The 17th century writer Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac remains among the great  French literary figures but few have visited his family home, Château Balzac, near Angoulême. This is likely to change because the house has won first prize for restoration work in the national “Vieilles Maisons Françaises” competition.

More than 70 windows and their wooden shutters have been replaced by the indefatigable owners, Marc and Marie-Florence Boissonot, who bought the property back in 1973. Their prize discovery came during the replacement of internal plasterwork - 17th century frescoes that had remained hidden for hundreds of years.

The house, extensively rebuilt by Balzac’s father, goes back to the 14th century. In the 16th century it was for a time the residence of Marie de Médicis, wife of Henry IV of France and mother of Louis XIII, and Cardinal Richelieu stayed there twice while supervising the siege of La Rochelle.