If the heart of France, la France profonde, had to be located precisely, chances are it would be in the Lot valley, a mountainous area southwest of the center of the country, which still carries marks of its past, from its prehistoric legacy through the Hundred Years' War to occupation during World War II. Its deep forests and stern châteaux have remained isolated from modern times, and a sense of brooding pervades the region, as if plans were still being hatched to rid it of invaders.
For constant travelers like French film director Louis Malle and his wife, Candice Bergen, the area represents not only the heart of an extraordinary, ancient civilization, but the still point of otherwise hectic lives. A turreted manor house near the market town of Cahors provides them with a haven for long summers.
"If I have roots anywhere," Malle admits, "it's in this part of France. I had a grandparent who was born in the area, and I used to visit an uncle who had a house down here. I started looking for a place of my own, but nothing turned up. Then in 1968 I got a phone call while I was in Saint Tropez, right in the middle of a film script, telling me that this house was for sale. The whole property was in a terrible state, but it had a kind of Sleeping Beauty magic about it—nothing appeared to have been changed for centuries. That won me over. So after poking around, I bought it."
Set in the middle of a large estate of woodland and surrounded by a cluster of nobly proportioned barns and outbuildings, the house has a severe grandeur that the couple have done nothing to soften. "I was very lucky to have really good workmen to get the place habitable," Malle says. "Parts of it are sixteenth and seventeenth century; other parts are nineteenth-century additions. There's been a lot of remodeling over the years, so it's particularly difficult to date, even though I've dug up as much local lore as possible.
"I used to dash down whenever I could while the house was being restored," Malle continues. "Some of the furniture came from my mother. Other pieces were ferreted out by a local antiques dealer, who had a good eye for things that would fit in naturally with the background. At one point I was virtually based here, except for one short trip to Paris per month. I realized it was a fantastic place for me to work. I shot both Lacombe Lucien and Black Moon in the area and used the barn as an editing room. Now it's become a good, solid country house where our daughter, Chloe, can grow up freely."
Strenuous bicycle rides up the vertiginous slopes have become part of the Malles' daily routine, which is often completed by a dip in the pool. "Louis is very reluctant to check any natural proliferation," Candice Bergen points out. "But I did manage to get him to clear the hedge around the pool and make it into a more open space. It's so restful here, it gives me the chance to do the kind of serious reading I just can't do when I'm running around all day. We're thrown back very much on ourselves, but there's always more than enough to do. From time to time we put on little plays with friends in the barn."
Candice Bergen says the local people were very curious about her when she arrived, "but they've been charming, and I think I'm fairly well accepted now. But there are times when I'm pretty conscious of being American, especially on market days, when all the farmers come in to display their geese and their foie gras. At first I thought, It's like a Brueghel.' Then I realized it was a Brueghel."
The dark Cahors wine, pungent truffles and other local fare are abundantly in evidence in the large farmhouse kitchen, which also serves as an informal dining room. Cooking and eating are carried out with the ceremonial seriousness that befits a family living in an area renowned for its regional cuisine. Otherwise, informality remains the keynote, and while dogs flop thankfully down on the kitchen's cool flagstones, Chloe is given unlimited space in which to position her toys.
Up one flight of the imposing stone staircase, the living room suggests quite a different style of life. Books, pictures and furniture blend into a natural whole, as if everything had been acquired over generations.
Antique shawls and strongly patterned rugs lend a warmth to this main salon—a quality the Malles particularly appreciate when they manage to spend a few days in Lot in winter. Warmth of another kind is communicated by a large colorful painting that beams an evocation of native life in India across the room.
"I don't know how Indian it really is," says Louis Malle with a grin. "I think it might have been inspired by a postcard. But for years it hung in a café in Arles, and it amused me. When the café was modernized, I bought it. We felt the salon would be the best place to hang it, and what's strange is that now it looks as if it had been there forever. That's what is fascinating about this house; time does stand still. In that sense, the place is literally enchanted."
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