Frozen in time, bedroom of French soldier killed in 1918

The dust and cobwebs lie thick after nearly a century, but the memory of the French soldier who grew up in this bedroom - and who died in Belgium during the first world war - is today as vivid as the sunlight streaming through the window.

Dragoons officer Hubert Rochereau's presence permeates the place. It emanates from photos and from the second lieutenant's various possessions - uniforms, riding trophies, books - frozen in time on the top floor of a large home in Belabre, a small village in central France.

The vivid vestiges of his short life are a testament to the grief his parents felt upon learning of the death of their only son on April 26, 1918, at the age of just 21.

So deep was their bereavement, that they sought to have his memory live on when they sold the house, stipulating in the deed of sale that his bedroom must go untouched for 500 years.

The current owner, Daniel Fabre, has observed their wishes. "It's not an act of devotion but of historic preservation," he says. But the clause itself "has no legal basis", he notes. "You can't keep something preserved that way for 500 years under French law."

Fabre, a 72-year-old retired civil servant, took over the large house after the death a decade ago of his wife, who had inherited it from her grandfather. He proudly shows off the small room where Rochereau was born, timeworn but remarkably intact.