“It’s a skill, a gift, a talent”: a chatelaine gives a second life to Norman wardrobes

This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the report above. Click on the video to watch it in its entirety.

“My idea for France is to adopt Norman wardrobes to prevent them from being burned or thrown away, and to safeguard Norman know-how”. A rescue operation. That day, Nathalie Romatet went to the Paris region for a somewhat special adoption. “There, I go to Houille and I go look for a Norman cupboard. I go where the Norman cupboards call me”she slips.

For five months, she has been traveling the roads of France. Objective: to recover Norman cupboards that the owners no longer want, like Marie-Rose Fleury. His wardrobe has been dormant for 40 years, a classic. “It stays in the garage and we don’t really know what to do. We don’t want to part with it. They are part of life, of the family”tell Nathalie Romatet.

Today’s furniture is a model from Bayeux (Calvados). “There are certain flower motifs, we see a little elaborate work, leaves too… We feel that it is an old work”observes Nathalie. Old, and not just a little. The cabinet has been in the family for 170 years. For five generations, it has been passed down from mother to daughter. A dozen boards to load, and it’s time to say goodbye.

Another life opens for Marie-Rose’s wardrobe. Direction Dieppe (Seine-Maritime), 200 km from there, to the Château de Miromesnil. This is the 21st wardrobe that Nathalie Romatet has saved, after a mover told her that he deposited such furniture in the recycling center every day, which was heartbreaking. The chatelaine decided to place a classified ad. Then there was a flood of messages. “It was incredible, the number of people who first reacted on social networks, then who sent us emails. And even now, today, I have between three and five phone calls a day”she reports.

It’s time to reassemble Marie-Rose’s wardrobe. “What’s great about this kind of furniture is that it’s not like some furniture now where there are 46,000 screws, we spend four hours putting it together, whereas this, in 10 minutes, it’s assembled.”indicates Jean-Charles Le Floch-Jouis, guide to the Château de Miromesnil. The wood has obviously played a bad trick, but optimism remains. Bayeux, Cherbourg (Manche), Vire (Calvados)… each city has its own model. The finesse of the sculptures, the richness of the motifs reveal the social status of the families, because the wardrobe constituted the bride’s dowry. “It’s a skill, it’s a gift, it’s a talent,” décrit Nathalie.

Visitors to the castle, who came to meet Maupassant’s birthplace, discovered the initiative in passing. Nathalie Romatet has no intention of selling her cabinets. She will proudly display them in the future castle boutique.