The house and its story

According to the tax code, the house was built from 1790, one year after the French Revolution! It is located within the perimeter of the old town surrounded at the time by ramparts. Its walls are very thick (60cm) and are made of a wooden frame and filled with a mixture of earth and straw. Only its openings have red bricks: "Very practical for keeping cool in summer and warm in winter".

To complete this natural insulation, during its complete renovation with a view to opening guest rooms in 2007, all the interior walls were redone with insulating materials and double-glazed windows were installed. When I visited the house in 1987 with a view to buying it with its adjoining photography shop, the second floor now occupied by the rooms of Mrs Puisard and Mr Mercier was an attic filled with all the photographic archives on glass plates since 1902.

Although there were 2 photographers after them, the walls of the house as well as those of the shop still belonged to the Poyet family.

It was a history and photography enthusiast Mr Francis DUMELIÉ who gathered this real treasure to constitute "The Poyet photographic collection".

From these archives, two books were published in 2008 and then in 2014. You can consult them freely during a stay at Linterfaces. They are displayed in a frame among other books in the stairwell. If you wanted to buy them, they can be ordered from the bookstore "L'apostrophe".

To end with an anecdote, Mr DUMELIÉ, a potter by trade, opened guest rooms on a barge “D’argile et d’eau” in 2005.