Velvet House

After Le Vaudoué, a charming village perfectly painted in pale stone, the road enters what could be a valley. There is something of Yellowstone about these fields and meadows framed by gently sloping forest, giving the impression of a completely unspoiled corner of the world, just 45 minutes from Paris. Then, on the right, a very discreet sign: Velvet House. A dirt road leads into the forest. No more networks, nothing: cut off from the world. And the house appears, overlooking a clearing of wild grasses. Three Adirondack chairs, a fire pit, a cabin with a sauna and cold bath, blackened wood siding, a bookcase filled with novels and a few beautiful books, a portrait of an “ancestor,” an old herbarium, dark flat surfaces, a desk with a view, an Indian-style fabric on the bed, a kilim rug at its feet. There are no mistakes here. Everything is here because it belongs here. The dream country house, imagined by Gaspard Konrad, with the help of the duo of antique dealers Dourissian, and Label Experience, named Velvet House; the first in a beautiful series to come. So, we fill a basket with enough for an impromptu aperitif from the sideboard, cross the meadow and a small forest, and find ourselves at the edge of a field with the sunset right in front of us. Shhh, listen to the birds...