Inside the Oldest BDSM Training Chateau in the World
“People did have the courage to take bites off me while I was roasting on the spit,” says Mistress Couple, a wry smile crossing her lips. “I was the first of the people on the spit to let people bite them so there was 20 years of hunger built up—curiosity about what it is like to bite someone who is roasting. I still remember everyone in order of who bit hardest and who bit softest,” she says revealing both a rare moment of vulnerability and the fierce reputation she has as a dominatrix.
Welcome to La Domaine Esemar–a chateau situated in the Berkshires that bills itself as the world’s oldest BDSM training facility. Couple is the head dominant here and has been making waves locally and nationally as she looks to modernize and personalize the chateau’s services. She’s been featured in Cosmopolitan, Daily Beast, the Netflix show Unplanned America, and her recent play with Trump and Hillary BDSM play got the attention of Vice. La Domaine offers a “bed and dungeon” rental for couples (a room with BDSM infrastructure and an erotic library), trains interested parties in dominant and submissive roles, and provides erotic (non-intercourse) services for paying customers. (The business is legal and law-abiding.)
Yes, Couple decided for a recent birthday that it would be fun to be strapped onto a spit and roasted over coals until she reached 103 degrees. No, she was not the first person at La Domaine to think of the same thing. There is a fetish known as “Schwanendreher” that involves wanting to be roasted on a spit like a swan, pig or goose, and it has attracted a handful of people to La Domaine. There is no cannibalism and technically, if performed correctly, no one should get hurt.
La Domaine hosted a British man (who the regulars at La Domaine nicknamed London Broil) who had been a part of a botched roast held in Europe. Mistress and La Domaine founder Master R researched how to safely roast a human.
“You get these people who have these fetishes and try them and they do it with people who aren’t experienced, who don’t know what they’re doing and people end up getting hurt. They start to think that there is something really wrong with them. But then they hear about us and realize maybe this isn’t a part of me I need to be ashamed of. Maybe it’s something I can celebrate.”
Master R says he called the Screen Actors Guild, engineers, welders, “anyone I thought might be able to do this the right way,” before finally assembling the spit.
London Broil spent the weekend agonizing over what he was about to do–the shame of the kink he had long harbored and the scarring he suffered during the botched attempt. With only a few hours left before he was scheduled to catch his flight home he decided to go through with it. Couple describes the process as “transformative,” “cathartic.” She says she saw his confidence return along with his desire for intimacy. “When he came off that spit it was as if he was floating,” says Couple.
La Domaine is situated off a series of gravel backroads, just feet from a stream, tucked deep under tree cover. The front yard gives off the air of a quaint American country home–there is no imposing European gothic vibe–no “Eyes Wide Shut” thing going on. This could be your neighbor’s house–if your neighbor kept a spit for roasting humans in the backyard and a fuck machine in the basement.
Inspired by London Broil’s turn at the spit and the adventure of a Texan who brought loads of BBQ sauce to be basted in, Couple decided it was worth a try.
Hummingbirds, pigeons and blue birds flit around only inches from her head. Her eyes widen as she recalls the ordeal. “It was completely a primal experience. You go right into your animal brain. I thought I was incredibly lucid the entire time. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, I’m fine, I’m surprised how sober I feel right now,’” she says describing the feeling of the fire getting closer, her body spinning slowly, the clank of the metal contraption, the sweet smell of the baste that covered her body and the sensation of their teeth biting her fevered skin. “Then I watched the videos and it’s clear I was way gone. I was in another headspace.”
She’s perched in front of a wide bay window, an assortment of bird feeders hang from a wire, a large, fluffy, white bunny skitters about outside. “I’m like a dominatrix Snow White,” she laughs stretching her fingers in their black gloves–her every move accompanied by the creaking and moaning of her black leather dress. There’s a knock on the door. “Hello Mistress” says a man with grey hair who looks to be in his sixties. “Hello Slave,” she replies. “You may go get changed and bring the leafblower down to the basement.” R laughs: “I don’t even want to ask.”
Couple frowns, “It’s for the balloons.” Balloons also happen to be a fetish–small balloons, big ballons, animal-shaped balloons and the kind of balloon that fits an entire human. Couple will get into such a balloon later that evening.
The smell of toast and goose fat lingers heavy in the air–Master R is planning for an elaborate dinner. R began La Domaine in the Columbia County town of Chatham in 1993 with his then partner. He’s been practicing a BDSM lifestyle since the ‘60s. In 2014, after his relocation and the departure of another mistress, R began looking for a new head dominant with the intention to retire. He gave Couple a call, and she decided since she had free time before a graduate program began, she’d help him find a replacement.
In the basement, Couple shows off La Domaine’s many erotic toys and props. There are bins of dildos, lines of elaborate nipple clamps, candles, balloons, wooden swords, knives, whips, costumes, masks, a closet of medical supplies, toy lightsabers. Couple takes extra care to showcase the more elaborate props–a large crucifix, a stool with a motorized dildo, a crib, and a contraption that allows users to sit propped up and be penetrated by a large metal pole...