Draft:Château de l'Isle Vert ( Chouzy)

On the edge of the Blois state forest, the site is original on the top of the Chouzy hillside, at the end of an avenue of trees as a lane, far from the town of Chousy (Chouzy, Chouzy-sur-Cisse). The place is mentioned as early as 1465, in a census register. Jacques I Chicoyneau, receiver of consignments in the bailiwick of Blois, assigns an income on this enclosure on May 5, 1604. He is said to be lord of L’Isle-Vert. His son Jacques II, attorney at the presidial seat of Blois, died of the plague in 1631. He is buried under his bench in the church of Chouzy. Louis II inherited the estate, married Marie de Boismartin and died in 1662. His two daughters, Marie and Marguerite (called dames de l’Isle Vert) after the death of their mother in 1670, sold the castle to Didier-François II Mesnard, lord of Clesles, La Buscanderie and La Poterie, president of the presidial of Blois, husband of Marie-Françoise Scot, on June 6, 1684. His son, François-Didier, advisor to the king, lieutenant particular to the bailiwick, married Marie-Françoise Scot. It was perhaps he who rebuilt a dwelling at L’Isle-Vert. It is a rectangular building, very sober, one floor, covered with a four-sided roof (the raftered frame supporting the truss, in the shape of a ship’s hull is remarkable) and a small wooden bell tower for the clock. The Mesnards took advantage of their connections at Court to rise to the throne, become close friends with the royal family and desert their humble country manor for Versailles. François-Didier became ordinary master in the Paris Chamber of Accounts on 12 March 1738, attorney general of the Queen's Council in 1742, secretary of the commands of the Duke of Berry, the Count of Provence and the Children of France, attorney general of the Royal Military and Hospitaller Orders of Saint-Lazare and Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel. He did not completely forget L'Isle-Vert and compromised with the prior of the Marmoutier Abbey to be awarded the high justice of the fief of Chouzy. His son Didier-François-René, lord of Clesle, Montigny, Chouzy, L'Isle-Vert, inherited his father's functions at Court. He was appointed plenipotentiary minister of the king to the circle of Franconia from 1774, member of the provincial assembly of Orléanais, of the Royal Academy of Sciences. He took advantage of royal favors to carry out a fruitful exchange[2].

From November 1, 1774, Parisian commissioners came to do the very precise and very difficult survey of the exchange goods until 1776. Indeed, the king wanted to enlarge the park of Versailles for hunting, received the domain of Villepreux, very close by. In return, the park of L’Isle-Vert expanded enormously to the detriment of the forest of Blois. That is 250 hectares around Vaujagot, the high, middle and low justice of Chouzy and Groix (today Grouëts). By letters patent of November 1784, the land of Chouzy was established as a county. Unfortunately too close to the royal family, he was guillotined with his son Jean-Didier on April 18, 1794. The castle and the property were sold and bought back by the family: Charles-Jules-René, mayor of Chouzy from 1812 to 1818, then Alfred François-Didier, son and nephew, chamberlain of Louis XVIII and Charles X. The last Mesnard sold in 1857 and thirteen families succeeded one another until the end of the century. In 1890, Paul d'Estreux de Beaugrenier, his wife Marie de Pechpeyrou Comminges de Guitaut and their children who lived in a large private mansion, built by the Count of Marsay, rue du Foix, in Blois, chose L'Isle-Vert as a country house. The new master doubled the living space by building a new building at right angles, based on the plans of the Blois architect Paul Robert-Houdin. He encloses and transforms a small old dwelling, which he frames with two non-symmetrical pavilions, in the manner of a 17th century castle. At that time, he fitted out modern boxes for the horses, enlarged the stables and created an acetylene lighting system. Baron Paul donated a stained glass window of Christ teaching to the church of Chouzy. (1)

The Castle of l'Isle-Vert as know as château de l'Isle Vert, chemin du Vau Renard, 41150 Valloire-sur-Cisse, private property, not open to visitors.