Vaux le Vicomte

On Saturday we again took a day trip a short distance outside Paris to visit another historical château: Vaux le Vicomte, the fabulous residence built by 17th-century Superintendent of Finances Nicolas Fouquet, the grandeur of which would later drive the young King Louis XIV to such heights of jealousy and suspicion that he had Fouquet arrested, charged with embezzlement, and imprisoned for the rest of his life. Louis went on to later employ the same team of brilliant minds that Fouquet had assembled (architect Louis Le Vau, garden designer André Le Nôtre, and interior decorator Charles Le Brun) to design his own palace and garden at Versailles.

Since the forecast was threatening rain for the afternoon, we headed out to explore the gardens first; we had just enough time to finish our circuit before the first drops started to fall. Much of the spring planting had not yet been done, so the garden was somewhat spartan, although quite lush and green from all the rain we've been getting lately. Best of all, the grounds were practically deserted; it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We probably crossed the paths of a grand total of about half a dozen other couples/families as we walked the 1.3 km out from the château to the statue of Hercules atop the hill at the opposite end of the park, then circled our way back around the other side of the canals and fountains.

We escaped from the rain into the château restaurant for lunch before starting the tour of the château itself. The restaurant had a cozy, international ski lodge kind of feel to it; the walls were covered with oil paintings of what appeared to be the beloved hunting dogs of one of the past residents of the château, complete with the name of each dog (if I recall correctly, the three in the painting behind Aaron were named Bonne, Nonne, and Ponne).

The audioguide for the château made no attempt to be impartial in presenting the history of the building and its erstwhile owner, and numerous exhibits reminded visitors that, indeed, the purpose of the tour was to commemorate the "grandeur and misfortune of Nicolas Fouquet." Their take on events: Nicolas Fouquet was a brilliant man who had made his fortune honestly and was viciously framed by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who took advantage of Louis XIV's youth and inexperience to plant the seeds of suspicion and turn him against Fouquet. Moreover, Fouquet made critical contributions to French culture by financially supporting writers such as Molière and Jean de la Fontaine. And of course, the beauty of the château is to be credited not to the brilliance of the men who designed it, but to Fouquet himself, for his impeccably good taste.

As you can tell, I was not such a fan of the blatantly biased audioguide and historical exhibits, but aside from that, the tour of the château was enjoyable. We had shelled out the extra 2 euros for the "full visit" pass that allowed us to go up into the dome at the very top of the château; it was well worth it for the view, even in the rain. Aaron also enjoyed the displays on dome construction and engineering in the hallway leading to the narrow, wooden spiral staircase that took us up to the small, circular observation platform mounted on the outside of the dome.

Vaux le Vicomte gardens - not in their full summer glory quite yet!



We learned how to say "golf cart" en français since they had them available for rent: le club car (it seems the Académie Française is not having too much luck at keeping the franglais out of their beautiful language)



Bonjour, tous le monde!



Views of the château from the garden





View of the gardens from the window of the château



View of the gardens from the dome of the château



View of outbuildings from the dome of the château



Hercules statue at the far end of the grounds, 1.3 km from the château



Tami, here is a bark/moss (lichen??) picture for you



Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680)



Click on this photo to enlarge it if you'd like to read about Fouquet's patronage of Corneille, Molière, and La Fontaine, among others



Bathroom of the day



In my next life, when I am an architect, I am bringing back the alcove bed!



Bust of Jean de la Fontaine; I believe the tapestries in the background depict scenes from a few of his celebrated Fables (for bilingual text of selected fables, see www.aesopfables.com/aesopjdlf.html)



Small exhibit dedicated to André Le Nôtre, the designer who created the garden at Vaux le Vicomte (and later Versailles)



When Le Nôtre was made a member of the nobility by Louis XIV in 1675, Louis asked him to create his coat of arms; Le Nôtre, ever a gardener at heart, opted for a head of cabbage above three silver snails