“Welcome to my ruin! » It is with these words that Prince Charles-Henri de Lobkowicz welcomes Loïc Ballet and his band from “En vadrouille”, on the steps of the little-known Grand Fourchaud (1480). Welcome to Besson (Allier), first of four stages of this episode dedicated to castle life, which inaugurates the new season. Protocol would dictate that this descendant of the Bourbons be called “monseigneur” – by his mother. “But for you, it will be Charles-Henri,” he said to Loïc Ballet.
Smiling, jumping and extroverted, Loïc Ballet is known to everyone in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, which he has traveled since his beginnings as a journalist. First for France Inter (he cut his gastronomic teeth alongside Jean-Pierre Coffe), then for “Télématin”, on France 2, where he writes a culinary column on Wednesdays and Fridays.
After three seasons of “En vadrouille”, the 2024 formula is installed on Saturday noon and doubles its duration, without touching what made its success: the 2 CV of Citroën, in which the presenter, the journalist sit Agathe Audureau and the two cameramen, Romain Durand and Xavier Pelofy. Their relaxation makes the historical background more playful – on the Allier, on the Bourbonnais, land of the last kings of France, Henry IV, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI…
A “color of time” house
After paying tribute to the volunteers who are restoring his fortress, Prince Lobkowicz continues the visit, with humor, to the castles of Bostz (pronounced “Bo”) then Old Bostz, which “the children of the village call the Smurf village”. He becomes serious again to show the last photo of the living Empress Sissi: “Three minutes later, she crosses the street, and she is stabbed” (in Geneva, September 10, 1898).
Total change of atmosphere in Venas (Allier), at Chop, a painter who transformed his “color of time” house into an artistic work, with wing-shaped shutters and “portrait bicycles”. Before discovering another form of fantasy at the Château de Peufeilhoux, by Claude Thévenin. Clever and funny, the old gentleman does not spare himself, between renting guest rooms - of dreams -, weddings and the reconstruction of an Egyptian tomb, based on the wonders reported by his ancestors.
Even the soundtrack goes wild, going from a Vienna waltz to David Bowie, then to Douce France, by Charles Trenet, to announce the final stage, along the edge of the national 7, at the Château de La Palice, in Lapalisse. The property has been in the family of Jacques de Chabannes for six centuries, and open to the public since 1952. “When we are lucky enough to own such heritage, we must share it with as many people as possible,” assures he. A noble motto for someone “On the road” who joyfully avoids the tourist pitfall and makes you want to escape.
