IV
On the left bank of the Loire, ten leagues from Nantes and six kilometers from Paimbœuf, stands the Château de la Sauvinière, owned by the Sérys for more than a century. Begun, it is thought, under Henry IV, and finished under Louis XIII, it was built on the site of an old feudal estate which an old tower, lined with its machicolations and covered by time with ivy and honeysuckle, still recalls. It is two stories high with very large attics and large fireplaces where stone and brick mix very happily, as in the rest of the building. In the middle of the two facades, one facing the Loire and the other the countryside, steps surrounded by wrought iron ramps, with remarkable work, lead into the lawns. These form a vast terrace around the castle, enclosed in its entire extent by deep ditche
