Hauterives in southeast France (30 miles south of Lyon) would not normally be a draw for us except for one justly famed site: the extraordinary labor of love and serendipity of a 19^th-century postman, Ferdinand Cheval (nicknamed Facteur Cheval), who had a dream and the persistence to see it through. And what a site to see.

Ferdinand Cheval’s Palais Ideal

One day in 1879, Cheval discovered an irregular tufa limestone rock that reminded him of his previous dream of building a palace, castle, or caves. Water and time shaped and hardened the sandstone rock into strange sculptures.

The rock inspired him to undertake his dream. He studied books and articles on ancient construction techniques and architecture. He compiled images of temples, grottoes, and sculptures from societies ranging from Assyrian to Aztec, Roman to Khmer, and Polynesian to Etruscan. And then he was ready.

Thirty-Three Years of Building His Dream

Beginning at age 43, he dedicated his evenings, weekends, and holidays over the next 33 years to build his dream. He moved pieces of the rock piece-by-piece to his garden six miles away.

He dug a foundation in his garden. Then he built mortar walls into which he attached the eroded, strangely shaped tufa, fossils, and pebbles to form dozens of grottoes, towers, minarets, labyrinths, gargoyles, and fountains into a single, two-story structure. Many of these forms had religious themes and others came from numerous cultures. 

Throughout his structure, he inscribed names including Socrates, Archimedes, and Caesar. He included poems and his own comments throughout along with his own sculptures of human figures, plants, and animals.  

He even incorporated a Druid-style tomb in which he planned for him and his wife to be buried. The French government, however, thwarted this by insisting they be buried in a cemetery (in which he built the tomb).

He calculated (and had it officially certified) that he spent a total of 10,000 days (93,000 hours) on the project which he built by himself.

Palais Ideal’s Popularity

Since then, multiple books have been written on the task and the structure (a number of which are available in the gift shop), and postcards sold. Several surrealist and otherwise innovative artists, from Andre Breton, Picasso, Max Ernst, and Tinguely, made pilgrimages to the Palace.  The Palace continues to inspire contemporary artists. Some, including glass artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, have been honored by being invited to display several of his glass sculptures at the site itself and in the museum.

In 1969, French cultural minister Andre Malraux designated the structure a National Monument.

And what an interesting site to explore. To wander through the perpetually popular (about 100,000 visitors per year) site is an odyssey of the imagination. The Palais Ideal is a testament to the vision and perseverance of an ordinary man who accomplished something extraordinary.