Historic manor house built on a feudal mound indexed since the 9th century.

 

The Lord of Momas pledged his allegiance first to Eleonor de Comminges who was Gaston Phoebus’ guardian and later to Gaston Phoebus himself on 14th February 1343.

 

Numerous records show that the same family kept ownership of the estate through the French Revolution.

The gardens, restored to a plan kept by memory by one of the estate last gardeners, offer the visitors more than a 1,000 flowering plants and rare vegetables, from bygone time to today.

 

Thanks to the present owner, the rarest essences are grown again in the gardens, a reminder of the lost charmes of this ancient manor house.

 

Among many vegetables one can appreciate the « poor people’s ham » a sort of salsify which taste is reminiscent of ham; « strawberry spinach » and « everlasting spinach » are some of the first vegetables brought in the area by the Roman legions.

Ancestral apple-tree varieties with evocative names such as ox blood (very much like Snow White’s apple) along with a Bearn peach « la Roussane » can be admired next to feijoas.

 

To keep with family tradition, Mrs. Teillard’s great-grandfather, a chemist and a botanist, grew medical plants from Porto Rico tropical forest and dispatched them abroad.

 

Mrs. Teillard has successfully recreated the quaintness and charm of this typical Bearn paradise, which is happy to let her visions share.