The Gironde now has a third “Houses of the Illustrious”: Château Malromé (Saint-André-du-Bois), dfamily home of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901).
After having stayed there regularly for fifteen years, the painter breathed his last there on September 09, 1901, before being buried in the cemetery of Verdelais.
Created in September 2011 by Frédéric Mitterrand, then Minister of Culture and Communication, the “Maisons des Illustres” label aims to highlight residences remarkable for their history and those who have lived in them. Malromé is therefore added to two Houses of Illustrious Girondines:
- Le Brède Castle, property of Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brède and Montesquieu, philosopher of the Enlightenment.
- Le Domaine de Malagar (Saint-Maixant), residence of the writer François Mauriac.
“Landscapes dear to the painter and reconstructed apartments from the Belle-Epoque allow visitors to Château Malromé to share the living environment of the large Toulouse Lautrec family. The residential wing is furnished as it was at the time of Lautrec, and we find on some walls the traces of the famous artist…”
Château Malromé is open to visitors:
- From November 1 to April 30
Upon reservation. - April to October
From Monday to Saturday: visit/tasting every day at 15 p.m.
Other times by reservation.
Sunday and public holidays by reservation. - Prices
Adult: €7 – reduced: €5 (students and groups) – under 13: free
- Chateau Malrome
Saint-Andre-du-Bois
+05 (56)76 25 42 XNUMX XNUMX
visit@malrome.com - www.malrome.com
Burial of Toulouse-Lautrec in Verdelais
After his death at Château Malromé, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec was buried in Saint-André-du-Bois. A few years later, his mother, learning that the cemetery was going to be moved, had the body transferred to Verdelais.
The painter sleeps in the shade of the cross of the Counts of Toulouse, sculpted by his father, next to his mother and Adeline, the old servant, whom he caricatured as a mouse (the latter lengthened a little too much water in the glasses of Cognac of Toulouse-Lautrec and his friends).
Before dying, Toulouse Lautrec had forbidden the bringing of flowers to his grave, "flowers being made to live, not to be cut".