Photo : Wikimedia Commons
Château d'Effiat
An exceptional residence for the region as much by its style and setting as by its history. The château was built in the early seventeenth century by Marshal d'Effiat, third personage of the kingdom after the king and the cardinal, father of Cinq-Mars. Furniture of Louis XIII, Louis XIV and Louis XV periods, drawing room with Versailles parquet, painted panelling (Italian Renaissance), "Vulcan's forge" overmantel, frescoes, Romantic-period stained glass (life of Cinq-Mars), the marshal's seal, pennant and mementoes of the Royal Military School, parchments signed by Louis XIII and Gaston d'Orléans.
English-style flower bed by A. Mollet, godfather of Le Nôtre, terrace nymphaeum, ornamental pools and a very fine gate. The park is laid out as it was in the seventeenth century, at the time of Marshal d'Effiat; as is the "Nymphaeum", at the centre of the terrace 130 metres long, 3 metres high, with its illuminated "Rocaille" (basin, fountain and vault adorned with inlays).
