Château de Vaux le Vicomte, near
Maincy.
What does one do on a Saturday night in Paris? Well how about a tour through the candlelit grounds
and magnificent building of the Vaux de Vicomte, built in the C17th in only 3
years! Nicolas Fouquet was once finance minister to Louis XIV. Fouquet completed the Chateau in August 1661,
staging a magnificent housewarming for the Sun King (Louis XIV). He’d even built a magnificent wing dedicated
for his use…a bedroom, a study, but the poor guy had no idea that Louis had already
planned for Fouquet’s arrest (implications of financial mismanagement), so imagine
King Louis going to the party (with the candles, music, fountains and a new
play by Molière on the terrace) then
having the man arrested a few weeks later by d’Artagnan the head of the musketeers. King Louis kept a few priceless things from
the castle, banished Fouquet to prison for life, and using the landscape
gardeners and architects (and their ideas) Louis built a grander
Chateau…Versailles!
