Building: Chateau Vaux le Vicomte
Architect/Landscape/Designer: Louis Le Vau, Andre le Notre, Charles Le Brun
Location: Maincy, France
Dates: 1658 - 1661
Use: Residence (originally)
One day long ago, there lived a man named Nicolas Fouquet. He was the financial advisor (or superintendent of finances) to King Louis XIV and had saved a bit of money. Having such incredible vision and taste, he hired Le Vau, le Notre and Le Brun to collaborate on a giant scheme to "renovate" his home. Wiping out a couple of nearby villages, the grand Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte and gardens was born, and was it!
The Chateau was lavish and grand and the "gardens" went on forever (but with some tricks, visually did not look as large)... supposedly it is about a mile and a half walk from the chateau to the Hercules statue at the far end of the sloping "lawn". Nowadays they use golf carts to get there, but back then...
But back to Fouquet. He held really lovely parties there and one day the King thought, how on earth could my financial advisor have a place so grand... so much grander than my own residence? He must be embezzling from me! Arrest him! And get his design group to build me something bigger and better! At Versailles!... or something like that, I imagine.
So here we are, fabulous chateau and gardens, in fact I believe this is where Eva Longoria and Tony Parker had their wedding reception. I guess I would too, if I was able to roll like that.
Chateau, the foyer (or maybe it's the ballroom), the backyard, over the river and through the woods, and... finally made it to the Hercules statue!
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