The history of Vaux-le-Vicomte
This is a chateau with an exquisite and electrifying heritage. A tale of passion, betrayal, corruption and despair which shaped the history of France was played out here. You feel it in the kitchens with their gleaming copper pans, in the beautifully furnished rooms with their paintings and tapestries and gilded this and that, in the gardens which look as they did when Le Notre, the king's favourite gardener designed them. There is an echo of the past here and you can't avoid it.
Enter those grand gates, climb the imposing staircase, and remember that there, in 1661 stood the owner, a man called Nicolas Fouquet. He was waiting to welcome his King to the newly built chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte. It was 17 August, a hot, sultry night. Fouquet had served Louis XIV well and loyally as his minister of finances, and that night he hoped to wow him by entertaining him in great style.
Fouquet had invested a small fortune in
The Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte has appeared in some 80 films including Marie Antoinete, Moonraker and The Man With The Iron mask, who incidentally was imprisoned alongside Fouquet
the design and building of the chateau, bringing together three greats from French history, Le Brun the painter, Le Vau the architect and Le Notre the gardener. To the onlooker it wasn’t just fabulous, it was dizzying in its beauty.
The chateau and gardens had taken 20 years to create. The night the King came, it wasn’t quite finished. Painters of ceilings and walls downed tools, masons carving statues swept up and made everything look as good as it could and got out of the way before the King arrived. Even unfinished, the result was ravishing.
The King’s carriage swept into the courtyard, he alighted and stood at the bottom of the stairs looking up at Fouquet, the minister was proud of his achievement, quite possibly the most beautiful castle in all of France. Hours later, the fate of the minister and the chateau was sealed by a jealous King. Never again would anyone stand higher than Louis XIV or have a chateau more beautiful than his.