Septème castle and the skinflint's fatal stash

Claude Pécoil, provost of Lyon city’s merchants, owned the land in 1685. This chap was pretty rich: he was a baron, and his land was even raised to a marquisate! His granddaughter, Catherine-Madeleine, married the duke of Brissac, a “king’s cousin”. My word! But people were jealous, of course…

The famous French chronicler Saint-Simon wrote about Pécoil in his Memories: he talked about a misalliance and described Pécoil as a naughty skinflint, who died on his gold pile he secretly kept in his cellar…

St-Simon wrote: Pécoil was a fat merchant, a very stingy man. He had a safe full of money in his cellar, locked by an iron door.

One day, he disappeared for a long time. His wife and 3 servants looked for him. They knew he had a secret hiding place... So they decided to go down to the cellar and found the iron door.

They asked workers to open it, and after a long time, they found the old miser, dead near his safe… The door closed on him and he was trapped…

Saint-Simon was pretty jealous and rather nasty! Because in fact, Claude Pécoil was very generous, and he died in his bed, quietly with his family, in his town house of Lyon…