also consists of other simple actions:
waste-sorting, using the wood from our property as heating fuel, using spring water to limit our tap water consumption, making our hosts’ meals mainly out of products from our property or local producers.
This way, our hosts are immersed in a preserved natural setting and gain an insight into using energy efficiently from renewable sources through: wood heating, optimized management of spring water resources, lighting by LED lamps, recharged by dynamo or solar panel, composting toilets, accessing the hut on a craft with oars, meals prepared with local products.