François-Pierre Gontier de Biran
French philosopher, better known as Maine de Biran
I was born in Bergerac on November 29, 1766. My life unfolded between the duties of the world and the higher demands of the soul, between public affairs and inner reflection. I carried out the responsibilities entrusted to me — as a deputy, a Councillor of State under both the Empire and the Restoration — with the conviction that action, to be just, must spring from an inner principle, untouched by the opinions of the crowd.
But it was here, at home, on the Grateloup estate, that I always returned whenever the noise of the outside world became too heavy to bear.
At Grateloup, I gathered my books, faithful mediators between the mind and the invisible. This library, which still remains within the walls of this château, was for many years the silent extension of my inner work. It bears the imprint of my vigils, my doubts, and my intellectual fervor.
I often walked alone under the shaded paths of the estate — it helped me to meditate.
My thought, which marks a turning point between French spiritualism and idealism, helped pave the way for later thinkers such as Bergson and Blondel, by reaffirming the central role of the active self in contrast to the passivity of the sensible world.
I died in Paris on July 20, 1824, far from Grateloup, though not without having left there the imprint of a life devoted to the essential. Grateloup is where I thought, and where I loved.
My estate once included three farms, which still exist today. One of them, located in the hamlet of Terre Vieille, gave its name to the wine estate you now walk through.
If you take a moment to pause beneath the trees of this park, you too may feel that at Grateloup, one breathes not only the air of the Périgord, but something of the spirit of those who have lived here.