A Brief History of Couyssel and La Taupe

Though there are Roman ruins nearby, the first record of the hamlet of Couyssels is an act or deed of 1252 granting the land to the son of B. de Saint Vicens and Serena de Coyssel for service following Louis IX on crusade. A Chateau was constructed and reconstructed for the next 700 years and is now a protected building.

The adjacent farmhouse and pigeonnier, we call La Taupe, are harder to date, but probably date from XVII or XVIII century and were part of the holdings of the Seigneurie de Coyssels.  We know that it started out as a Quercy farm house due to the arched cave which originally was built to house a few farm animals beneath the house which was the custom.  The first part of the building would therefore probably date to the XVII or XVIII century.

Napoleon is credited with dividing France into administrative areas called “Departments”.  Legend has it that in 1808 while passing through the ancient Quercy region Napoleon and Josephine found that the Mayor of Montauban was upset that Cahors had been selected to be the site of the Quercy prefecture.  Through flattery to Napoleon’s ego, he was persuaded to cut up the southern part of the region, creating the Department of the Tarn and Garonne (82) and gave its prefecture to Montauban.  The department is known as the garden of France producing some of the country’s finest and most abundant fruits and vegetables.  The Tarn et Garonne is the smallest department in the country.

In 1983, Americans Ed and Sally Green discovered this sunny corner of France and commenced restoration of this ruin of a once working farm house and property. Today La Taupe is a jewel of the region with it’s large heated mosaic pool, walled garden, petanque court and secluded location.

We are frequently asked about the name “La Taupe”.  This question we can easily answer.  It is customary for homes or an enclave in Rural France to have  name.  Sally was born and raised in the Salinas Valley of California.  Her parents owned an immense cattle ranch called El Topo, the Spanish word for “mole”.  When we came here our small place had no name, but it sure had a lot of moles, so we named it La Taupe in honor of her parents and their ancestral home.

We hope you will enjoy the place as we do and look forward to having you help us to continue to write the history of La Taupe.