"I wanted to create, to give my imagination the chance to restore, to build and to beautify. I did not want a beautiful old house that had been restored by someone else and that had an established garden. I yearned to revive something neglected from the past, to make it pertinent and significant to the present, as I have been doing with the music of the 17^th and 18^th century. This house, which was in danger of collapsing and disappearing for ever was a perfect choice".

It is almost certain that no garden ever existed. When William Christie arrived in 1985, nothing but desolation surrounded the dormant house.

The restoration of the house began in 1986 with work on the roof and repair of the stonework. Terracing and the beginnings of the garden followed in 1987. At this point, William Christie entrusted his ideas to a landscape architect, Mme Sophie Matringe, who then developed the initial outline of the garden. He felt that the garden should represent a continuation of the architecture of the house. The position of doors and windows, and the volume and the siting of the interior spaces were carefully reflected in the spaces created outside the house.

By buying parcels of land around the Batiment, little by little as they came up for sale, the gardens which in 1985 were 2 hectares are now almost 15 hectares.

The house was listed as an historic monument in 1985. The original layout of the rooms has been carefully followed during the restoration. The ceilings and the fireplaces have been beautifully painted in the style of the grande siecle by François Roux.