Vaux le Vicomte

Bonjour tout le monde!! I got so many hits on my blog for my Burger Truck post!! Yahoo!  Hopefully people will be just as interested about this post about Vaux le Vicomte!  We visited the chateau on Saturday with the JYF program, it is about an hour southeast of Paris.  After an early start, we arrived at the chateau along with a few other buses of old people on tour groups.  We heard mostly French being spoken though, I don't think Vaux le Vicomte is high on most people's list of places to visit.  It was a beautiful day and a stunning chateau!  Brace yourself for some chateau-tastic pics!

Voila la carte to help you get your bearings!

 Damn you scaffolding for restoration, you ruin my pictures!!

Vaux le Vicomte was built for  Nicolas Fouquet, a Finance Minister for Louis XIV from 1658-1661.  Le Vau was the architect and later went on to design Versailles.  Louis XIV was jealous of his finance minister's wealth, and was jealous of how showy Vaux le Vicomte had become.  So he arrested him.  Moral of the story, don't try to upstage Louis XIV.  He doesn't like that.

 

The Carriage House

Don't fall in the moat!
There are some mighty big carp swimming around in it...

Athene and I rocking our tourist (cameras around our necks) look!

Not a bad place to call home...

The Gardens are amazing!  The French style gardens (all very geometric and stylized) are surrounded by English Style Gardens (wilder and less rigid)

fountain!

Le Roi Lion!

The Lion King!!

I love imitating statues!

Damn you scaffolding!!

Thank you google for a good view of the back!!

Les Jardins

Tree Huggin

Walking down the path to the English Gardens

Statue under the stairs..

Another beautiful statue

The fence at the front of the chateau were statues of people...

The front door...where is the doorbell?

Sweet Candelabras!
Reminiscent of the Jean Cocteau version of Belle et la Bete.

Portrait of Nicolas Fouquet

Sitting Room

Bedroom

Tapestries

Original Oak and Marble table

Salle des Muses

Olivia admiring the ceiling in the Salle des Muses

And the ceiling

Mirror pic!

Council Chambers

More Council Rooms!

King Louis XIV's bedroom at the chateau

Portrait of Louis XIV

Angel Relief on the wall

Bathtub!

Yep. That's the toilet.  no indoor plumbing yet...

Salon des Fetes

There was a projection in the corner that showed a video of actors in period dress acting out a party during the time of Fouquet and the Sun King.  It made you realize how hoppin this place used to be!

17th Century Pastry Molds

Le Notre, the designer of the gardens at Vaux le Vicomte designed the gardens at Versailles as well.  Louis XIV was so pleased with the gardens, he enobled his gardener.  Le Notre chose the coat of arms in the picture above.  Snails, mossy background, and a head of lettuce.  Very fitting!

After our visit, our program had lunch in the restaurant.  It was the best museum food I have ever eaten!  Our 1st course (above) was a caprese salad wrapped in prosciutto.  Yum!  There was also a bottle of wine for each table.  Vive la France!

Drawing of Vaux le Vicomte from the 17th century.

We were all full of good food and wine, and we hopped back on the bus for the ride to Fontainebleau, one of the monarchy's residences.  I will post about that demain!

Bisous,

Allison