Driving through rippling fields, there’s a turnoff onto a dirt road that leads into the center of this maze of a town- Sacy Le Petit. Across from the church, whose bell rings promptly on the hour, there’s a house behind a gate, walled off from the rest of the village. A pebble drive leads up to the house and curves down towards a courtyard. Windows dot the outside of the house, or really chateau, each bordered with pale sea foam green shutters.
The Chateau de Sacy has been in Hermine’s family for generations. One afternoon, after lunch, we’re sitting in front of the house and I ask her how much things have changed in the decades her family has lived at the property. She pulls out an album from inside and flips through pages of photographs, pointing out great-grandparents, her mother, and a relative who died tragically. I see photos from her wedding, which was at the Chateau, back in the 60s. No longer there in present day, I can make out tidy rows of blaring yellow and red flowers in the background, which she comments on with distaste.
doors of Sacy
Waist-high hedges form pathways through the garden. Back behind the house, aside from the tolling of the church bell, the garden feels entirely removed from the rest of the village. No sign of other people or houses- just flowerbeds, plots of vegetables, and quiet wooded trails at the edge of the garden.
The light is beautiful in this place. At golden hour, light filters through the tree branches and dappled light spreads over the paths. If you peek over the back wall, warm dying sunlight laps at the waving fields.
Inside too. Some modern touches in the coffee maker and fridge, but the house feels timeless in an antique way. The warped floorboards creak with every step and the mirrors’ coatings are mottled with brown spots. While the house is old, there are touches of Hermine’s artistic flair in the bright blue doors and cream-colored walls. As the light changes throughout the day, it crosses doorways and ripples through the windows’ aged glass panes, warming spots on the walls and floor, the kitchen table and attic bed.
distorted reflections
hallway self portrait