La Laupie

Formerly a pre-Roman oppidum, then a motte-and-bailey, the village originally had the same destiny as its neighbours. With the château, its fort (13th C), residence (17th C) and hanging garden, each house and street, Saint-Michel Chapel (12th C) on the twin hill, La Laupie has been resurrected with a real concern for authentic detail.

Perched on a strategic height in the middle of the plain, the old village of La Laupie was gradually abandoned at the beginning of the 20th century, and received the coup de grâce during the Battle of Montélimar (late August 1944) with a deluge of 650 shells fired by the German and American armies. Not far away, the village of Bonlieu had become a buffer zone between the two sides. From this heap of ruins, new owners brought the houses back to life one by one from 1962-1963. Scattered on the ground, the stones and architectural details - lintel, mullion or oeil-de-boeuf - gradually found their way back into the facades. The restoration was carried out with great attention to authenticity, giving it a particularly homogeneous character. The château, heir to a first edifice built around the year 1000 and altered many times over the centuries, is once again crowned by the hanging garden that makes it so original.