Chateau D Artigny, VEIGNé

Chateau d*Artigny is a beguiling portrait of its creator; grandiose, powerful but lacking in provenance. As it vies with the great historic chateaux of the Loire, who would guess it is a 20th century tribute to an upstart penniless Corsican orphan who became a newspaper proprietor, politician and perfumier. Like his scent, his fortunes evaporated as fast as he made his millions. His name was Fran???ois Coty. The sadness is Coty never lived to see his concept completed. Its extravagance belongs to an earlier age; its vanities belong to him; there is a trompe l*oeil fresco of him and his wife in the rotunda. This was always meant to be a palace of indulgence and, indeed, its 65-acre estate, the formal gardens, the opulent drawing rooms and dining rooms that overlook them, the food, the palatial bedrooms even the cellars that contain over 20,000 bottles of wine mainly from the Loire region are an apt memorial to a man of passion.