Some 50 miles North of Valence -the county town of la Drôme- lies the village of Hauterives, where you can admire the unique outdoor work of art of “Le Facteur Cheval.”

Ferdinand Cheval (1836 – 1924) grew up in a poor peasant family. He left school when he was 12 and worked alongside his father. For a few years he also was an apprentice baker and ended up by being the local postman.

Though Ferdinand Cheval lived in hard times, the mail he delivered made him aware of the wider world around him. “What else can you do when you always walk taking the same route if not daydream?” Ferdinand Cheval let his imagination run and in his mind he created a fairy palace that he went on to build in reality. This out of the ordinary work of art he called his “Ideal Palace” and it has been classified a world wide historical monument under Naïve Art.

Ferdinant Cheval’s strange and exciting work  is unique and it attracts some 200.000 visitors every year.

Postman Cheval’s ideal palace »