We had the roof
restored, the debris removed, and the underbrush weeded out of the
garden, and then we were ready to begin the real business of
restoration.
The house is very simply planned. There is a broad hall that runs
straight through it, with dining-room and servants' hall on the right,
and four connecting salons on the left. These salons are charming rooms,
with beautiful panelings and over-doors, and great arches framed in
delicate carvings. First comes the writing-room, then the library, then
the large and small salons. The rooms opening on the back of the house
have long French windows that open directly upon the terrace, where we
have most of our meals. The note of the interior of the house is blue,
and there are masses of blue flowers in the garden. The interior
woodwork is cream, pointed with blue, and there are blues innumerable in
the rugs and curtains and _objets d'art_. There must be a hundred
different shades of blue on this living-floor, I think. We have tried to
restore the rooms to a Louis XV scheme of decoration. The tables and
cabinets are of the fine polished woods of the period. Some of the
chairs are roomy affairs of carved and painted wooden frames and
brocade coverings, but others are modern easychairs covered in new
linens of old designs, linens that were designed for just such interiors
when Oberkampf first began his designing at Jouy.
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