Pierre Loti’s Historic French Home Reopens with Moroccan-Inspired Renovations

Visitors are beginning to discover the restored house of writer-traveler Pierre Loti (1850-1923) in Rochefort-sur-Mer (Charente-Maritime), renovated at an estimated cost of 13.5 million euros. This residence had been closed since 2012 and considered "at risk." Today, this world tour palace is an exceptional dwelling comprising a blue salon, Chinese room, Japanese pagoda, red salon, grandmothers’ room, Arab room..., reports Le Parisien. Its centerpiece is the mosque inspired by the rich houses of Damascus and its poplar wood ceiling brought from Syria in 1894.

"It gives you chills. When you see the result, you can be proud," says Hervé Blanché, the mayor of Rochefort. "We went through very risky stages, this work was extremely precarious and was reaching the end of its load-bearing capacity," recalls Elsa Ricaud, the heritage architect from the Sunmetron agency. She had to add foundations to "place the house on a large raft." Florent Boissarie, a plasterer from Rochefort and Best Craftsman of France (MOF) in 2015, found himself obliged to travel to Casablanca (Morocco) to train in Arab and ancestral plaster carving techniques.

Back in France, he was able to reproduce two plaster panels - chemsiyats - installed in the mosque and many other decorations in Loti’s house.