Inspiration

Papotte, the Metamorphosis of a Burgundy Mill Into Holiday Homes

The Socialite Family’s creations are designed to enhance any interior, no matter whether it is a personal or professional space. Pieces full of character, specified as part of the tailor-made support provided by our Pro Service, which have been used to create the Papotte décor. Burgundian holiday homes to rent, Charles and Capucine’s dream. The thirty-something couple set their sights on a group of four houses built around a preserved flour mill in their childhood village of Bligny-sur-Ouche. A “real landmark” for the surrounding inhabitants, which the duo acquired by creating seizing the initiative without even waiting for the property to come onto the market. Both a personal and professional project, the 600 m2 estate was renovated in just seven months thanks to the iron will of these two jacks-of-all-trades, who were in turn “accountants, pneumatic drill operators and gardeners” and to the support of the Parisian architectural duo, Studio Heju. A symbiotic relationship between the four personalities in terms of aesthetics, with an emphasis on white and a sense of detail, to accommodate all types of groups: “from couples to families and groups of friends as well as professional events”. Here, time passes peacefully between moments of solitary relaxation and times of sharing. Days spent between the pond, the river, the vegetable garden and the café. Days that celebrate the slow pace of life, stimulating the eye both through the outdoor spaces and the interior design. Living spaces with “timeless and lively” interiors that resist the accumulation of clutter, like Maison 15 – an Italian-inspired family-oriented house – which elegantly reveals the colours of our Gioia table lamp in green lacquer and our Rotondo mustard sofa. A harmonious whole that offers – to those who want to savour it – the experience of a green escape that is mindful of “beauty and that which is good” just a stone’s throw from Paris.

Author

Juliette Bruneau

Photographer

Valerio Geraci

TSF

Charles, Capucine: would you introduce yourselves, please?

Charles & Capucine

We are the joint managers of the PAPOTTE holiday home, which recently opened in August 2022. The two of us undertook the renovation of this mill together, improvising as site managers, contractors, accountants, pneumatic drill operators and gardeners, and we wore a few other hats too! It’s the way we’ve always operated.

TSF

Tell us something about your childhood. What sort of environment did you grow up in, and how did it influence your idea of aesthetics?

Charles

I’ve been coming to Bligny-sur-Ouche – the village where the house, PAPOTTE, is located – since I was three weeks old – every summer without fail – to my grandmother’s house. I have a very strong bond with her. My idea of the beautiful is undoubtedly related to that which is good. Doing things right, thinking things through. I think I inherited that from her. Even when I rack my brains, striving for ambition and complexity, I always come back to the need for what is right and simple, which can be inspired by a beautifully laid table, the evening light on the Formica, and the sound of the river running through our café. There is no better place for an office than on the water, where you see green all day long.

Capucine

I started studying art when I was very young and, as in decoration, I knew what I didn’t like and had to learn to focus on what I did. With PAPOTTE, it was a real learning process, not to say a rediscovery of colours, materials and light. With so much space and so many worlds to create, it turns your assumptions inside out. Without being too Kondo, I needed to find a place and a logic, you could say an excuse, for each object, each detail. A unifying theme in the project, a harmony between the houses, a rationale between the rooms and an affection for the objects that make them up.

TSF

Here we are at Papotte, your holiday home in Burgundy. Tell us how this entrepreneurial project came about.

Charles

We were looking for a house for ourselves, five times smaller and five times cheaper. You could say we racked our brains a hundred times over, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole! We’d been aware of this traditional building for a long time because it’s a real landmark in Bligny-sur-Ouche. It dates back to 1465, and the history of its ownership can be traced from that date to the present day. Formerly a flour mill, it only ceased to operate in the late 1990s. The property wasn’t for sale. But we plucked up our courage and went after it. Twenty minutes later, we were visiting it, and that same evening we decided to build our own personal project. In other words, to renovate the central part of the mill to create our own house while developing a business activity around it. And that’s how PAPOTTE was born, on a whiteboard with two coloured felt-tips.

TSF

What experience do you offer here to the lucky ones who venture inside?

Capucine

We’ve created four houses with different proportions and inspirations, designed to accommodate all types of groups, from couples to families and groups of friends, as well as professional events (the houses can accommodate 2, 4, 6 and 15 people). All the houses are independent and self-contained. They are built around the mill, and each has a private outside space. The estate extends over 2.5 hectares with a pond for fishing, an 800 m2 vegetable garden and, of course, the river, which runs through the property, and where you can swim in the summer. We’ve also installed a large grocery store and coffee shop in the heart of the mill with lots of carefully sourced items that rather surprise our residents. You can relax quietly in a corner, bump into one another or meet us. It’s a place where everything is possible.

TSF

You called in the Heju agency to design the layout of the premises. Why did you choose their architectural signature?

Charles

It was either them or nobody. Without them, there would have been no project. We work very much on instinct, whether that’s with brands, service providers or those who work at PAPOTTE. We loved Heju’s work long before we had the idea for this place. They weren’t used to this kind of concept or these dimensions. But they were bold enough to take up the challenge with us, and we carried out the titanic task of a 600 m2 renovation in just seven months with our four pairs of strong arms and four brains. There are still a lot of square metres to be designed, and many projects are planned within the mill itself. PAPOTTE will grow and age with them.

TSF

You have agreed with them to trust our B2B team at The Socialite Family to furnish and decorate Maison 15. Please tell us why.

Charles

It was important to reconcile Heju’s work and ideas with our tastes and desire for furnishings and decoration. It wasn’t easy to envisage so many spaces! This is why we consult each other regularly. Working as a couple or between couples is all about the art of compromise. As far as The Socialite Family is concerned, we’re genuine aficionados, and working with you was a no-brainer for us. We wanted Maison 15 to be an Italian-inspired family home. We devour each of your media portraits on a daily basis. So it was natural for us to contact The Socialite Family Pro service from the start, and we loved the way the project developed. Margaux – the Key Account Manager at The Socialite family – was with us all the way from the contact email to the photo shoot. Once again, the human being, always the human being, is at the centre of attention. We’re proud to have brands we work with as clients, like the Heju duo, who come here on holiday. It closes the loop.

TSF

Is there a room you particularly enjoyed decorating?

Capucine

The house we designed to accommodate 15 people is an ode to the family, a celebration of the art of coming together without crowding each other. Yet you can also enjoy a meal together around the magnificent four-metre-long Carlotta table designed by TSF for PAPOTTE, as well as meet in small groups in the living room, the library, the cinema room or in one of the seven bedrooms in the house. The table is redolent of Sunday afternoons. Half the guests go off to relax on the deckchairs by the river, while the other half put the world to rights over an endless supply of black coffee. It only gets cleared for the next meal. The kitchen is still the central room in each of our houses.

TSF

You’ve made a change in your life by moving here. One year on, which particular places have caught your attention?

Charles

We used to come to Bligny-sur-Ouche every summer. Everything is within walking distance, and the area is beautiful. There are seasons and, better still, there are months. The weather is the only clock that counts. There’s nothing to control or conquer; time is appreciated for what it is. Our residents come to rest and disconnect from city life. That’s why we only offer stays of three or six nights. You can have breakfast in the café, catch your own fish for lunch and harvest vegetables from the garden, and then top it all off with the grocery shop in the evening. You can live completely independently. We also like to recommend restaurants that have the same philosophy as us, such as Le Soleil de Lola in Savigny-les-Beaune, La Dilettante in Beaune and La Ferme de La Ruchotte in Bligny-sur-Ouche itself – that’s a real institution. Then there are our friends at Enstase, the new cellar in Beaune, made of 100% natural materials and offering a selection of organic and biodynamic wines that shake up the tradi-bourgui lifestyle. The region offers a wealth of good things to drink, see and eat.