Uzès, Languedoc-Roussillon 30700

In the heart of Uzès, in a noble 16th-century house, IMH, a 192 m² apartment with a courtyard-garden and a cave. The hôtel particulier housing the property presents a sober street-facing façade of hammered ashlar stone, four levels high and pierced by segmental-arched or rectangular openings. The original 'antique' decor, the staircase turret, and the adjacent moldings that still remain likely earned it noble house status in the 17th century, now listed as a historical monument. Beyond the entrance, the Renaissance-era inner courtyard unfolds as a trapezoid with four similar sides. It features several windows adorned with wrought-iron defense grilles on the upper levels. The noble floor is animated by a sumptuous sculpted decor of pilasters with emblematic figures, enigmatic busts, supporting entablatures. From the former ground floor of the same style, today only a Corinthian frieze with carved friezes of vines remains. The original lattice-jointed mullioned bays were replaced in the 18th and 20th centuries by larger glazed openings, combining features from the various represented eras. Thus wrought-iron imposts with arabesque baroque decor serve as external protections for the metal joinery, resolutely contemporary in the courtyard-side bays. The houses stone staircase, whose baluster rail is characteristic of the Renaissance style, ends in a triumphal apotheosis under a ceiling adorned with a fresco featuring cardinal points. In the apartment, arranged on the buildings first level, a cellar is attached, accessible from the buildings common hall. The former formal drawing room on the ground floor, now the living room of the dwelling, retains its door-trim and mantelpiece decor with 17th-century trophy motifs of varying attributes. The door surrounds painted with Uzège views have been preserved, even though all moldings and woodwork could not be saved. The choice to integrate original elements into a hyper-contemporary restoration that respects the exceptional quality of the construction materials is particularly successful. Especially in the apartments kitchen, with its immense quadripartite vault, its medieval cantou remnants, and its ultra-modern, minimalist, high-tech layout, exemplary of what the alliance between heritage and modernity can produce at its best.