3 January 2023
In the 1950s, Maurice Vedy and Antonio Amengual owned a hair salon in Paris and had as a client the artist, Mick Micheyl. The three of them became fast friends. In the late 1950s, Maurice Vedy, who loved horses and horseback riding, wanted to buy a property where he could indulge his passion. He looked in the real estate ads for a property located in the countryside. He visited a number of properties with Antonio Amengual and Mick Micheyl and finally fell under the spell of a ruined manor house sold by the Baroness D'Arripe in Pouligny Notre Dame. The proximity of Nohant, the home of the writer George Sand, to Pouligny Notre Dame also played an important role in the decision to purchase this stately home in the heart of the Black Valley. Born on the island of Mallorca, Antonio Amengual had heard, since his childhood, of an important historical event in the life of the island: the arrival of the famous composer, Frederic Chopin, and his companion of the time, George Sand, in Valldemosa in 1838-1839, a period during which Chopin had composed some of his most famous pieces for piano. Antonio Amengual was very involved in the organization of the Valldemosa Regional Festivities, and in his younger years he went to Paris to collect the death certificate of George Sand, to whom it had been decided to pay tribute at one of the annual Valldemosa Festivities. He was, of course, also interested in the life of George Sand and Frédéric Chopin in France and, in particular, in their main place of residence, Nohant and its surroundings, of which the famous writer had written so much in his country novels. "I have always loved this country, this nature, this silence, ..." said the writer George Sand when talking about the Indre and the Berrichonne countryside. In addition to being located in an exceptional and preserved green area, the Manor of Pouligny Notre Dame and the Black Valley appeared, finally, in the eyes of Antonio Amengual and also of his two friends as a place of exception with a rich cultural and historical heritage and, however, so unknown. Aware of the numerous assets that this small corner of Berry had, they made the choice in 1957 to acquire the Manor of Pouligny Notre Dame. Once the Manor was purchased, Maurice Vedy and Antonio Amengual undertook several tasks: to renovate the Manor in its entirety, to reconstitute the original Domain by buying back little by little the plots of land surrounding the Manor and to give back to the farm attached to the Manor its former glory by making it a large-scale bovine exploitation. The two or three cows acquired following the purchase of the Manor became in a few years legion since the exploitation counted in a few years nearly 200 heads of cattle. Their courage and perseverance in this agricultural enterprise were rewarded by the "poireau" or Agricultural Merit which was awarded to them by Jacques Chirac. Throughout the reconstruction of the Manoir de Pouligny Notre Dame, Maurice Vedy and Antonio Amengual also pursued an artistic career with their friend, Mick Micheyl. After achieving success in the 1950s with the song "Le Gamin de Paris" and in the 1960s as a revue leader at the Casino de Paris, Mick Micheyl began a world tour with a troupe of artists. Antonio Amengual and Maurice Vedy, who was hired as stage manager, accompanied Mick Micheyl in this adventure. As Mick Micheyl embarked on a new career as a television producer in the late 1960s, the three friends decided to take up permanent residence at the Manoir de Pouligny Notre Dame. In love with this part of the Berry countryside, they wanted to share their passion for music and entertainment with the people of the region. Having made acquaintances with the greatest names in French song, Mick Micheyl, Antonio Amengual and Maurice Vedy succeeded in convincing the most popular artists of the 60s and 70s to come and sing on stages set up in the middle of the fields. Pouligny Notre Dame and the surrounding villages had the chance to welcome Michèle Torr, Joe Dassin in 1974, Nicoletta, Antoine and many others.... See you next week for episode 2 of the Dryades story !!!!
