Château de Clérac - circa 1904

Château de Clérac, known locally as Château de l'Espie, sits magestically in the centre of its 9 hectare tree-lined grounds. The building comprises a central section with two wings (East & West) at either end. The central section was completed around 1880, the year the owner, Mr. Jules NAU, married Miss Marthe DELHUILE (the initials of each of their surnames can still be seen clearly on the cast-iron gates of the property and the main fireplace). The two wings were finished around 1898. They were built due to the large number of staff and also businessmen passing through. Mr. Nau was a successful businessman who created the following enterprises at the Chateau:

a dairy that employed several workers a distillery (Cognac & Pineau) with outbuildings a wine business
With abundant wine harvests, the owners used to take their barrels of wine in carts to the nearest village - Grand Village. With the staff, and all the people passing through for various reasons (deliveries of milk, wine, etc), large kitchens (and fireplaces!) were needed to feed them. The large fireplace in the salon would originally have been part of the kitchen.

Mr. Nau's businesses continued to flourish and become more time-consuming (even despite the closure of the dairy), so in 1911 he asked George & Marie-Thérèse Nau to move to Chateau de Clerac and take over the day-to-day running of the business. This couple would have four children - all born on the property.

The distillery was transferred to another of Mr. Nau's properties in Teurlay du Lary in 1919. This was due to there being insufficient water at Chateau de Clerac to cool the stills (despite the drilling of seven wells on the property!)

In 1925, with the death of Mr. Nau, the wine business finally came to an end. It is worth noting that Mr. Jules Nau was also Mayor of Clérac from 1884 to 1919 and General Councellor for the region.

With the arrival of World War 2 in 1940, refugees also started arriving at Chateau de Clerac from the DEPREUX factories of the North of France (Mr. Edouard DEPREUX was minister after the liberation of France). The Depreux and Nau families knew each other well - the Nau's used to rent the Depreux's holiday home in Royan. The Depreux's had asked the Nau's for a fallback address for their factory workers in case of invasion in the North. However, the workers from the Depreux factories in the North of France who had come to Chateau de Clerac had to flee pretty quickly with the invasion of the Germans soon after. The Germans stayed at Château de Clérac for the 5 years of the war but unfortunately caused much damage to the interior furnishings of the chateau.

After the war Miss Suzanne Nau, daughter of George & Marie-Thérèse Nau, inherited Château de Clérac. After her marriage to Mr. Jean ROI she went to live at Guitres. Following the death of her husband in 1976, she returned to Chateau de Clerac with her three sons. In 1983 she transferred ownership of the Chateau to her son Daniel Roi. Due to ill health Daniel was forced to sell the chateau and in 2001 Mr. LeBras (a Frenchman but living in the US) became the new owner. Mr. LeBras began renovation on the chateau, but with the logistics of living in the US and plumetting world-wide stock markets was forced to sell Chateau de Clerac.
In 2004 Mr. & Mrs Mulholland became the new owners of Château de Clérac.