The Ideal Aviary

Effectively, Postman Cheval scattered his work with several birds' nests: a very subtle touch, nearly invisible, which brings pure poetry to the environment when you look out for it. 

One of the first nests, a swallow's nest, appears under a vault on the east facade, by the postman's wheelbarrow. On the walls of the gallery, you can find several nests entwined amongst the trees that the postman sculpted.

A lot less secretive, but nevertheless just as poetic, everyone can admire the majestic bird which overlooks the peaks of the north facade. 

Just underneath, although much more discreet, you can also spot a small, metal bird, and not far from it, Postman Cheval's quote, "he placed me in this charming palace, where the swift shall return each spring." 

They are an integral part of the decor throughout the entire palace. Throughout their journey through the palace, visitors may spot an eagle, a cockerel, an ostrich, a pelican, a flamingo, and even a phoenix chicken, hidden in the midst of the Garden of Eden. 

In his quest to share his knowledge of the world with his visitors, Ferdinand Cheval had inscribed the names of these animals into their sculptures; yet many others remain anonymous in the crowd of subjects that constitute the Ideal Palace. 

This is particularly the case for the central bird figure in the Source of Life, in which chicks, waiting to take flight, are perched on a branch of the terrace. 

In the gallery, attentive visitors may also discover two birds with sapphire eyes, as well as a flight of bluebirds. From time to time, real nests appear on the Ideal Palace and accompany this flock of birds, fixed in stone by Postman Cheval.

This phrase of Postman Cheval is inscribed into one of the niches of the Palace "to the lark's song, in the morning with my loyal wheelbarrow, I will roam the paths," and it reminds us that, from the very beginning, the birds were companions for this tireless worker. This is certainly what led Nils Tavernier to borrow these words from the postman, in his film: "The wind and the birds spur me on." 

In 1932, André Breton paid tribute to Postman Cheval via a poem entitled: Le Revolver à Cheveux Blancs (The White-Haired Revolver). His poem opens with these lines:  "Nous les oiseaux que tu charmes toujours du haut de ces belvédères/Et qui chaque nuit ne faisons qu'une branche fleurie de tes épaules aux bras de ta brouette animée. (Us, the birds, that you always charm from atop these belvederes/And who each night make but a flowered branch from your shoulders to your lively wheelbarrow)." 

Furthermore, the figure of the bird in the Ideal Palais isn't without its reminders of the carrier pigeon—a messenger bird—which, like the postman, delivered messages after a long journey. Pablo Picasso had understood this in his homage to Postman Cheval, representing him as a chimera with an equine body and the head of a pigeon, holding an envelope in its beak.