CHATEAU
A forgotten estate at the gates of Bordeaux, whose walls still resonate with the presence of Henri IV
The lords of Isle Fort - those close to the Crown, musketeers, knights, the 1st King's council and confidant to Henry IV who stayed regularly at the castle - succeeded each other until the middle of the XIXth Century. They built across all the lands, farms, mills, orchards, and vineyards, an agroforestry method that radiates throughout the region and whose vestiges still remain.
In the XVIth Century, Isle Fort rose along the road to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle. As a stronghold of the Knights of the Order of Malta, the Estate was already exploited for its exceptional resources: its clay supplied the royal pottery, its stone quarries were used to build the city of Bordeaux, its water for fish farming, and its land for wine
At the end of the XIXth Century, the phylloxera crisis marked the end of the Estate's activities, a deep sleep sweeping over it.
Though abandoned for decades, the soil has retained its integrity.
The fauna and flora had proliferated, allowing the Estate to regain its original biodiversity.
The Estate of Isle Fort was finally taken over by Sylvie Douce and the architect François Jeantet, creators of the Salon du Chocolat, in 2001, restored by them and their children.
They replanted 9 hectares of vines, rebuilt the old farm buildings, restored the lakes and waterfalls, and brought horses, cows, sheep, pigs, and all kinds of birds to live off the land... Even bats were placed in the caves which ensure the disinsectization of the vines
