Découvrez l’Orient en plein cœur de la Charente

Born in Rochefort, writer and world traveler Pierre Loti bought the house where he was born in 1871. Fascinated by the oriental world, he recreated, room after room, the decors he had discovered in the four corners of the world, to the point of turning his home into a veritable treasure trove.

The man

Pierre Loti was born Julien Viaud on January 14, 1850. Fascinated by the sea and adventure, the young man entered the Naval School at the age of 17. In 1871, he embarked on a ship bound for Tahiti. From then on, he began keeping a diary so as not to forget anything about his voyages.

In 1879, the sailor published his first novel, Aziyadé. This was followed by several series divided into different cycles: Breton, Basque, Turkish and Japanese. Thanks to his incredible success, Pierre Loti was elected to the Académie française in 1891 over a certain... Emile Zola.

At the same time, Loti took advantage of his furloughs to improve and transform his family home: each room became a souvenir of his travels.

The house

Pierre Loti was unstoppable in his quest to recreate as faithfully as possible the settings he had discovered on the Asian and African continents. In this incredible, extravagantly-decorated building, he entertained the whole of Paris, staged himself and organized incredible parties, to which, of course, you had to come in costume!

Anxious about the prospect of time passing and hoping to freeze it, he collected all sorts of objects, which he displayed in rooms that transported him to extremely exotic and often idealized worlds. In 1895, the writer acquired the adjoining house to create a “mummy room” recounting his Egyptian journey.

Today, Pierre Loti's house is one of the rare “Houses of the Illustrious” to display its original furnishings; behind this banal facade, no one would suspect the marvels it houses!

Closed for major works in 2018 (it benefited from part of the funds raised by the “Heritage Loto” set up by Stéphane Bern), and after a fine showcase of its treasures at Rochefort's Musée Hèbre, the house reopened its doors in June 2025.

Visitors to the listed Monument Historique site, which has also been awarded the “Museum of France” label, can discover various themed rooms:

Renaissance room,
Gothic room,
Mosque,
Turkish room,
Arab room.

So many worlds nurtured by objects, of varying value, gleaned by the travel writer from his literary successes and his journeys to the Orient.

A “worldly place” that enabled the young Julien Viaud to take social revenge after the infamy that befell his father during his adolescence (he was unjustly accused of embezzlement), and which today delights visitors entering the house originally built by his maternal grandfather in 1802.

A unique and exotic place not to be missed in Rochefort.

Bérengère for Comme des Français

Want to discover other illustrious homes?