Christiane NITZEL
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Businesswoman, heritage restorer.
She was running a small building firm when, with her husband, she bought in 1986 the Château de Vaux at Miré, a fifteenth-century building in ruins since 1950. They raised it up again, and the Vieilles Maisons françaises awarded them their regional prize. The stone carves “Christine” — one letter short.
The story
Born in 1938 under the name Michelon, Christiane Nitzel ran a building firm — sites, estimates, trades — through the 1970s and 1980s, when that business was held almost entirely by men. It was that trade, and not the taste of an aesthete, that prepared her for what she did next.
The château de Vaux, at Miré in the Maine-et-Loire, is a fifteenth-century building that had fallen almost entirely into ruin by about 1950. It was listed as a historic monument in 1977 — a status that protects walls without raising them, and that often leaves the owner facing a burden he cannot carry. Roofless for thirty years, a château loses its floors, its chimneys and its timbers: it is no longer a building, it is a building site.
In 1986 Christiane and Jean Nitzel bought it. The restoration called for everything the head of a building firm knows how to do: raise funds, hold to a schedule, argue point by point with the architects of historic monuments. The association Les Vieilles Maisons françaises and the Leliève group awarded them their regional prize — a reward less for taste than for method: that of a builder who saw the job through.
She died in 2011, at seventy-three, and lies in Division 10. One detail stops the visitor: the stone is cut “Christine NITZEL”, while her civil records read Christiane. A letter is missing, and no one has corrected it. The château de Vaux, meanwhile, is standing — that is what she left, and her stone says nothing of it.
The grave
An inscription of three elements, one of which is wrong: “Christine, NITZEL, 1938-2011.” The first name carved is not hers — the civil record gives Christiane. Nothing there says the profession, nor the Château de Vaux she raised from its ruins. The engraver got the first name wrong, and no one ever came to correct it.
On site, do not miss
Read the first name: the stone carves “Christine” where her civil record gives Christiane. One letter is missing, and no one has corrected it.
Visitors' questions
Where is Christiane Nitzel's grave?
In Division 10 of Père-Lachaise, the one where Berthe de Courrière and Remy de Gourmont lie. The inscription is short, and wrong: “Christine, NITZEL, 1938-2011” — one letter short of her name.
Berthe de CourrièreWhat did she save?
The château de Vaux, at Miré in the Maine-et-Loire: a fifteenth-century building that had fallen almost entirely into ruin by about 1950 and was listed as a historic monument in 1977. She and her husband Jean bought it in 1986.
Jeanne DelageWhat was her profession?
She ran a sizeable building firm — a contractor's trade that prepared her for a restoration far better than any love of beautiful things would have: raising the money, holding to a timetable, negotiating with the architects of historic monuments.
François Auguste GamichonWere they rewarded for it?
They were: the Vieilles Maisons Françaises association and the Leliève property group gave them their regional prize for the restoration of the château. She died in 2011, at seventy-three. The château de Vaux stands today, and is open to visitors.
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