A few days before Christmas, on 21 December 1793, Jean- Antoine de Beauvalet, the Lord of Durécu, was found dead in a bedroom at Valognes where he had sought refuge after being locked up in the Fort de la Hougue by the Revolutionaries. Thus passed away the last male scion of the noble line of the Beauvalets, ennobled in 1702 by Louis XIV, and who in 1686 founded a the little domain at Durécu, which did not at the time bear that name. For three generations, the Beauvalets struggled using their wealth to hang on to this so dearly acquired nobility.

 

The Lord of Durécu's grand-daughter, Caroline Avice de Sortosville, inherited the Durécu domain, and during the Terreur, married a young Republican officer, François Clément Boyer de Choisy, who came from a typically old noble family, since it had always been devoted to serving in the army.

 

The Boyer de Choisys fortified the Saint-Marcouf Islands then improved their domain, but they also took an active part in public life, the first as Mayor of Saint-Vaast during the Empire and the Restoration, and the second, his nephew who inherited the domain, as Mayor during the Second Empire.

 

Finally in 1918, Augustin Vallette, an entrepreneur from a very old Saint-Vaast family of merchants and chandlers, acquired this very beautiful property.

 

After three years' research in the National, Civil and Military, Departmental (departments 50, 57, and 76), Municipal and Family archives, Edmond Thin here brings to life a true family saga spread over four centuries, based on the totally unpublished story of the Durécu domain; the story of three families, country gentlemen or simple citizens, not forgetting their spouses – women who were often remarkable and just as involved in the social fabric of their times.