It was from the Château of Rochers that Madame de Sévigné wrote to her daughter: “On Sunday last, just as I had sealed my former letter, I saw enter our courtyard four chariots with six horses, with fifty mounted guards, many led horses, and many mounted pages.”
These were gallant days at Madame de Sévigné’s Breton home, and to read all of her letters from Rochers—mainly to her daughter—is to get a wonderful epitome of the seventeenth-century social life in this part of France.
On the above occasion the company included M. de Chaulnes, M. de Rohan, M. de Lavardin, M. de Coëtlegon, and M. de Locmaria, the Baron de Guais, the Bishops of Rennes and St. Malo, “and eight or ten I knew not,” she continued.
Throughout the château and its dependencies, the illusion of Madame de Sévigné’s time has been well kept up unto to-day. One learns that the château became the property of the Sévignés upon the marriage of Anne of Mathefelon, “Lady of Rochers,” with William of Sévigné, chamberlain to the Duke of Brittany.
The kindly and well-meaning concierge, or cicerone, or whatever one chooses to call him or her who conducts him over the château and its grounds, is somewhat of a bore, though one has not the courage to cut off the prattle for fear he may lose something which may not have been offered to others.
Arms of Madame de Sévigné