In around 1850, Ferdinand Cheval, a postman in the small French town of
Hauterives, picked up a stone. He thought that it was so beautiful that he carried it around with him in his pocket. Later he decided to collect more stones and to build something with them. For the next 33 years he collected stones on his daily rounds, as a postman.
He built with these stones after work. He built with them after dark, by the light of his oil lamp. With no great design in mind he continued building until he had built a ‘palace’. He said that the design of the building was something that had come to him in a dream while he was a child. The dream was some 15 years before he picked up that first stone: a stone that he’d tripped on.
Nowadays its known as Palais Idéal. The postman, born in 1836, has certainly put the village of Hauterives on the map.
Cheval’s face has been used on postage stamps in France.