Tour Hubert de Givenchy's French Countryside Estate
For the last couple of Novembers, Olivier de Givenchy and his family have traveled from Los Angeles to the edge of the Loire Valley to spend a 10-day Thanksgiving holiday at Le Jonchet, the 16th-century country estate his uncle, the late, great French couturier Hubert de Givenchy, shared with his partner, the designer Philippe Venet, for more than 50 years.
“There’s no green juice here,” says Olivier’s wife Zo?, chuckling. Instead the vacation menu includes a jam tart based on a recipe from Hubert’s grandmother. Or chicken with morel mushrooms, a favorite of Olivier’s elder daughter, Gabriella. Or a couronne of eggs with curry and tomato coulis, preferred by Olivier’s twin brother, the jewelry designer James Taffin de Givenchy. Or James’s daughter Stella’s favorite, flourless chocolate cake. Everything is prepared by Ilda, Hubert and Philippe’s housekeeper and cook; she knows exactly how the messieurs used to like it.
After Philippe died in February, at 91—Hubert had passed away at the same age in 2018—Olivier and Zo?, their youngest children, Louis and Inès, and his oldest by a previous marriage, Gabriella and Nicolas, along with James and Stella, acquired the house. Now they’re in a position to lay down traditions of their own.
“I’m still learning about who Hubert de Givenchy was by being in this space,” says Olivier, who was also Philippe’s godson. Olivier spoke to the couple almost every day, and when he visited Le Jonchet, they’d stroll the grounds together. Later in life, Hubert would go over repairs done (the roof) and yet to be done (the boiler), giving Olivier a pointed look. It was clear that he hoped Olivier and James would eventually take it over, which they finally did three years ago, when they and Zo? bought it from Philippe.
Philippe, an assistant to Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1950s who worked with Hubert before opening his own couture house (favored by the likes of Jayne Wrightsman and Mica Ertegun), was by then ill, and Le Jonchet was too much for him to manage. Still, he remained emotionally invested. When the new owners first visited after the transfer of the deed, Philippe left behind flowers and letters of welcome.
“He was so happy that we understood the house and could care for it in the same way,” Zo? says. “He said they had more than 50 years of great happiness here, and he wished the same for us.”
The family is hesitant to change too much around the table, as Hubert and Philippe were legendary gourmands. Among the artworks they collected, the countless pieces of furniture they had built, the glassware they commissioned, the antiques they acquired (a September auction of art and furniture curated by Hubert collected close to $15 million at Christie’s), it may be Philippe’s book of recipes, compiled and perfected by him over the years, that is the manoir’s most priceless possession.
Hubert was known to be an exceptionally gracious and generous host, but by himself he was not exactly Jacques Pépin. “My uncle never entered the kitchen unless there were dogs he could pet,” Olivier says. It was Philippe who tutored Ilda in the finer points of cuisine.
Hubert and Philippe never celebrated Thanksgiving themselves, but these days during the big meal they are still remembered at the table with Hubert’s beloved Virginia ham, prepared with pineapple rings and wild rice (according to a recipe of Bunny Mellon’s), which sits alongside the turkey. The ham was the designer’s last meal at the house, and when he was alive he would make either Olivier or James bring one over in a suitcase anytime either made the trek from America. “When we were younger it would just be in the back of the plane, and it would smell a bit,” Olivier says.
Hubert and Philippe were not big party people. Le Jonchet has a vast garden and forest, a pool and outbuildings, but only five bedrooms, so if you were invited to stay, you were definitely in the inner circle. Only one branch of their families could come at a time, but so did such guests as Hubert’s close friend Mellon, Deeda Blair, Susan Gutfreund, and the architect Thierry Despont.
Even before Givenchy acquired the estate, it had seen an illustrious list of owners and visitors, including the architect Fernand Pouillon, who restored the chateau in the 1950s, and the French entrepreneur Roger Bellon. Aristotle Onassis flirted with purchasing the property in the 1960s. Hubert and Philippe came into the picture in the early 1970s. It was their fifth pile, after two h?tels particuliers in Paris, a villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and an apartment in Venice, and by 1984 their Chateau du Jonchet was declared a historical monument by the French ministry of culture.
Despite the ample 95-acre surroundings, it was the intimacy of the original castle that Hubert and Philippe turned into an amenity, one among the many they offered guests while the two puttered in the garden, or spent time in their shared atelier, making collages. “They had their desks back to back,” Olivier says. “Uncle Hubert’s table was a little higher, and they’d work standing up. Especially later in life, Uncle Hubert would spend more time in the grand salon, drawing what he remembered of the dresses he’d made when he started. Some he’d sign, like, ‘1965, Jackie Kennedy.’ We have hundreds and hundreds of them now.”
Though Olivier and James were always close with the couple, it was a big deal to visit them. “Uncle Hubert was mythic. We’d put Stella in her best outfit,” James says. Stella recalls, “Once when I was young, I wore this blue and white striped dress, and I was so into my dress I went out and twirled in the garden for hours with Uncle Hubert’s dog Aswan.” Now, when she’s there and Dad is away at meetings, it’s wine tastings with girlfriends by the pool. (She buys her own, as she’s not yet authorized to dip into Uncle Hubert’s cellar.)
Another small change around the table: Family meals now may be served on plates and linens designed by Zo?, who has maintained Hubert’s sprawling network of artisans—he introduced her to his favorite makers, including faience masters at Moustiers Sainte-Marie in Provence and Este Ceramiche Porcellane in Padua—for her tableware line ZdG. The business began with commissions for her own homes in L.A. and Harbour Island, in the Bahamas, and has drawn such fans as the designer Emilia Wickstead and decorator Tom Scheerer. “Many of these artisans were moved to tears telling their stories of meeting Hubert when he’d visit, and the fascinating people he brought,” Zo? says.
While there might be a temptation to leave Le Jonchet exactly as is (despite its lack of modern fixtures—only lamps and candles are on hand), the home is now in the service of a large, combined brood that needs a little more space if the Givenchys want to spend time en famille. “We might add some bedrooms above the stables, and in the tower, but we have to manage it well,” Olivier says. He sees it as a matter of respect to do right by his uncle and godfather.
“It’s super-important to make it feel like our home but to keep the elegance that was in Hubert’s aura,” Gabriella says. “Not to undo everything he worked so hard to create, but to appreciate it when we’re there, and go a bit slower.” It helps, she adds, “that there’s only one wifi router in the whole house.”
A version of this story appears in the November 2021 issue of Town & Country.
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