Les Essarts, Forbes family estate

Les Essarts is the Forbes family estate at Saint-Briac, France, and the international family seat of the descendants of James Grant Forbes (b. Shanghai, China), a member of the Forbes family of China and Boston who settled in Brittany at Les Essarts.^[1][2] He is the grandfather of two famous politicians, Brice Lalonde, a Green Party candidate for President of France in 1981, and former US secretary of state John Kerry,^[2] the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 2004. Many of the Forbes family have socialized during summers spent in Brittany at Les Essarts.^[3]

Les Essarts had been occupied and used as a Nazi headquarters during World War II. When the Germans fled, they bombed Les Essarts and burnt it down.^[2] The sprawling estate was rebuilt in 1954.