At the end of the 18th century, the mansion served as a residence for senior staff members of the chateau, just a few metres away. Built in line with the adjoining houses, it is the first at the entrance to the street.
Like the neighbouring houses, it is three storeys high and has a rendered stone facade with dressed stone corner quoins and window surrounds, which are perfectly juxtaposed. The evenly spaced, small-paned windows with wooden frames are protected by solid wooden shutters. The overall architectural style is harmonious and sober.
A garden with box hedges sheltered by large trees at the front of the main facade provides a welcome screen of greenery. A semi-private driveway shared with the neighbours separates the garden from the mansion. On the main facade of the residence, a large metal gate provides access to the garage. Continuing on, a massive oak door forms the service entry. The main entrance follows in the form of a carved oak double door with a glazed transom. The gable roof is clad with Roman tiles. To the rear, there is an outbuilding set at right-angles to the main house, protecting it from noise pollution and prying eyes.
The dwelling not only forms part of the local history of the 18th century, it is also the birthplace of the artist Raoul Dastrac, a post-impressionist painter from the first half of the 20th century who was born and died in Aiguillon. After his training with Laurens and Dechenaud in Paris, he exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français and the Salon d'Automne from 1922 onwards. A painter of local life, he set up his easel in Cahors and Avignon, in Italy and in the United States. As he was also an art connoisseur, his own canvases and other collections were displayed in his residence during the latter part of his life.

The house

Facing south-east and resembling a fine town house, the residence gives pride of place to the reception areas. The ground floor features a large number of rooms for entertaining, which open onto the rear garden. Upstairs are the private areas, accessed via a wooden staircase from the generous entrance hall. The entire dwelling was renovated in the 1980s.

The ground floor
The main entrance reveals a high, wide hallway with a black and white marble floor laid in a chequerboard pattern. This full-depth hall serves two reception rooms on either side, as well as a wide, straight, wooden staircase to the first floor and, barely visible from the entrance, a round-arched passageway at the far end connecting to a kitchen and shower room. Opposite the entrance door, opening onto the rear garden, there is another wooden double door. The wooden joists are exposed. Behind the front door, a Directoire-style recess cleverly conceals a utility room.
In the reception rooms on the ground floor and upstairs, the materials used combine authenticity and outstanding quality: marble floors or straight strip chestnut flooring, a carved stone fireplace, 18th century cupboards, exposed ceiling joists and beams. The grand salon on the ground floor has retained its wood panelling, which was refreshed and restyled during the previous renovation. The painted ceiling joists echo the colours chosen for the walls. Only the woodwork of the working fireplace forming an overmantel remains in its original state and could inspire the restoration of the entire room to its earlier glory. A side door opens into a shower room awaiting renovation. The small-paned windows have wooden frames. Like all the openings in the other rooms, they have retained their 19th century metal espagnolette locks. The flooring is of marble tiles with black insets. Opposite, there is a large reception area of almost 50 m², which in fact combines two former rooms. Two fireplaces stand side by side on the same wall, one with an overmantel mirror encased in woodwork. The stone jambs and lintels of all the fireplaces date from the 1980s renovation. There is a built-in cupboard at the far end, next to a window overlooking the rear garden. The ceiling beams and joists are painted, while the floor is of chestnut with strips of varying dimensions.
A corridor, with the same flooring as the entrance hall, leads to a shower room, an access to the cellar and finally a vast kitchen with a monumental stone fireplace. This kitchen, which needs to be modernised, features a sink surrounded by early 20th century earthenware tiles and a number of cupboards. The walls are painted and the floor is laid with grey and white veined marble tiles. Sunlight pours in through a window and a glass door facing the back garden. A solid oak door provides direct access to the covered lean-to which connects to a garage and, via a glass door, to a room used as an office.
The first floor
A large landing serves all the rooms on this floor, as well as the start of a wooden staircase with a quarter-turn to the left, leading to an attic. A glazed wooden door at the top of the staircase serves to separate the two levels. The walls, identical to those in the entrance hall, feature imitation stone wallpaper.
Next to the staircase, a door opens into a room used as a kitchen. There are still a few base storage units, and a work surface is topped by tiles running along a section of wall.
The three upstairs bedrooms are spacious. They are fitted with 18th century wall cupboards, have wallpaper on the walls and chestnut floors. One bedroom has a working fireplace. Another features red velvet wallpaper with Napoleonic accents, and its mock fireplace is surrounded by two Empire-style cupboards. An old side door, now closed, could easily be reopened to provide direct access to the last bedroom.
At the end of the landing, a bathroom has been fitted between two bedrooms; its fixtures and fittings, made up of a pedestal washbasin, a bidet and a bathtub, are dated.
The attic
Witness to the residence's past, this level comprises four rooms with low ceilings, as well as an attic. Each space is lit by a window and could be renovated and converted. The reddish brown of the terracotta floor tiles contrasts with the whiteness of the original plaster ceilings.
The basement
Accessed by a straight stone staircase, there are three cellars in the basement of the building. In the first room, a hot water boiler sits on a concrete floor. The other two have rough brick and rubble masonry walls and earthen floors. The ceilings of the first two cellars are of filled wooden boards, while the ceiling of the last cellar, with its wooden joists and beams, supports the parquet floor of the grand sitting room on the ground floor.