Boston’s strange connection to this home for sale in a fortified French village
Larressingle was built in the 12th and 13th centuries.
In 2000, Sheila Daley received a note about her great-grandmother, Sarah Choate Sears – a relative that she never met.
The note detailed a story Daley had never heard anything about. Sears, from Boston, saved a village in France and locals wanted Daley and her husband, George, to visit.
The tiny fortified village is named Larressingle and was built in the south of France in the 12th and 13th centuries by the Abbots of Condom.
To get to the village one must cross through an arched gateway and over a dry moat.
The Abbot’s heirs, the Bishops, relocated their residence to a nearby town in the 18th century, leaving Larressingle to fall into despair.
Then, in 1920, a duke of a nearby city, Edouard Mortier, visited Larressingle. He saw that the village, which had less than 200 inhabitants, was falling apart and – being a lover of the arts – decided it needed to be fixed.
Mortier first turned to the French people to raise money to reconstruct the village, but was unsuccessful. France was still recovering from WWI. His second approach was to tour the United States, giving lectures about French heritage. He intrigued two Boston women and in 1926 they helped form the “Boston Committee for Larressingle.’’
Sarah Choate Sears was one of those women.
Mortier used the money raised to purchase 14 houses in the village and by the 1950s the houses were sold to people that promised to maintain them in a proper state.
The Friends of Larressingle now exists to protect and preserve the village.
“[The Friends of Larressingle] wrote to tell the descendants that they would like to do an anniversary celebration,’’ Sheila Daley told Boston.com. “That was going to take place in 2001.’’
The Daleys, who live in Maine, arranged to fly to France, but had their travel plans interrupted by the September 11 attacks.
“Nonetheless, we were not deterred and we went the next year,’’ Daley said. “It was fantastic! The group was so warm and welcoming and we felt like we had been part of the celebration. We learned quite a bit more from them about what the town was and what it meant and the efforts to keep it alive.’’
Now, the largest of the homes in the village is for sale for €590,000 or about $670,000.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home also has three reception rooms and some serious old-world charm.
According to the realtor from Champions of Gascony, Mark Wilkins, the current owners, Michael and Pamela Gordon-Lee, have lived there for quite some time. They are the first Englishmen to do so since the Hundred Years’ War.
Wilkins said there are currently seven residents within the village walls.
“With a unique house of this age and history, one is not really an owner, but a guardian, as the house has existed long before and will remain long after we are gone,’’ Michael Gordon-Lee told Wilkins. “Pamela and I have made our contribution to improving the house further, especially the ramparts and tower, and we have had our lovely French adventure, but now feel it’s time to move on; we are not as young as we were.’’
Daley and her husband have no plans to buy the home, but maybe some other wealthy Bostonian will carry on the city’s connection to Larressingle.
Check out more photos of the house:
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