From 1840 until 2008 La Mouchère was owned by nine generations of the same family, always handed down through the female line.
The last owner, Gabrielle Monduit-Pasquier,whose long life covered almost all of the 19th century (she died at the age of 98 in 2008) was a pianist and organist. A close friend of Maurice Ravel’s favourite pianist, Marguerite Long (for whom she was «Ma Gaby») she was for many years the organiser of the annual musical competition in her honour.
The Monduit Workshops (1770-1970)
- La Liberté, construction
- Dans la rue de Chazelles vers 1880
The Monduits, foundry owners specialising in restauration work and commissions for the best known architects and sculptors of the period, were particularly active during the Third Republic. They collaborated with such figures as Viollet-le-Duc, Garnier, Bartholdi, Eiffel, Frémiet and Récipon.
At la Mouchère, the cockerel on the dovecot was designed by Viollet-le Duc; the weather-vane on the church of Saint-Cyr-la Rosière is its replica, donated by Gabrielle Monduit-Pasquier.
Some commissions from the Monduit Workshops
Opéra de Paris : the great lantern in the cupola.
Cathedral spires (Amiens, Notre-Dame-de-Paris, Sainte Bénigne de Dijon)
La fontaine Saint-Michel.
New-York : the Statue of Liberty.
The Lion of Belfort.
Mont-Saint-Michel : the Archangel St Michael.
Château de Pierrefonds : roofs.
Mexico : the Phoenix of the Federal Palace.
Paris: the chariots of the Grand Palais, for the Exposition Universelle of 1900.
Diaporama
