The Wacky Palace of a French Postman

The astonishing Palais Idéal, a naive architecture gem, was created by a gifted postman from the Drôme.

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You may consider yourself accomplished at DIY (called bricolage in French), but Ferdinand Cheval, an unassuming rural postman from Hauterives in the Drôme department, will surely put your building and crafting skills in the shade. An autodidact in stonemasonry with a passion for architecture, he created one of the most exuberant, dreamlike visitor sites in the whole of France – and what’s more, he only started work on his breathtaking ‘Ideal Palace’ at the age of 43, working on it for 33 years.

The creative trigger for Cheval’s naive art masterpiece came in April 1879 when he was hurriedly going about his postal round. He tripped over a strange shaped stone and nearly fell, an incident which reawakened a dream he had 15 years earlier, in which he had created for himself “a dream palace, a castle, or caves, I cannot express it well […] I told no one about it for fear of being ridiculed and I felt ridiculous myself.”

The stone in question, sculpted by water and time, would singularly inspire his project: “It was a stone of such a strange shape that I put it in my pocket to admire it at my leisure… The next day, I went back to the same place. I found more stones, even more beautiful, I gathered them together on the spot and was overcome with delight.”

Remarkably, each day he travelled over 30km to collect stones in the countryside and bring them home in a wheelbarrow, each of them to be added to the incredible ever-growing installation in his vegetable garden. His design inspiration came from nature, as well as the imagery and locations he saw on the postcards featuring photographs and the newly à la mode illustrated magazines, such as Magasin pittoresque or La Revue illustrée that he distributed during his day job. “In the heart of a luxuriant garden, he imagines an uninhabitable palace, populated by an incredible bestiary – octopus, deer, caiman, elephant, pelican, bear, birds… But also giants, fairies, mythological characters or even waterfalls, architectures from all continents. An architectural work that is as unclassifiable as it is universal,” writes the Palais Idéal website, which provides visitor information for art lovers keen to visit this eccentric passion project.

He often worked at night by the light of an oil lamp, building the outer walls first, using stones, shells and moulded cement. There were references to the Bible as well as Hindu and Egyptian mythology. To truly appreciate each element, a site visit is a must.

The palace was an inspiration to artists. Major figures doffed their caps in Cheval’s direction, notably surrealist pioneer André Breton, Picasso (who produced a series of 12 drawings on the facteur in 1936), and Niki de Saint Phalle. German artist Max Ernst even created a collage titled The Postman Cheval – see it at the Guggenheim Foundation in Venice.

In 1969, the Ideal Palace was classified as a historical monument by then Minister of Culture André Malraux, despite opposition from other officials at the ministry who said of the palais: “The whole thing is absolutely hideous. A distressing collection of insanities that blurred together in a boorish brain”.
Malraux was right, of course, as this was truly a monument for the ages – not bad for a simple postman from a poor family who left school aged 12.

A wondrous feat

We salute the visionary postie for his single-minded determination to follow his dreams, and for his artistic accomplishment. As for any naysayers who might dismiss his work as amateurish, this is one of the facteur’s most memorable hand-carved quotes: “1879-1912, 10,000 days, 93,000 hours, 33 years of struggle. Let those who think they can do better try.”

The Ideal Palace of Postman Cheval, in Hauterives, sits in a 1,000m² garden with a museum and boutique. Entry is €9.

Palais Idéal: www.facteurcheval.com/en

Tourist office: www.autour-du-palais-ideal.com

From France Today Magazine