Photo : Jean-Pol GRANDMONT / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, in Seine-et-Marne, was built from 1656 to 1661 by the architect Louis Le Vau for Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finances of Louis XIV. Fouquet brought together the best artists of the moment: Charles Le Brun for the interior decoration, André Le Nôtre for the gardens and Michel Villedo for the masonry. The whole is an example of seventeenth-century French classicism, with a double enfilade of rooms and an oval salon on two levels.
On 17 August 1661, Fouquet gave a festival with theatre, fountains and fireworks, where Molière's Les Fâcheux was notably performed. Less than three weeks later, the king had him arrested in Nantes, on 5 September 1661.
The estate, in poor condition, was bought back in 1875 by the industrialist Alfred Sommier, who restored it. Now a museum, it is the most important private property listed as a historic monument in France. The French-style gardens play on perspective effects.
