Anyone who has ever travelled in France will surely have noticed that the French aristocracy had a love of palaces or châteaux. They are to be found almost everywhere, but especially in the areas around Paris and in the lovely Loire Valley. Many of these have fascinating histories with overlappings of fabulous wealth, political intrigue and illicit romance.

The modern visitor to Ferdinand Cheval’s triumph of will and imagination is quickly awed, bemused and inspired - all at once.

For example, the stately Château at Fontainebleau (situated only a few minutes from EDF’s Les Renardières complex) has been occupied at one time by virtually all French Kings since the Middle Ages. All have left their mark in the various extensions and refurbishments made over 800 years, the latest of which was by Napoléon himself. In addition to its many ornate rooms filled with treasures of every sort imagineable, it also offers splendid gardens as well as the most famous forest in all of France.

This whimsical façade at the Palais Idéal is perhaps Cheval’s answer to the great stone statues of Ramses.

However, notwithstanding Fontainebleau and its even more opulent neighbour, the Château de Versailles, surely a Palais with an inspiring story like no other is a relatively modest but nevertheless extraordinary one belonging to an ordinary French citizen by the name of Ferdinand Cheval.

Now, everyone knows that horses are stubborn animals and indeed, they provide a model for stubbornness whenever that trait is ascribed to a particular person. But, who could have imagined that a single-minded postman whose family name translates as ‘horse’ and with absolutely no knowledge of building or wealth of any kind could have planned and erected the palacial structure he did.

The story begins in the Spring of 1879 as the rural postman Cheval was walking through the fields which still characterize this predominantly agricultural area near Saint Vallier (home to the Ceralep insulator factory). As the story goes, he tripped over a stone and, looking down, marvelled at its strange shape. Right then and there he vowed to build a structure made up of similarly fascinating stones which would ultimately become his Palais Idéal or Dream Castle.