Geolocating Carter Banks’s explore of a French “murder” chateau

For this episode, Carter Banks (BigBankz) explores an abandoned home in rural France:

The big reveal comes around 18:14:

On that, you can make out 37310 Che-something. A quick Google search resolves that to 37310 Chédigny. That’s a small area!

From the beginning of the video, it’s clear that the home is loosely surrounded by woods. I guessed the home is not in the city at the center of this area, I went clockwise around the edges of the area, eventually coming across this:

Google Maps shows the name La Touche associated with the home. Oh, that’s the line on the address label right above 37310 Chédigny! This is it!

Google searching reveals little significant about this mansion. It may have some mild historicity due to several postcards featuring it.

Per Chédigny 2020, It was probably built in 1872 by Edmond Delaporte. Edmond sold it to Robert Delaunay in 1919. (This is after Edmond’s death, so I am guessing this is a mortgage or sale record that reflects a sale from Edmond’s estate.) In 1926, it was sold to a Mr. Soluet. A Levillain family purchased it in 1962, and that family apparently still owns it. And that makes sense: A Jacques Levilain appears to own the home and the property and runs a poultry farm on it. Or maybe not? It appears he died in 2014 at 83. That may explain the assistive devices found around the house.

With a little Googling, I can find no evidence of a murder or African living there. While lack of evidence is not proof it did not happen, it makes it unlikely. And what makes these ideas even more unlikely are the easy ways to explain Carter’s theories.

The allegation of a murder seems to be concocted from a chair with a stain. It shows starting around 24:19:

You know, if you were murdered in that chair, the stain would be in a perfect oval pattern behind your head. Certainly gravity would not pull it down. (Sarcasm alert.)

The allegation about African millionaires might be because, of the many photographs of fair-skinned people found in the home, a handful were of dark-skinned people, including one family photo and a calendar.

The murder and African millionaire fit a pattern of phony narratives that Carter and his colleagues use to market these explorations. The real narrative is that the owner died in 2014, and this was possibly when the house’s use ended. Compounding things are that 90% of French chateauxes, which includes large manor houses like this, are not maintained properly. Also, this home was built well after the rationale for rural manor houses was already receding.

The appearance is the property’s current owner is permitting the house to gradually return itself to the land. The same practice is not uncommon in the rural USA.

Some details: Google Translate says that La Touche means The Key. Also, France has several La Touche homes or areas. This is the La Touche near Chédigny.

9 thoughts on “Geolocating Carter Banks’s explore of a French “murder” chateau”

  1. Have viewed or figured out YT video claiming a small house explored (Bankz & Ronin) was last inhabited by a murderous nephew of a famous songwriter & author? ~ Ronin says uncle hit it big! He had champion equestrian wife who died in child birth of the daughter. Eventually he moved to CA to further the daughter’s equestrian skills & gave home to nephew. Daughter died in horse riding accident. Uncle died of illness 2015. Then nephew caught his girlfriend cheating & killed her stabbed her 30+ & killed the guy too @ her parents home. He was apprehended in the house. (Of course there’s a bloodstained chair!) ~ FACTS: There’s a NJ license plate in a cabinet (Bankz). There’s partial name I can make out on an old TWA Ambassador Club (NYC?) plaque – John or Joan? & last name __ __ ahncy or _ _ ahney (partial in Ronin vid). There’s equestrian style barns (they don’t investigate) & a US Equestrian Team badge, photos on bookshelf. Lots of popular author hardbacks mostly fiction & some travel books – But story doesn’t add up. No piano/instruments or songwriting area? No typewriter or real desk or writing area for an author especially pre-digital age? Cramped desk @ top of stairs . . . not a writer’s area. There’s no reference books in library which real authors demanded back in day – even for fiction. Also, no art supplies or area yet Ronin claims the nephew was an artist. (Are all these in another bldg. on property?) AND the uncle made it big & this is the house he kept? To me the house has nothing anyone under 50 would own, read, or wear – Including an abandoned very plain 4 door Ford. So, how old was this nephew . . . ready for Soc. Sec.? There’s a few items a young girl might own, jewelry & few Harry Potter books but all in all the story just doesn’t stack up. Try as I can, don’t find any news of a murderous nephew of any famed songwriter/author. No tragic equestrian related death of a daughter for any famed author songwriter either. No songwriter/author with any story remotely connected to this tale, dying of illness in CA 2015. ~ Calling BS on this one.

    1. What I am seeing so far:

      • Loose association with Hope, NJ due to inclusion of New Hope Bank in horse photo (6:44). That bank might be in Blairstown or Great Meadows, too. And it is possible this bank advertisement is at a horse-riding area some distance from the house, so could be a red herring?
      • Supporting the red herring theory, in the kitchen around 15:18, you can see a red advertisement for roof leaks. At the top is a yellow section that advises some local yellow pages publication for Chester and I think Mendham. A search of all non-striped roads of this area (see below) that isn’t densely forested may be advisable.
      • A handwritten note about horses has a reference to Richard Nicoll. I think that refers to this guy: https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/weg-combined-driving-course-designer-richard-nicoll/. It says he lives in New Salem, Massachusetts. I still suspect NJ is the right place.
      • On a road with no stripes, so seriously diminishes roads that one needs to review.
      • House is parallel to and very close to road. Kidney-bean-shaped pool near house, adjacent to a tree. Across road at a brief diagonal are a couple of structures.
      • New Jersey license plate–which you mentioned–starts at 9:36.

      His theory explain the red armchair stain is laughable.

  2. Can you make this a series? I love these kind of videos, but sometimes the narrative is so sensational, it’s hard to believe.

  3. Heel dom om dit zo publiekelijk en openbaar te zetten….. Bewaar dit soort panden met respect
    Door jouw zogenaamde geolocatie zal deze locatie binnen no time getrashed gevandaliseerd en gemolesteerd worden
    … Super bedankt carter ‍♀️

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