Exéa through the ages
‘Deep roots never freeze’
- 2015 Jan - 01
- 2013 Jan - 01
- 1992 Jan - 01
- 1960 Jan - 01
- 1950 Jan - 01
- 1950 Jan - 01
- 1925 Jan - 01
- 1837 Jan - 01
- 1803 Jan - 01
- 1803 Jan - 01
- 1765 Jan - 01
- 1530 Jan - 01
- 1480 Jan - 01
- 1402 Jan - 01
- 1239 Jan - 01
- 0881 Jan - 01
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2015 - Transition to a new generation
Christian Gaffinel and Philippe de la Boisse took over the business ending the tenancy. Anne Besse, Christian’s daughter, handed over her accountancy practice and turned her professional life towards the family project. She undertook training, learned from her uncle, and spent extensive time observing and reflecting to shape the project with her brother and sisters. Their goal was to return the Terres d’Exéa to its role of economic and cultural heartbeat in the Languedoc ecosystem, by adopting an agricultural model fully aware of the importance of all things living.
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Organic certification in 2013
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1992 - The Olympic flame passes through Sérame
Olympic Winter Games - Albertville 1992. The idea was to cover as wide an area of France as possible, including all the regional capitals, including Montpellier. The 57 consecutive days of the relay across France echoed the 57 events featured on the Albertville Winter Games schedule. Five thousand five hundred torchbearers carried the torch in turn, and Michel Platini himself carried it during the opening ceremony.
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1960 - Visit from General de Gaulle DE-GAULLE
Between Fevrier 1959 and Juin 1965, General de Gaulle embarked on a major tour across France. This gave him the opportunity to establish direct contact with the French people and ‘harvest impressions and practical insights’ concerning the key issues of the time. For the 9th official visit – from 25 to 28 Fevrier 1960 – he travelled to the Languedoc region. General de Gaulle slept in Sérame where he was welcomed by General Jacques de la Boisse
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1950s - Commander Robert de La Boisse
Navy Commander Robert de la Boisse retired at Sérame and ran the domain with his brother. He had 4 children, including Philippe de la Boisse, who grew up in Sérame and assumed responsibility for managing the domain with his Gaffinel cousins between 1980 and 2000. Henriette de la Boisse, Robert’s sister, married Albert de Reynies, a member of the French Resistance during the 2nd World War and leader of the Secret Army in the Isère region. He was arrested by the Gestapo, tortured and killed. They had 8 children.
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1950 - Anne-Marie de La Boisse and André Gaffinel
Anne-Marie de la Boisse, the sister of Jacques and Robert de La Boisse, married André Gaffinel. They had 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls. They were Anne Besse’s grandparents. The 3 Gaffinel boys (Christian, Pierre and Jean-Adrien) were also involved in managing the family domain between 1980 and 2000, along with their first cousin Philippe de la Boisse.1952 - record floods
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1920s - Commander Henri de Parisot de Durand de la Boisse
Anne d’Exéa and Henri Durand de La Boisse married in 1925 and had 6 children. Commander Henri de Parisot de Durand de la Boisse was killed on the Field of Honour on 3 September 1914. Anne raised her children alone and managed the Sérame domain with her brother Louis, the last Marquis d’Exéa, for almost 40 years before her sons succeeded them.
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1837 : Gonzalve d’Exéa
Gonzalve d’Exéa (1837-1913), the grandson of Jean-Barthelemy, married Anna de Dampierre (1847-1934) and had five children, 2 boys and 3 girls. Anne d’Exea (1877-1963), his eldest daughter, born on the domain was the great-grandmother of Anne Besse, she married Henri de la Boisse (1871-1914).
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1705 - Antoine de Niquet develops the Domain
In 1705, Antoine de Niquet, a civil and military engineer and right-hand man to Vauban, acquired the domains of Sérame, Montrabech, Montfort and the Seigneurie d’Argens, thereby establishing one of the most important wine-producing estates in the Languedoc region. He granted Sérame the coat of arms that would become the Lézignan Corbières crest.Jeanne de Niquet, the granddaughter of Antoine de Niquet, was Louis XV’s mistress before her marriage to Louis Veron, who was older than her. They had two children, both of whom died in infancy. After her husband passed away, she sold the Terres de Sérame to Jean-Barthélémy d’Exéa in 1803.
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1803 - Construction of Château de Sérame
Jean-Barthelemy d’Exéa altered the 12th-century hunting lodge and commissioned the construction of the present Château, which bears the family coat of arms. He also designed the extensive grounds of the domain and ordered the construction of a chapel adjacent to the Château, where family members are buried.
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1765 - Jean-Barthélémy d\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Jean-Barthélémy d’Exéa, Marquis d’Exéa, born in 1765, purchased the Seigneury of Sérame from Madame Veron. He served as a captain in the Régiment de Vermandois, as a Chevalier de Saint-Louis in 1814 and was appointed head of the battalion. He married Clothilde Trivio and they had three sons and a daughter.
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1530 - Meeting with Rabelais
André d’Exéa, a professor of civil law, met François Rabelais in Montpellier in the 1530s, among the circle of the scholar Guillaume Pellicier, a bishop with a passion for law and botany. With Rabelais, André wrote the following advice to the readers of Gargantua: ‘Laughter is the nature of humankind.’
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Mediaeval times - The Seigneury of Sérame
In the Middle Ages, the Seigneury of Sérame was in turn owned by the Counts of Castres, the Montbruns, the Cardaillac family and the Niquet family. Sérame stands alongside the road leading from Castelnau d’Aude to Canet.
This strategic and economic location, at the crossroads of two routes, is evidenced by the presence of a leude, a Languedoc region road fee. -
1402 - The family coat of arms
The family records recount that Pierre d’Exéa, a knight renowned for his bravery, was one of seven knights appointed by Louis d’Orléans, the then King of France, to fight 7 English knights led by the Duc of Aquitaine in ‘closed field’ battle. The family coat of arms ‘Exea Britannos clauso certamine vicit’ (The Exea defeated the British in a closed field battle) commemorates the victory of the French against the English knights in 1402 during the Hundred Years’ War. These coats of arms now grace the pediment of the Château.
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1239 - Family origins
The d’Exéa family originates from the small town of Ejea de los Caballeros, in the Spanish province of Aragon. Several family members distinguished themselves during the conquest of Valencia in Spain against the Moors of Almeria sometime between 1239 and 1400. Francisco Antonia de Exéa was minister to King Philip IV in the Philippines.
The epitaph of Alfonso d’Exéa on his tombstone in the Cathedral of Seville - Saint Lawrence Chapel. -
The Tower of Montrabech is over 1000 years old
In 881, the existence of a parish in the diocese of Narbonne was confirmed. The Carolingian Tower of Montrabech was erected around the same period and the priory of St Pierre de Lengoust was operating.
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One of the oldest properties in Languedoc
Château de Sérame is one of the oldest properties in the Languedoc region. The site of Sérame has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The Via Domitia Route linking Italy and Spain once passed through Narbonne. The Romans established an ancient Caesar settlement and villas on the Sérame site, traces of which have been found just a few miles from the present-day domain.Several etymological studies confirm that the Sérame domain was once an imperial property. Among the names identified by historians are Caesaranus (881), Cesaranus (922), Villa Seserani (1144), Cerama (1351) and Cérame (1774). During the Carolingian era, the domain became a residential site. The site of Sérame and the Abbey of Leingoust then belonged to the Diocese of Narbonne.
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