At “Vallée-aux-Loups” he cultivated his work, his plants and his independence.

At the gates of Chatenay-Malabry, “Vallée-aux-Loups” is a haven of peace in the heart of the tormented existence of the father of romanticism. “Four years ago, when I returned from the Holy Land, I bought, near the hamlet of Haulnay, in the neighborhood of Sceaux and Chatenay, a gardener’s house, hidden among the hills covered with wood. The uneven and sandy ground descending from this house was nothing but a wild orchard, at the end of which was a ravine and a thicket of chestnut trees. This narrow space seemed to me to contain my long hopes.

For ten years, from 1807 to 1818, Chateaubriand lived in this house that he transformed into a romantic hermitage and turned the orchard into a vast and beautiful park planted with rare species. It is there, in the Velleda tower, a few steps from the main housethat he wrote a part of his work, wrotes his pamphlets against Napoleon, assisted the Bourbons and began the writing of “Mémoire beyond the grave. ” In this retreat, which he idolized and whose whole life he regretted selling, following financial difficulties.