Love Nest By A Maritime Captain

Sparkling in its maritime setting this palatial home, built as a love nest by a captain of industry for his mistress, has been restored to its former glory.

- Pascale De La Cochetière

Standing on a rocky promontory near Pornichet on the Atlantic coast in western France, this neo-medieval manor house looks out over a popular surfing beach and faces the tidal island of Noirmoutier in Brittany.

Accessed via large parklands where the tall maritime pines established themselves over a century before, the property abruptly ends at a cliff overlooking the ocean. The nearby transatlantic departure point of Saint-Nazaire, birthplace to such cruising icons as the Queen Mary 2, regularly pushes out these graceful floating cities, a quiet and meditative passing spectacle this grand old dame has witnessed for over a century. If these walls could talk!

Built at the end of the 19th century by Nantes architect Claude Devorsine for a captain of industry as a residence for his mistress, the manor house and its extensive parklike gardens is a discrete jewel of the local coast. A landmark when viewed from the ocean, Géorama is otherwise hidden in an almost secret cove not far from the Brittany resort town of La Baule-Escoublac.

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