Ranguin (Domaine de)

Description

Originally built to be a monastery for the monks of the Lerins Island. In 1815 Napoleon spent two weeks here after escaping from Elba in 1815. In the late 19th century the property was sold to Lord Warrington. It became the property of the Mallets, who had already commissioned Lutyens to enlarge and redesign their house at Varangeville, Bois des Moutiers. In 1912 and 1913 Lutyens redesigned the house as a summer residence for the Mallets. In the summer prior to WW2, American Ambassador Joseph Kennedy rented the house with his family. (Contributor: Paul Waite)

This was one of three houses Lutyens designed for Guillaume Mallet, the first commission being Le Bois des Moutiers at Varengeville-sur-Mer in Normandy in 1898, probably Lutyens’s best-known house in France. This was followed by Les Communes nearby in 1909. In 1912, Lutyens restored and enlarged the family’s property in the South of France, a 17th-century monastery, creating a substantial holiday home. The late Michael Hanson, a former property columnist for the Newsletter and committee member of The Lutyens Trust, visited the house. In an article recently republished in the Newsletter, he wrote: “I was astonished to find what everyone had thought to be a minor work of his in the South of France is in fact one of his major works of remodelling on a par with his restoration and conversion of Lindisfarne Castle in Northumberland”. Domaine de Ranguin’s double-height entrance hall with its many and varied arches; the magnificent drawing room with its panelled doors, marble fireplace and decorative plaster ceiling; panelled library; elegant dining room and small sitting room all bore the stamp of Lutyens. So, too, did the corridors with their elaborately vaulted ceilings and black and white floors. On the first floor, the principal bedrooms had the typically Edwardian sleeping balconies found in many Lutyens houses. (Richard Page, n.d.)

Bibliography

Page, R, n.d., Lutyens Houses on the Market. [Online]. [Accessed 23 March 2023]. Available from: https://www.lutyenstrust.org.uk/portfolio-item/lutyens-houses-on-the-market-6

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Client

Guillaume Mallet