Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte

We spent most of the month in Paris itself and felt we had to venture out somewhere within Ile-de-France (also known as the région parisienne and within our 5-zone metro pass), so we took the train for an hour ride to Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte. 

I can't say it any better than Wikipedia:  

Constructed from 1658 to 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle Ile, Viscount of Melun and Vaux, the superintendent of finances of Louis XIV, the château was an influential work of architecture in mid-17th-century Europe. At Vaux-le-Vicomte, the architect Louis Le Vau, the landscape architect Andre le Notre and the painter-decorator Charles Le Brun worked together on a large-scale project for the first time. Their collaboration marked the beginning of the "Louis XIV style" combining architecture, interior design and landscape design. The garden's pronounced visual axis is an example of this style (more about this later in the blog).

 
 Coming up the main path to the front door

Carriage House along the moat

We were very lucky to go this time of year, because we saw the annual Christmas festival decorations which were both outside and inside the chateau.  Beautiful!

 Carriage

 
 Palanquin

Reindeer in lights

Huge gingerbread cookies and Christmas tree

Robotic bears

Elk in a snowy forest

Fouquet's bedroom bedecked with Christmas cheer

A table laid with Christmas dinner


The furnishings were beautiful, too.

Wooden chest

Chair and marquetry table
(I thought this was inlaid wood, but no, it's marquetry:  
the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to 
a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures)

Chinese chest and vases

Gobelin tapestry

Copper water urn

And now, a word about the gardens.

Fouquet hired the renowned landscape gardener André Le Nôtre who used the latest technical, scientific and artistic knowledge of his era to create gardens that had changing vistas and hidden charms.  The chateau and gardens were conceived as a whole and there are many views that show the harmony between building and garden.

Due to the multiple-level structure of the grounds, it is very hard to show the gardens in pictures since you can't see all of them from any one view point.  As you walk, it is very interesting to discover additional gardens and pools which were hidden from view. Wonderful!
 
 View from the rear of the chateau out towards the gardens

 
 French formal lawns and designs


Example of "hidden" pools

A waterfall

An aquaduct

Beautiful tree-lined paths

Hercules, who stands at the very end of the garden

View of chateau and gardens from Hercules statue

Grottos...

...and statues

View of rear of chateau 
(you can pay for a ride around the grounds in a horse-drawn buggy)


So, dear readers, this ends our Paris adventures.  What a wonderful month it was.  Period.

Next stop:  San Mateo, California! 




















































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