Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived at Les Charmettes with Madame de Warens between 1736-1742. Les Charmettes is a preserved natural site and a botanical garden. This place, where the personality of one of the most important French writers was formed, is the genuine testimony of the author's influence on the evolution of the universal thought over Nature, Romanticism, education, happiness, the Enlightenment, liberty, and equality.
"At this moment began the short happiness of my life, those peaceful and rapid moments, which have given me a right to say, I have lived."
Confessions, book VI
Rousseau was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1712. He stayed in Chambéry (marked by the red dot on the map of France) between 1731 and 1742 with Madame de Warens. They lived in this country house at the Charmettes since 1736 when he became 24 years old.
The
Charmettes site spreads over three hectares which includes a house, a
chapel, and a garden. This place served as a foundation for the
philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau who described his stay at the
Charmettes as having been "the short happiness of my life" in The Confessions, book VI.
It has been a place of philosophic and republican pilgrimage since 1792. Today it is a place of remembrance. In 1905, it became the public property of the city of Chambéry and was classified as a French historic monument to be maintained for future generations. It was built in 1660 and had several private owners before Madame de Warens and Rousseau lived in it.
"An isolated house on the slope of a valley was our sanctuary, and that is where, in the space of four or five years, I enjoyed a century of life and total and complete happiness...."
Reveries of a Solitary Walker, Tenth Walk
Jean-Jacques Rousseau met Françoise-Louise Eléonore de Warens in Annecy (northeast of Chambéry) in 1728 when he was sixteen years old. They lived together in the city center of Chambéry starting in 1731. Madame de Warens chose the Charmettes as a country house where, between 1736 and 1742, they spent the summer months.
Rousseau remembered The Charmettes with a sense of happiness. This place is associated with a key moment in the life of the writer and thinker of the Age of Enlightenment.
After having fled from Geneva and his family in 1728, he met Madame de Warens, who would play a crucial role in his life by helping him discover love. She embodied the quintessential feminine and maternal figure for him.
These years also gave the young man the opportunity to pursue and enhance his education, develop his passion for music, learn about botany, and take advantage of the joys of Nature. It is at The Charmettes that, fueled by his multiple readings, he established his "storehouse of ideas", the source of intellectual training for the forthcoming philosopher.
"I said to myself: I will begin by laying up a storehouse of ideas, true or false, but clearly conceived, till my understanding shall be sufficiently furnished to enable me to compare and make choice of those that are most estimable."
The Confessions, book VI
Madame de Warens (Vevey, 1699 - Chambéry, 1762) was of Swiss nobility. She lived in Savoie from 1726. Impoverished and without family, she became young Rousseau's protector. He called her "mother" and she called him "little one".
The 18th century sedan chair was the preferred means of transport for Madame de Warens to gain access to the Charmettes. Rousseau wrote "The first day that we went to The Charmettes, mother went by sedan chair and I followed on foot..." (The Confessions, book VI).
The Dining Room
Over the years, museum curators of whom an artist, Marius Mars-Vallett, have refurbished it in accordance with the original spirit of the place. At the end of the 18th century, one of the occupants ordered the painting in trompe-l'oeil.
The map on the wall is a reproduction of the Sard Map representing the city of Chambéry in 1729 and the small valley of The Charmettes. First graphic European land register, the Sard Map was made from 1728 to 1738 by the administration of the Kingdom of Piedmont Sardinia, whose capital was Turin and where Victor Amadeus II and Charles Emmanuel III reigned. At the beginning of his stay in Chambéry, Rousseau provided support to this important source by working as an attendant to the writings.
Dated 1793, Rousseau's portrait is an early work by the artist Jean-Baptiste Peytavin (Chambéry, 1767-1855). It reflects Rousseau's reputation during the French Revolution. A literary man and philosopher fascinated by the notion of "truth" as indicated by the Latin motto Vitam Impendere Vero (Life for the Truth). Rousseau is represented with a hand on the Social Contract published in 1762 in which he theorized his republican ideal.
Eluiza and I pose with one of the greats.
The Music Room
Rousseau always had a passion for music. At The Charmettes he invented a new writing method for music by replacing notes with numbers. Later he composed operas and wrote articles on music in the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert, published in 1751.
The pianoforte dates back to the end of the 8th century. George Sand drew it in her travel books during her visit in 1861.
Chinoiseries adorn the tops of the doors. Their colors with the birds, branches, and flower patterns are characteristic of 18th century tastes.
Crafted by Noubel in 1809, the bust represents Georges-Marie Raymond, the curator of the Chambéry Museum of Fine Arts. He resided at The Charmettes, opened the doors to visitors and established the first guest book in 1810, which people from all over the world have signed.
By singing the praises of The Charmettes in his autobiographical text, The Confessions and in Reveries of a Solitary Walker, Rousseau aroused the interest of readers in it. Intellectuals, artists, and ordinary people went to see The Charmettes for themselves and experience the ambiance that Rousseau described so well. This was how the house became a pilgrimage site. Visitors come here from all over the world to soak up the spirit of the place.
Hérault de Séchelles, a key player in the French Revolution, was among the first to visit. He affixed a plaque to the facade of the house in 1792 with the inscription:
"Retreat, inhabited by Jean Jacques/ thou recallest to my mind his genius/ his solitude, his pride/ his folly and his misfortunes/ He dared to consecrate his life to truth and glory/ and was always persecuted/ either by himself or by envy."
This is how Jean-Jacques Rousseau became a symbol of the Revolution.
The Garden
The gardens provide a broad nature setting favorable to contemplation. Rousseau developed a taste for simple pleasures from this privileged setting: walking, reading, gardening, daydreaming, and observing the countryside.
The French garden bears witness to the taste for order and symmetry in garden design until the middle of the 18th century. Today, the botanical garden contains vegetables, medicinal and aromatic plants that Rousseau may have been familiar with in Savoie.
The Charmettes site is equally a place of heritage preservation, registered on the inventory of heritage and sites since 1933. The house is situated in the Chartreuse Mountains, which are located in the heart of a protected valley. Facing the Nivolet mountain, the orchard, grapevine, and garden are reminders of the setting in which the young Rousseau liked to walk and draw his inspiration.
In book VI of The Confessions, Rousseau recounts his first ascent to The Charmettes through the episode of the flowering periwinkle that Madame de Warens shows him. The periwinkle acts as the future "Proust's madeleine", through the concentration of the emotional effects of reminiscence. It is a flower emblematic of the moments of happiness experienced in this place.
Second Floor
stairway to second floor chapel and bedrooms
Chapel Alcove
The chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of the Hermits. It was initially in the chapel on the roadside and was moved inside the house during the 18th century. Born into a Protestant family from Geneva, Rousseau converted to Catholicism in Turin in 1728 under the influence of Madame de Warens who was committed to the spread of the Catholic faith in the region. Her bedroom is on the immediate right of the chapel.
Madame's Bedrooom
Madame ensured the spiritual and sentimental education of the young man who was indelibly marked by this love.
"Over these few years, with the love of a woman full of kindness and gentleness, I could do what I wanted to do, I could be what I wanted to be" (Reveries of a Solitary Walker, 10th Walk).
Madame de Warens was interested in botany. She was passionate about books on "medicine for the poor" and plant therapy, of which we can see some examples in the bookcase in the corner of the room (left).
The ceiling has typical 18th century wooden beams. The wallpaper is decorated with flower patterns called "Indiennes".
Rousseau's Bedroom
The bed is situated in an alcove surmounted by an attic that is accessible via a staircase and could serve as a resting place for the servants.
Close-up of the crucifix scene over Rousseau's bed.
The
second floor is entirely decorated by wallpapers dating back to the end
of the 18th century. This rare and precious ensemble was made according
to a traditional printing process enriched by paintbrush and stencil. Below is the floor with its wide planks.
Fueled by his multiple readings, Rousseau constituted his "storehouse of ideas" at The Charmettes, the source of intellectual training for the forthcoming philosopher. Rousseau modeled his first essays such as Le Verger de Madame de Warens in 1737.
"At this moment began the short happiness of my life, those peaceful and rapid moments, which have given me a right to say, I have lived. Precious and ever-regretted moments! Ah! recommence your delightful course; pass more slowly through my memory, if possible, than you actually did in your fugitive succession. How shall I prolong, according to my inclination, this recital at once so pleasing and simple? How shall I continue to relate the same occurrences, without wearying my readers with the repetition, any more than I was satiated with the enjoyment? Again, if all this consisted of facts, actions, or words, I could somehow or other convey an idea of it, but how shall I describe what was neither said nor done, nor even thought, but enjoyed, felt, without being able to particularise any other object of my happiness than the bare idea? I rose with the sun, and was happy; I walked, and was happy; I saw Madame de Warens, and was happy; I quitted her, and still was happy! Whether I rambled through the woods, over the hills, or strolled along the valley; read, was idle, worked in the garden, or gathered fruits, happiness continually accompanied me; it was fixed on no particular object, it was within me, nor could I depart from it a single moment."
