Le Plantier de Costebelle is a house built in neo-Palladian style starting in 1857 by Baroness Hortense Pauline Husson de Prailly. Located in the commune of Hyères-les-Palmiers, in the Var department, on the eastern slope of Mont des Oiseaux and the hills of Costebelle, the property overlooks the roadstead of Hyères, the Giens peninsula, and the islands of Porquerolles and Port-Cros. A vacation residence in the second half of the 19th century for prominent ecclesiastics (Dominican Father Henri Lacordaire and the Bishop of Orléans, Monsignor Félix Dupanloup), the "Villa des Palmiers" (as named by Hortense de Prailly) also welcomed the Legitimist writer Armand de Pontmartin. But the most illustrious visit to date remains the 1892 stay at the Villa des Palmiers by Queen Victoria, accompanied by Prince Henry of Battenberg.
In 1896, the French novelist and academician Paul Bourget (1852–1935), author of Le Disciple, purchased the property, which then took its current name, "Le Plantier de Costebelle". There, he hosted numerous prominent figures from the literary world—such as André Gide, Henry James, and Edith Wharton—from the political sphere (Lady Randolph Churchill, Charles Maurras, Maurice Barrès), and even from the military world (Marshal Joseph Joffre), until his death in 1935. The estate was then passed on to the novelist's heir, General .
The house has been partially listed in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments by an order dated December 26, 1976. Its botanical park has carried the "Remarkable Garden" label since November 2009. After many years of renovation aimed at restoring the architectural and botanical ensemble as envisioned by Hortense de Prailly in the 19th century, Le Plantier de Costebelle is today a writer's house, combining private residence with partial public access under certain conditions.
History of the property At the origin of the Plantier de Costebelle estate was a vast estate owned by Louis Jacques Odier, a member of the Sovereign Council of the Republic of Geneva, as early as 1822. Dominique Honoré Peillon and his wife, née Marguerite Adélaïde Eydoux, residents of Hyères, became the new owners in 1840. Following the expropriation of Mr. Peillon and during a public auction on April 1, 1851, the estate was sold to Ernest Desclozeaux.Draguignan Departmental Archives, Notary Mille, in Hyères, ref.: 3E47/258. Desclozeaux also made a purchase in Arène on July 12, 1843. The July Monarchy had made him a magistrate. He was later elected deputy for Embrun in the Hautes-Alpes. But after the French Revolution of 1848, he withdrew from political life. * This dictionary provides information about Ernest Desclozeaux (1802–1867), a winter resident of Costebelle, who began his career as a critic for the newspaper Le Globe and, after a career in the judiciary and politics, entered the civil service as rector of the Academy of Caen and then of Aix. In 1857, sold a plot of land to the Baroness de Prailly.Sale of May 7, 1857, Palenc archives: sale by Countess de Guichen-Paul Bourget, January 29, 1896, before Maître Patteson. The Prailly family initially purchased one hectare, 68 ares, and 23 centiares of land. Additional purchases were made at Les Arènes thereafter, resulting in a total estate of five hectares: May 11, 1863 (notary Allègre) and May 10, 1869 (notary Rouffier). This marks the birth of the Plantier de Costebelle estate.
Baroness Hortense Pauline Husson de Prailly, Villa des Palmiers
Family origins and construction Hortense Chevandier de Valdrome (1813–1879) married in 1834 Baron Husson de Prailly (1804–1881), president of the civil court of first instance in Nancy and officer of the Legion of Honor. Both families originated from Lorraine. Hortense de Prailly's father, , who had been elevated to the dignity of Peer of France under the July Monarchy, was director of the glassworks in Cirey-sur-Vezouze, thanks to his marriage, under the Empire, to a Miss Guaita.
At the age of 27, Hortense Chevandier de Valdrome regularly stayed in Italy (Pisa, Lucca, Rome) for health reasons. In July 1840, she stayed at the Baths of Lucca, a famous spa resort. She traveled to Rome in the autumn of 1840, where she was surrounded by a select French society and met Father Jandel, prior of the Sainte-Sabine convent and originally from Nancy. In Rome, she hosted her brother, Paul Chevandier de Valdrome, and a friend, Théodore Chassériau. The latter drew for her Deux femmes dans une forêt (1841), an idealized representation of friendship.
It was the harsh climate of their native lands—the Château de Lettenbach, where Hortense de Prailly was born, and her father's estate of Sainte-Catherine in the Vosges—as well as the lady's fragile health that prompted the Praillys to settle on the lower slopes of Mont des Oiseaux, at Costebelle, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. From 1841, Baroness de Prailly rented from Dominique Peillon and then from Ernest Desclozeaux a farm and the adjoining lands, which she would purchase sixteen years later, in 1857.
A graphite drawing made in Rome in January 1841 by Théodore Chassériau appears to be the only known portrait of Hortense de Prailly, then aged 28. She is depicted seated, turned slightly to the right. After being part of the drawing collection gathered by John Postle Heseltine, this portrait—at the time wrongly attributed to Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres—entered the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 1941, where it has been displayed ever since.
After acquiring the various parcels from Ernest Desclozeaux and the Arène family,The Château de la Font des Horts or "Rescence Arène" recalls the olive-growing past of Louis Arène's estate (1818), thanks to its mill and water resurgence. Arène, a commoner and former émigré, expanded and redesigned the property with wealth acquired in Naples (from perfumeries), purchasing part of it from the heirs of the Marquise de Monclar (Château d'Apt). Baroness de Prailly undertook the construction of a Palladian-style villa and commissioned an architect who, at that time and thanks to Mayor , oversaw all major public projects aimed at developing Hyères as a resort: Victor Trotobas (1807–1884). During the years of construction, she lived in the nearby farm by the construction site, which later became the guest house of the estate—the very place where Paul Bourget would host his guests starting in 1896.
The villa was named "Villa des Palmiers." Baroness de Prailly took inspiration from the exotic garden of Château Denis in downtown Hyères, and with the help of Charles Huber, a horticulturist from Hyères, she recreated a landscaped park, integrating rare palm trees among native species. These palms were then exclusively marketed across France by the acclimatizer from Hyères: the Phoenix dactylifera. She notably introduced Yucca filifera, which flowered for the first time in France at the Villa des Palmiers in 1876. The exotic garden of the Villa des Palmiers was designed by the owners in the style of the that emerged on the French Riviera and throughout the Mediterranean coast from the mid-century onward (such as Villa Victoria in Grasse, Hanbury at Capo Mortola, Villa Thuret at Cap d'Antibes, Villas Vigier and Les Tropiques in Nice, Villas Valetta and Camille–Amélie in Cannes, , and especially the Domaine des Cèdres in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat).
The work undertaken was substantial, both for the construction of the villa and chapel and for the impressive enclosing wall ordered by the Baroness, which entirely encloses the five-hectare estate. It appears, moreover, that the wall's construction preceded that of the buildings. Along with their immediate neighbors, the Praillys planned the construction of a road serviced by an omnibus.
Father Lacordaire and Monseigneur Dupanloup The Baroness also had a chapel built adjacent to the main house, which was blessed for the first time by her spiritual director, "her first and only true Father," the Dominican priest Henri Lacordaire.Letter from Mrs. de Prailly to Father Lacordaire, September 24, 1855. In the final years of his life, Lacordaire was a regular guest at Costebelle.Letters from Madame de Prailly to Father Lacordaire are mainly kept at the Lacordaire Archives, Dominican Archives of France, 45 bis rue de la Glacière, 75013 Paris.
Father Lacordaire had known Hortense de Prailly since 1835, when he came to preach in Nancy, and the baroness was only 22 years old; their first meeting took place at the Cirey glassworks, at the home of Eugène Chevandier de Valdrome. Strangely, this chapel was more luxurious than the house itself. But the Baroness de Prailly was very devout, probably even more so than her brother Eugène Chevandier de Valdrome, who served as Minister of the Interior in the Émile Ollivier Cabinet, the government of reconciliation with the Catholics. Her sincere and fervent faith was noticed by those around her, and Madame Swetchine—Lacordaire's Russian friend and advisor—spoke of her being in a "state of possession".
It is thus possible to consider the Baroness de Prailly as belonging to a circle concerned with religious revival, which included many Legitimists. Certain letters from Madame Swetchine support this view, mentioning a certain Baroness "de P." who was "completely exceptional". She also welcomed to the Villa des Palmiers the Legitimist writer Armand de Pontmartin (1811–1890), known for his criticism of the Encyclopedists, as well as Abbé Joseph Perdrau, parish priest of the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont,* Long note on Madame de Prailly's spiritual progress, her illness (pneumonia), and her move to Costebelle, her reservations when Lacordaire became a deputy or when the Dominican priest ran a newspaper. and likely also .
Another distinguished guest who was a regular at the home of Hortense de Prailly was the Bishop of Orléans, Monseigneur Félix Dupanloup, who frequently stayed there in 1877–1878. The famous Catholic orator divided his time in Hyères between the Villa JennyVilla Jenny, now called "Villa Saint Antoine", is located on rue de l'Ascension in the Orient district of Hyères.—owned by , of a noble Orléans family and loyal diocesanThe Count of Rocheplatte, appointed mayor of Orléans by Louis XVIII in 1816, owned the Château de Rocheplatte in Aulnay-la-Rivière, where he hosted an elite circle of scholars, including Mgr Dupanloup.—and the Villa des Palmiers, where he celebrated Mass in the chapel. Hortense de Prailly had horizontal stations arranged along a path winding through the slopes of her property for the bishop. At the Villa des Palmiers, Monseigneur Dupanloup met Armand de Pontmartin, author of Causeries littéraires, who had also been invited by his hostess in March 1878. As with Father Lacordaire, the Baroness de Prailly maintained extensive correspondence with Monseigneur Dupanloup.
Adolphe Chevandier de Valdrome, Hortense de Prailly's paternal uncle and an officer under the First Empire, also resided for many years at the Villa des Palmiers. This former aide-de-camp to General Détrès in Murat's army distinguished himself during the Russian campaign and at Danzig. He reunited with the Baroness de Prailly in Rome in 1840. Hortense de Prailly began with him the series of religious conversions she inspired within her family. The Villa des Palmiers also welcomed the baroness's brothers: the Lorraine-born Eugène Chevandier de Valdrome, an industrialist and authoritative minister in the 1870 Émile Ollivier Cabinet; the painter Paul Chevandier de Valdrome; and his son Paul Armand, a future consular agent.
Berthe Husson de Prailly, Countess of Guichen
Family origins