Guardhouse

The Maison de Garde is a 17th-century village building constructed with materials sourced from the site, notably Burdigalian limestone— formed by the collision of the Alps and the Pyrenees, resulting in a material that is both strong and easy to work with. The house consists of four levels, including a basement discovered during archaeological excavations. This level housed an old wine press, repurposed as a bath, as well as an ancient cistern that we restored and connected to the rainwater harvesting system from the roof and to the heated rooms. This system now provides the house with natural climate control. The 20th-century additions, which had compromised the building’s historical integrity, were carefully dismantled, preserving all reusable materials, which were then used for the restoration. In addition, a quarry was opened in the house’s small courtyard to extract the 40 m³ of cut stone needed to build the new ground-floor extension.