Words from the founder - Audrey Gary Nicolaou

 "This is the story of a family with roots in the Haute-Corrèze region, traced back to the 11th century, a family of gabariers* who settled in the commune of Soursac in Spontour and the surrounding area, and who prospered on the Dordogne Valley for centuries thanks to their legendary gabares. During this golden age, before the creation of dams, 400 boats were produced annually. Most of them carried wood: oak to make barrels for the vineyards of Bergerac and Bordeaux, and chestnut for vines, a raw material in short supply in the vineyard basin. From the shipyards to the timber trade in situ, the chain was assured.

My great-grandfather, Gabriel Chamfeuil, was a doctor and mayor of this commune (1919-1945), succeeding his father Aimé Chamfeuil (1900-1919). He was the descendant of this proud line of gabariers, and a visionary who actively participated in the establishment of the Aigle dam (1935-1945), a dam on the Dordogne undertaken and completed during his term of office. The dam signaled the end of the gabariers' era, which was also the inexorable course of progress, and you'll note the irony of the anagram. 

The dam construction site was a hotbed of the French Resistance, home to the ORA (Organisation de Résistance de l'Armée), which went into action in June 1944, equipped thanks to several parachute drops. Its men joined forces with those of the FTPF and the Secret Army to form the Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (FFI), which harassed German troops. Like the rest of the South-West, the Aigle dam region liberated itself from the occupying forces, without the intervention of Allied troops. 

It's these roots that drive me, these values of hard work, fighting spirit, audacity, loyalty, humanity and love of my land and terroir that resonate in this name. 

 This autumn, as Chamfeuil Capital gets underway, TF1** is giving my little village of Gaul the spotlight, talking about its magnificent Viaduct, a work of technology unique in the world since 1915, but also about its beauty, its richness, and the biodiversity*** that I love so much.

Chamfeuil is all this at once, it's a family that spans the ages, passing on its values from generation to generation and always open to the future and progress, it's also respect and wonder at nature with all it has to offer and that we must preserve as our greatest wealth."

*In her book La Dordogne des Bateliers, historian Anne-Marie Cocula speaks of the gabariers who "worked the river like ploughmen work the fields", and goes on to say: "But there is no common measure between the possession of a filadière or a gabarrot, whose value does not exceed that of a mule or a few rows of bad vines, and the enjoyment of a small coastal boat worth a large house under the arcades of rue Fonneuve in Libourne: between these extremes lies the range of river boats. "

** Viaduc des rochers noirs : au chevet d'un centenaire | (In French only) TF1 INFO

***Listed as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve