The house was built around 1885 for the Pol Roger family’s hunting recreation. Was it the founder of this champagne house who had it built? In 1885, the founder was 54 years old. The neoclassical style of the house is consistent with the Second Empire and the style of the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay. The house is depicted on several postcards from 1905. It has tall bay windows, facing the four horizons. The long barn protects it on the north side.

Its location in a clearing is reminiscent of the “folly,” a hiding place in the green, to escape social life and enjoy nature, a trend since the romantic era. It was modest in size, entirely oriented toward the landscape, to enjoy wildlife. One can hear deer, wild boars, foxes, owls, ducks, cranes, woodcocks, and swifts depending on the seasons. The Pol Roger family originally came here on horseback, with hunting friends. Boots were taken off in the small entrance hallway equiped for this purpose with a bench, the coat rack over it offering hooks for about ten jackets. There was a stable for the horses, a small lodge for the horse keeper, and the corner shelter was used for cutting and storing wood.

The Pol Roger family originally came here on horseback, with hunting friends. Boots were taken off in the small entrance hallway furnished for this purpose with a bench and a school-style coat rack provided hooks for about ten jackets. There was a stable for the horses, a barn room for the horse keeper and the corner shed was used for cutting and storing wood.

After the First World War, the automobile appeared in Epernay and Bournonville. Hunters now came by car. They no longer used the stable, and even the house lost some of its appeal. People no longer slept there, or only very occasionally. During the Second World War, Bournonville was the theatre of a bitter battle in which Senegalese riflemen, among others, were cruelly killed. Bournonville is close to the D982 road, which demarcated the so-called forbidden zone, a special status in the German-occupied zone.

Towards the end of the Second World War, a shell pierced the house’s roof. It landed in the basement without exploding. The traces of its trajectory are still visible on the cellar vault. The roof was completely redone after the war, this time in zinc. In 1958, the Pol Roger family permanently parted with this old hunting lodge on the edge of the woods. They still owned another hunting lodge with vast land and woods for a long time, on the edge of the Belval pond. This one eventually burned down following a chimney fire. The 204 hectares of ponds have been since 2012 part of the Belval Ponds Nature Reserve.