Visiting Vaux le Vicomte

After arriving in France on Saturday, it was necessary to kill some time prior to going to our rental in the afternoon. Since we had a car in the Ile de France region for once, we thought it would be a nice idea to finally visit Vaux le Vicomte which had been recommended many times to us.

Vaux le Vicomte is a chateau located south of Paris near Fontainebleau and rests upon the site of a previous and much more modest chateau that no longer exists. The new chateau was built by Nicolas Fouquet, a financier during the reign of Louis XIV. The chateau has beautiful manicured grounds and lovely exterior architecture. The owner, who keeps a private residence on the grounds, and the private historical foundation have restored many aspects of the chateau over the years.

From the parking area, you approach the chateau from the front gates which are flanked by interesting stone capitals with carved busts of human figures at their tops. I found it a unique and elaborate aspect that I had not seen at other chateaux. After passing through the admissions office, you enter the stables’ courtyard. For a minute one should pause and consider that with the multitude of doors on three sides (one of which was converted into a restaurant, the other two into a carriage museum) just how many horses, carriages, and livery staff where expected to visit the house of a financier. It is astounding.

I cannot say that I was as pleased with the tour of the interior as I was with walking the grounds. I did not expect perfection on the interior for even at the most famous of chateaux, Versailles, restoration is a never-ending battle against time’s ravages and the time to spare for restoration. But, I think it would be more accurate that while some of the rooms have been restored the focus of the chateau’s interior is as a museum to Fouquet, not representative of it’s original use. The house does home some original pieces (notably the red marble topped tables in the first room of the tour), interesting tapestries, and original paintings and sculpture upon the roof of the entrance room. Notably, the grande salle entry room which has vaulted ceilings and an oval shape was the envy of the valley as is attested in other chateaux such as Troussay which added its own oval grande salle to keep up appearances.

After the entrance room with it’s views across the gardens to the fountains and woods at the very back, the rest of the tour turn into a museum for the life of Fouquet. His story is interesting and some factoids are given about the state of France’s population and kings at the time. But, the mannequins look tired and worn. The video animations to animate the mannequins in scenes can be a bit creepy. And once you enter the tour, you are kept captive for the entire sequence. It is not long after entering the basement that the world becomes increasingly claustrophobic and the only thought becomes when will the torture of the visitors end.

During our visit, we saw no less than four couples visiting the grounds with their photographer following a wedding. It became sport deciding if it was a different bride, usually distinguished by what her groom or photographer were wearing. It could not have been a better day to take such memorable photographs on the grounds and perhaps they had the best idea of any visitor there that day. I would return to the grounds at Vaux le Vicomte with a good history book of the period rather than pay to tour the chateau again. While it was not immediately obvious to us while within the chateau, it is apparently possible to climb to the cupola upon the roof and view the grounds from above. I would strongly suggest taking the time to do so as the gardens, while pleasant from ground level, have elements that would be striking from the vantage point of the roof.