Mayac castle, the chevalier d'Aydie and his pretty Aïssé
And also
The tops
We can’t visit the castle. But we are here on chevalier d'Aydie's land, the only love of famous lady Aïssé…
This true and sad story born in the 18th century let a mark here...
Aïssé and the chevalier
Love at first sight!
Let me introduce Blaise d'Aydie: a knight from Malta order, a romantic nobleman from Périgord.
He left his native Périgord and came in Versailles court.
And there, he met the pretty Aïssé, the little slave bought in Constantinople in 1698 and brought back in France by count de Ferriol.
Bang! They had a daughter, Célinie...
Withdrew from the reality...
But Aïssé died on march 1733… The poor chevalier survived her.
He left Paris and withdrew in Mayac, his sister’s house. He transformed her castle into a real little nest for his loving daughter.
Until one day, when their road came across viscount of Nanthiat, Pierre de Jaubert.
In September 1740, Célinie married him… In 1742, Célinie gave birth to an only daughter: Marie-Denise…
The chevalier sent a portrait of Aïssé as a gift for Célinie...
The chevalier on his lands
After the wedding, D’Aydie spent all his time in Mayac: he ″rode, dreamed, red″.
In the castle, he always had unexpected guests for diner: about a dozen of men and women arrived on horses, each one with two domestics!
They had fun, they ate good food. But Mayac wasn’t Versailles!
It was smaller, of course, and people slept everywhere, in the living room, in the boudoirs and the corridors… several ladies even slept in the same bed!
D’Aydie wrote about his daily life, here, with his family: ″Today it’s freezing and we have to shut ourselves in. What’s the remedy? To make a big fire and drink! Then, we play shuttlecock and dance.″
As he grew older, the chevalier fell sick. He had gout!
But he still rode and hunted… Finally, the sickness get the better of him, in 1760…