Maison Challard, La Souterraine 23300 Fr.

Most of the time we have to make a guess about the age of any particular building, based on personal knowledge, local history, materials & techniques, and so on, but here, thanks to the town's elders, we are certain. The house was the property of a jurisconsulte, - a lawer, called Joachim du Challard. He was born in La Souterraine - we are not told when, but we know that he died in 1562, and this fits in well with this style, from the early 16th century.


The work is of high quality, carved in granite, and borrows heavily from church masonry in both technique & style, and M. Challard must have been a wealthy man to have commissioned such work for a secular building. The door is later, of course, but suits the building well, made from oak boards of random width, - the central slot was for a letter flap, although this is now unused, a separate letter box is now mandatory in France.

1948 Kodak Tourist 620, 6X9, converted to 120 film. f4.5/105mm Kodak Anaston lens, X2 yellow filter, Fomapan 400 @800 in Diafine 4+4 mins @21C Scanned @1200dpi on Epson V500