In 2008, American pop idol Jeff Koons raised multiple hackles with his giant balloon puppies and lobsters. The exhibition did, however, have its supporters who thought the high kitsch sculptures looked right at home given that Versailles was the original McMansion and nobody “got” glitz and flash more than Marie Antoinette.

By the time that Japanese manga artist Takashi Murakami placed a buxomly cartoonish French Maid a little too close to the Hall of Mirrors in 2010, the opposition had organized. A petition signed by 11,000 stated that the objets d’art, which the artist proposed as a “face-off between the Baroque period and Post-War Japan,” were “degrading and disrespectful.”

Since the Murakami to-do, Versailles curators have confined most of the artwork to the gardens. A sensible plan since, by this time, Tracey Emin was presumably on the invitation short-list. Who wanted to clean up all those condoms in the royal boudoir, especially since the manga maids were banned from the premises?

This year, the protests got nasty. In the wee hours of June 16, barely a week after the unveiling of the current Anish Kapoor exhibit, art vigilantes threw paint over the 33-feet-high Dirty Corner, most likely in response to an interview the artist gave in the Journal du Dimanche (May 31, 2015), in which he described the artwork as “the vagina of the queen taking power.”

In fact, Dirty Corner was not commissioned with Marie Antoinette or one of her predecessors in mind. It’s been around since 2011. When first displayed in Milan at the Fabbrica del Vapore, people were invited to enter the installation and experience disorientation (without royal gynocological implications) as they walked through the narrowing tunnel.

Kapoor acknowledges that the artwork, which rises out of Versailles’s manicured lawn like a giant Dune sand-monster, scattering multi-ton slabs of rock in the process, is supposed to upset the regal symmetry of Le Nôtre’s gardens.

Kapoor is one of the most popular living artists exhibited in France. His 2011 Momumenta exhibition at the Grand Palais attracted nearly 280,000 visitors. Commenting on the attack in The Guardian (June 19, 2015), Kapoor blamed the vandalism on the dark forces of “exclusion, marginalization, elitism, racism, Islamophobia” … a rather puzzling denunciation from the recently knighted, Bombay-born Hindu-Jewish artiste who resides in Britain.

Since the vandalism, visitors at the exhibition, running June 9-November 1, will now be met at the Dirty Corner by rather anxious-looking “Cultural Mediators”, art history students who are ready and willing to wrestle royalist taggers to the mat. Unfortunately—at least during the clean-up phase that features large machines thrusting into the artwork and a work crew diligently scrubbing away at what looks like the mother of all STDs—no one is likely to forget the “V” word.

Text and photos © 2015, Corinne LaBalme

Anish Kapoor in the garden of Versailles, June 9-Nov. 1, 2015. 

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In Paris, haute couture extends all the way to the dessert trolley. Even a venerable let-them-eat-cake institution like Angelina, founded in 1903, has to keep up with the trifle trends.

On April 29, with the accompanying pops of pink champagne, Angelina unveiled the dernier cri on the calorie chart with its spring-summer 2014 pastry collection. Dark chocolate and truffles are beating a retreat, and sunny color combinations—raspberry with ecru-tinted Earl Gray cream; mellow peach with casual crumble accents—are on the rise.

Even the ultra-classic mont blanc, the Hermès scarf of the Angelina empire chocking up 600 sales a day, gets a summer makeover. It’s keeping its famous sugar-dusted toupée of chestnut spaghetti cream… but adding a light, bright strawberry center to its Chantilly/meringue base.

Angelina has a history of adopting new food-stuffs from outside Europe. (Think of how it perfected the chocolat chaud adored by the French royal family since the early 17th century.) This season, Angelina has looked even farther afield for rare and unusual ingredients…

… Eastern Pennsylvania.

Yes, this summer Angelina débuts its first cheesecake and the fromage in question comes from Philadelphia. However, Angelina’s Chef Christophe Appert is quick to deny any undue American influence. ”American cheesecakes are always baked,” he explains. ”Ours consists of an uncooked cheese froth served on a bed of confit d’abricot and madeleine-inspired sablé crust.”

(Apparently, soggy graham crackers just don’t make the cut.)

These treats – rounded out with other ephemeral Angelina creations like peach/vanilla tarts, raspberry/macaroon courtisanes, and strawberry/whipped cream/hazlenut éclairs – can be sampled for under 7€/each at Angelina’s nine French locations in Paris, Versailles and Lyon.

Angelina. 226 rue de Rivoli (75001), 108 rue du Bac (75007), 19 rue de vaugirard (75006), Chateau de Versailles, and other locations.

© 2014, Corinne LaBalme

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Beyond his responsibilities at Versailles, Baraton is at once a folk historian, a provocateur and an entertainer in writing about the dark side of Versailles in Vice et Versailles: Crimes, trahisons et autres Empoisonnements au palais du Roi-Soleil (Vice and Versailles: Crimes, Treacheries and other Poisonings at the Palace of the Sun King).

“Money is celebrated in every corner [of Versailles],” he writes (in French). “There isn’t a statue or restored vase that doesn’t have its plaque thanking a generous donor… My greatest wish would be that a plaque, however modest, serve as a reminder that this palace of fairy tales is also that of dramas and misfortunes, because I cannot and don’t want to forget those, numerous as they are, who suffered in their flesh and paid with their life to enable us today to contemplate and to appreciate the chateau of kings, Versailles.”

In the absence of such a plaque, Baraton pays homage to the victims of Versailles in this book, though “homage” may not the appropriate term for his account of much the suffering he describes seeing how much he seems to delight in telling it. He spares no gore in telling stories about Versailles that “Historians,” he writes, “scarcely evoke,” “truths that would tarnish the luster of Versailles.”

This zone on the way to Normandy from Paris was once the stomping ground of a less titled band of crooks and hoods before Louis XIII purchased land at the village of Versailles in 1632 and ordered the construction of a hunting lodge. His son Louis XIV, upon assuming the reigns of power, would then use that lodge as the inner shell around which his expansive palace would develop beginning in 1662, a project that he would pursue for the next 50 years. Versailles was built a tremendous theater where Louis XIV always stood center stage, whether in the palace or in the garden, asserting and ensuring his role as the Sun King, the power and the glory around which all rotated.

Always quick to point out the murky side of this story, Baraton writes: “It’s fear that brought Louis XIV to Versailles, frightened by the Fronde [a rebellion against the royal government during the king’s minority]. It’s blood that allowed him to remain there. The sweet paths that we visit and the fabulous luxury of a palace that we admire are built on an open grave that would make the worst tyrant nauseous.”

At the time of its construction, Versailles was the largest construction site in Europe: 36,000 men worked on the site and there were 22,000 soldiers in the area. Malnourished and poorly paid, they worked under horrible conditions, suffering from cold, fever and frequent accidents. Baraton writes: “While I don’t know how many men died—the number 8,000 that has been mentioned by some sounds optimistic to me—I know that three hospitals… were built to care for the victims of a project worthy of a pharaoh.”

Beyond the sufferance of those who created Versailles, he invites the reader to revel in shadowy corners of the history of Versailles over the past 400 years whether telling us that the Grand Trianon was built on the site of a cemetery, noting that the last court-ordered public execution in France took place in the town of Versailles in 1939, or speaking of a of tortures, crimes, acts of vengeance and the occasional bloodletting.

Poisoning, Baraton explains, was all the rage during Louis XIV’s reign, “an arm for women that was very fashionable at the time.” As to elixirs of love, he has dug up the recipe of the love potion that Madame de Montespan supposedly managed to sneak into the king’s bloodstream: testicles of wild boar, artichoke, cat urine, fox excrement, toad powder, an eye of viper.

The author playfully lets us know that a bit of the macabre can await us, too, when we visit the great palace. In the name of history and beauty, mercury, despite its known toxicity, was recently used in the Hall of Mirrors to restore and replace those of the famed mirrors that had deteriorated over the centuries. “The level of toxicity is certainly beneath the safety level established by the WHO, but I recommend visitors who are particular about their appearance to not gaze upon themselves too long in the Hall.”

Though haphazard in its telling of the horror stories of Versailles, “Vice et Versailles” is a pleasant and easy trot of a read—in French only—full of anecdotes, ironic asides, juicy tidbits, black humor and broad historical strokes.

Published by Grasset in 2011, “Vice et Versailles” is one of a number of books that Baraton has written about the grounds where he has been employed since 1976 at the age of 19. He is also the author of more cheerful books including “Le Jardinier de Versailles” (Grasset, 2006), “Versailles vu par Alain Baraton” (Hugo et Cie, 2007) and “L’Amour à Versailles” (Grasset, 2009), along with other books on gardening, landscaping and trees. Baraton is especially known to a wide public in France through his weekly gardening show on the radio station France Inter. (Think a French version of “You Bet Your Garden” on NPR.)

During the height of Louis XIV’s reign at Versailles, 7000 people worked in the gardens of Versailles. Nowadays, with 800,000 flowers to plant each year along with general upkeep and various restorations, there are now 48 permanent gardeners for 2100 acres (850 hectares) along with surveillance agents and employees of ten private companies that periodically intervene “without,” Baraton said during a presentation of his book, “the same personal attachment [to Versailles] that the permanent gardeners have.”

In a conversation with the author-gardener it’s clear that he sees a certain amount of horror in the effects of contemporary tourism in Versailles, albeit far less bloody horror. He cites the eyesore of garbage cans now placed everywhere as a consequence of picnickers having so much waste. He also doesn’t like the idea of visitors listening to audio devices rather than to the natural environment. And he’s no fan of the golf carts that visitors can use to visit the garden but in which people don’t even look at what they’re passing but simply use to get from point A to point B. He would rather have us remember that beyond the palace the park of Versailles is a 17th-century creation that ought to be approached in the spirit of that era, meaning with lots of walking, perhaps in the wind or the cold, and with moments of silence so as to listen to the birds.

Though “Vice et Versailles” doesn’t present the technical aspects of his work overseeing the garden and park of Versailles, Baraton, as heir of sorts to André Le Nôtre, the landscape gardener who created Louis XIV’s backyard at Versailles, lets it be known that he has “an account to settle” with his forebear.

ALAIN BARATON, LE JARDINIER DE VERSAILLES… par AJPAT

In the interview video above conducted by Michel Shulman, president of the French Assocation of Heritage Journalists (Association des journalistes du patrimoine), Baraton explains (and I translate):

“Le Notre is a truly competent professional who left us with a unique and remarkable work, except that Le Notre didn’t invent anything—it’s worth bearing in mind—and Le Notre didn’t transmit anything either. When one has the opportunity, as Le Notre did, to be titled, to be near the king, to be wealthy—to keep everything for himself and take to the grave the secrets of his work, it’s not honorable. So I love Le Notre’s creation but I like the man himself a lot less… When one does work such as his it’s one’s duty to perpetuate it… I’m mad at Le Notre and that’s why from time to time I take a perverse pleasure in damaging a little his memory.”

Recognizing his role as a media personality, Baraton concludes that “My own obsession today is to transmit not only my own knowledge but that of my colleagues and to do exactly what he, Le Notre, didn’t have the courage to do.”

For those who read French, “Vice et Versailles” is a enjoyable and bloody introduction to some of that transmission.

Vice et Versailles: Crimes, trahaisons et autres empoisonnements au palais du Roi-Soleil by Alain Barton. 203 pages. Published by Grasset, 2011.

© 2013, Gary Lee Kraut

Other articles, photographs and videos about Versailles on France Revisited include:
Your, Mine and Le Nôtre’s: An American Photographer Examines the Garden of Versailles  (photography)
Jealousy and the Thrones at Versailles  (exhibtion)
The Gardens of Versailles in Winter (photograph/video)
Versailles, an Alternate Approach (advice)
Versailles, Versight, Versails, Versighs, Versize, Versache: How I learned to Forget the Crowds and Appreciate Versailles (3-part article)

The post Vice & Versailles: A Master Gardener Delves Into the Dark Shadows of the Louis XIV’s Palace appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

By Elise Prudhomme

André Le Nôtre designed the Garden of Versailles to display, reflect and serve as the backdrop for the pomp and glory and power of the reign of Louis XIV. As such the garden functioned as a direct extension of the palace itself.

Piqued by Nicolas Fouquet’s audacious success with the Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte which he visited in 1661, Louis XIV enlisted the three men who had contributed to that success—the architect Louis Le Vau, the painter-decorator Charles Le Brun and the landscape gardener André Le Nôtre—to create the palace of all palaces: Versailles.

Over more than 50 years of adult reign, the king would devote much of his time and energy, when France was not at war, to enlarging and embellishing the 800 hectares (1977 acres) of land called the Domain of Versailles which now contains 200,000 trees, 50 fountains and 620 water jets fed by 35 km (21.7 miles) of water pipeline. In a monumental example of man’s attempt to balance order and disorder, culture and nature, spontaneity and reflection, Le Nôtre served the king by creating architecture from nature.

Through his self-incarnation as the Sun King, Louis XIV used metaphor and symbolism as constant echoes and demonstrations of his power. From the king’s ceremonial dressing and rise in the morning (le lever du Roi) to his ceremonial undressing and putting to bed at night (le coucher du Roi), by way of a well-regulated day that included a walk in the garden under the watchful eye of the Court, Louis XIV exposed his lives to the public eye with the aim of concentrating and asserting their power. Integral part of this goal, the Garden of Versailles served the strategic purpose of promoting the king’s power while amusing and containing the masses of Court subjects, twin arms in preventing them from plotting against him.

The garden was an immediate reflection of his public image as the Sun King. An important quantity of statuary representing classical themes was ordered in 1674 by Louis XIV to embellish the parterres, and in the same year the king ordered the addition to the Grand Canal called Little Venice where gondolas and decorative boats were docked to serve the pleasures of the Court. Louis XIV’s strongest ally, Apollo (the Greek Sun-god or God of Light), is represented in fountains and grottos and statuary throughout the garden to allude to the king’s omnipresence.

The mastermind behind this colossal project was André Le Nôtre. The king himself poured over the plans. Careful and strategic planning was required to create a garden that was at once opulent, in phase with the palace, able to reveal and dissimulate through nature so that discovery of the garden became an adventure and a distraction in itself, all the while speaking of the power and glory of Louis XIV.

The foundation of André Le Nôtre’s creation was shear manpower; millions of men, regiments even, were involved in transforming the landscape and diverting water here. Chariots and wheelbarrows containing countless tons of earth were required to transform the prairies and swamp land which originally constituted the Domain of Versailles. Trees were brought to Versailles from all over France to stabilize and maintain this earthly base, transforming flatlands into hilled woodland. Andre Le Nôtre worked with subtlety and mathematical know-how, tried and tested at the Tuileries Gardens and Vaux-le-Vicomte, to create illusions of perspective which evolve as the garden unfolds.

André Le Nôtre’s genius is particularly evident in the walls of the Sun King’s “outdoor palace.” Masses of hedges form bosquets, behind which follies and fountains reveal themselves like little theaters or tableaux vivants. Walking through the gardens, one is struck by the density and size of these thickets and the quantity of trellis work that prevents the untamed forest areas from invading the paths. While providing shade, these geometrically trimmed vegetal walls protect from wind and give shelter to birds and small wildlife. It is interesting to notice today that the areas of the garden that are in the process of being replanted are initially delimited by trellis work, as if the first step in the garden’s construction.

André Le Nôtre did not content himself with the construction of just one wall, however; there are walls within walls. The bosquets are often doubled with a second wall of vegetation, trimmed and adorned with statuary which offers heightened visual complexity and a shady path. The final flourish is a third row of topiary statues, notably along the east-west axis extending from the palace to the Grand Canal and the north-south axis leading to Neptune’s Basin. Nature in this case, serves a decorative rather than functional purpose, heralded by white marble or dark stone statuary providing contrast in texture and color to the pervasive green of the garden.

This is the orderly representation of the Garden of Versailles, where nature is trimmed (they cut the topiary statues using life-size cardboard models for accuracy), trained, maintained. This is also a visually unstructured aspect of André Le Nôtre’s garden architecture which is demonstrated in the King’s Garden: here an aboretum coexists in harmony and color with low topiary hedges and grassy lawns. The trees act like a bosquet, preventing the viewer from seeing out beyond his immediate surroundings, while providing shelter from wind.

The Park of Versailles begins past the Apollo Fountain and beyond the wrought iron gates that delimit the Garden of Versailles. If the Garden of Versailles is Louis XIV’s outdoor palace, the park—which includes forests, fields and the gardens of the Trianon Palaces—can be seen as the garden of the Garden, in that it is just as carefully maintained and planned in its “wooded” form as the former is in its “constructed” form.

Walking past the garden gates one leaves beyond the imposing formality of the Garden of Versailles to visit the Grand and Petit Trianons and their respective gardens and beyond the Petit Trianon to the Queen’s Hamlet, a quaint working farm as desired by Marie-Antoinette. These gardens are exceptionally charming because they are smaller in size and scope as well as being less formal and more romantic, making them a treat for any photographer willing to venture beyond the crowds.

While André Le Nôtre successfully built Louis XIV’s garden to reflect the king’s power and to capture the attention of the masses, I don’t believe that he could have imagined in his wildest dreams that this glorious place would attract some many visitors for many years to come. Yet the garden still manages to conquer in splendor. Now, if only they would replace the golf carts and tourist “trains” with Apollo’s chariots and horses.

Text and images © Elise Prudhomme.

A Philadelphia-born photographer living in Paris since 1990, Elise Prudhomme developed a passion for photography during university years at Smith College. In addition to her own photography, she directs Studio Galerie B&B, an art gallery, photo studio, darkroom facility and digital imaging center in Paris, 6 bis rue des Récollets, near Canal Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement. More images can been seen at www.eliseprudhomme.com.

Also see Elise’s text and images concerning the Tuileries Garden.

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France Revisited joins in the celebration with a series of photo reports by Elise Prudhomme, a longtime resident of Paris, beginning with seven stunning black-and-white images of the Tuileries Garden, Paris’s most historical garden.

It was here, behind the royal palace of the Tuileries, that André Le Nôtre cut his teeth as a landscape gardener. His father and grandfather had worked here before him, he lived within the garden walls, and he is buried nearby in Saint Roch Church.

These Tuileries photographs are accompanied by a text in which the photographer provides background about Le Nôtre and explains her photographic interest in this garden.

Le tien, le mien, Le Nôtre / Yours, Mine, Le Nôtre’s

Photographs and text by Elise Prudhomme

A walk through the Tuileries Garden is a return to the origin of French gardens. Considering its long heritage of transformations by queens, kings, landscape architects and gardeners, the Tuileries cannot be fully attributed to André Le Nôtre (1613-1700). It can nevertheless be viewed as the matrix of André Le Nôtre’s career. By matrix I mean that the Tuileries was his testing grounds and the precursor of his future projects, the womb or mold from which his future work originated and developed.  Without the Tuileries there would be no Versailles.

Le Nôtre was born near these royal gardens in the Saint Roc Quarter. He was baptized and would eventually be buried in the St. Roch Church.  For many years he lived with his family in a house inside the walls of the Tuileries Garden. This garden was a family affair. His grandfather Pierre Le Nôtre was in charge of the parterres for Catherine de Medici, who had built the Tuileries Palace. His father Jean Le Nôtre replanted and maintained the Tuileries for Henri IV. (The Tuileries Palace itself, begun in 1564, burned down in 1871, leaving its garden to appear as though directly connected to the Louvre.)

The Tuileries appears to rest on the pillars of its historical central axis running through the garden and out west to what would become the Champs-Elysées and the geometrical work of the basins, but as a photographer these are not the aspects that most interest me here. My eye is drawn instead to the groundmass that constitutes the garden, actually a series of gardens within the larger garden.

Le Nôtre made innovative and subtle changes to the notion of space, opening what was once a medieval walled garden towards the exterior, creating gardens within gardens (these developed into bosquets at Versailles), changing the form of the parterres (octagonal to trapezoidal) for visual complexity, and constructing the elevated terraces (including the fer à cheval [horseshoe] ramps) which provided the viewer with different heights from which to contemplate the garden.

André Le Nôtre sought to break with the early formalism of French gardens in order to render the space appreciable to visitors. Working with mineral and plant architecture, he created multifaceted gardens that are both majestic and playful. The introduction of great vistas allowed him to play with symmetry and geometry in order to create complexity and diversity that open the garden to various functions, to areas of ornamentation (though there were fewer statues at the time), pleasure and utility (though commercial utility was far from Le Nôtre’s intent).

While crowds of pressed visitors are naturally drawn by the dramatic perspective from the Louvre up the Champs-Elysées, the Tuileries also allows strollers the opportunity to discover smaller gardens within the garden.

Photographing these individual spaces like the pieces of a puzzle, I wished to form a notion of the whole through the assimilation of individual details. Working spontaneously, I visited the garden frequently and photographed a variety of subjects. The choice to work in black and white was made to better reveal the geometry and rhythm that nature and humans have brought to these places.

Text and images © Elise Prudhomme.

A Philadelphia-born photographer living in Paris since 1990, Elise Prudhomme developed a passion for photography during university years at Smith College.  She also directs Studio Galerie B&B, an art gallery, photo studio, darkroom facility and digital imaging center in Paris, 6 bis rue des Récollets, near Canal Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement. More images can been seen at www.eliseprudhomme.com.

Thirty photographs from Elise Prudhomme’s Tuileries series Le tien, le mien, Le Nôtre (Yours, Mine, Le Nôtre’s) were accepted by the Louvre to grace the walls of their reception tent in the Tuileries Garden during the 2013 Jardins Jardin festival.

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Indeed it is… Lost, but easily found from Paris on a daytrip or better yet an overnight into the Chevreuse Valley.

The town of Chevreuse serves as capital of the Regional Natural Park of the Upper Chevreuse Valley (Haute Vallée de Chevreuse), which encompasses a portion of the valley of the narrow Yvette River.

Regional Natural Park status doesn’t mean that the valley is all forest and wilderness; it’s rather a designation that protects the zone’s landscape, agriculture and woodlands and that controls the development of its towns and villages, all the while allowing its castles to stand out as they have for hundreds of years.

The park’s main tourist office is in the medieval fortress Chateau de la Madeleine that overlooks Chevreuse, a pleasant valley town of 6000 twelve miles southeast of Versailles, 25 miles southeast of Paris. The suburban train line RER B extends south from Paris to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, 1½ miles from Chevreuse. (See “Logistics” below)

Despite Chevreuse’s attraction for a pleasant stroll, lunching options, and a hike up to the castle, the town isn’t excursion-worthy by itself. But Chateau de Breteuil, several miles away, is.

That may be a standard and easy refrain of the heirs of historical properties open to the public, a post-19th-century form of noblesse oblige. Yet Mr. de Breteuil, born in 1943, has indeed devoted his much of his adult life to safeguarding and sharing the honor and, where possible, the glory of his home. Mr. de Breteuil not only talks the talk but also walks the walk, it seemed to me as he showed me around his chateau one afternoon after lunching together in Chevreuse.

“Call me Henri,” he said, when we first met.

Inside the chateau, visitors encounter assorted ancestors (government ministers, ambassadors, bishops, etc.) and prestigious acquaintances (Louis XVIII, Proust) of the Breteuil family in the form wax figures representing scenes in the life of the chateau or of the family.

As fascinating as it is to an American to learn of a 400-year family connection with a historical property, the most telling aspects of Mr. de Breteuil’s ownership/ trusteeship/ stewardship come from his own lifetime, in particular the difference between his own ties to Breteuil and his late father’s desire to flee such ties.

Mr. de Breteuil’s father saw the ancestral home as a ball and chain prohibiting him from living out his dreams, for not only was he the heir to the Breteuil name but also heir to the New World since his mother was American.

After his mother’s death (his father had died previously), the elder Breteuil went to the United States to settle her estate and decided to settle there himself along with his wife and young Henri. (I call him Henri here only to avoid the confusion with his father but otherwise he’s still Monsieur de Breteuil to me.) But his wife preferred to stay in France, where she directed a theater and where, according to Henri, she envisioned their son’s future. The couple divorced and Henri’s father soon remarried an American, as Henri’s grandfather father had, but this time with the intent of staying in the United States, where he had a second child, Henri’s half-sister. His father wished to sell the chateau, but Henri, in his 20s, decided to take on the full responsibility of restoring and maintaining the ancestral home, joined soon in his devotion but his wife Séverine. Take it if you’re that attached to it, his father more or less said.

(As a youth, Henri spent summers in the United States visiting his father and, rest assured, is quite fond of Americans.)

Together Henri and Séverine restored, renovated and reinvented Chateau de Breteuil to open it and its grounds to the public as we see it today. Séverine de Breteuil passed away in 2009.

The current chateau was built largely in the early 1600s, replacing the ruins of a fortified castle. Of the medieval fortified castle only the dovecote (colombier), with its 3200 pigeon niches, remains, dating from the end of the 15th century. It now houses an exhibit “Breteuil à Table,” with 3D reconstitutions of renowned paintings of mealtime scenes from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

The chateau itself, built of brick and stone, was then called the Chateau de Bévillers. It took on the Breteuil name when inherited by Claude-Charles le Tonnelier de Breteuil in 1712. Successive partitioning of the property in the 20th century and finally, in 1967, between Henri and his half-sister, have amputated the Breteuil domain of much of its original land, yet the heart of historic Breteuil—the chateau, surrounding buildings and landscaped park—remain as part of the 185 acre estate.

Breteuil, like other private homes open to the public, offers a glimpse into the interplay of historical nobility and contemporary tourism. And if you’re fortunate enough to encounter Henri-Francois de Breteuil along the way—not an unusual occurrence—you will also gain insights into the personal and particularly French sense of heritage and transmission.

Chateau de Dampierre

Dampierre is another private chateau in the Chevreuse Valley, just a few miles from Breteuil. Designed by Jules Hardouin Mansart in the 1680s for the Duc de Chevreuse it is more imposing than Breteuil, as is to be expected from the architect who left major markers of French architecture during reign of Louis XIV, including the Hall of Mirrors and the Grand Trianon among other additions at Versailles, Place Vendome, Place des Victoires, and the dome of the Invalides in Paris. However, it has less the personal, emotive stamp of its owner than Breteuil. Dampierre is open from April to September for guided tours only but makes for a photogenic drive-by at anytime.

Abbey of Vaux de Cernay

For an overnight consistent with the historical and natural theme of a visit to the Chevreuse Valley, look about four miles southeast of Breteuil and Dampierre to the Abbey of Vaux de Cernay.

The hotel is built around the ruins of the abbey, which was founded in the early 12th century by monks from Savigny who then aligned themselves with Cistercian rules. The abbey’s main structures were built as the institution grew from the 12th through 14th centuries. Pillaged during the Revolution, its ruins were later protected and the full domain reconstituted under the ownership of the Baron Rothchild family beginning in 1873.

It is now owned by Les Hotels Particuliers, a hotel group (part of the Savry Group) that transforms formerly more or less abandoned private properties of historical value into hotel complexes. The group currently has fourteen such properties in France, mostly in locations that are, at least for the time being, little known to American visitors.

Remaining usable portions of the abbey have been integrated into the public spaces of the hotel while the roofless, windowless walls of the abbey church testify to both its enormity and the 800 years of history that have passed this way. The public spaces draw inspiration or actual architecture from the Gothic period. The bedrooms of this superior 3-star establishment range from the comfortably monastic (125€) to the expansive apartment (655€). They are decorated without extravagance but in the spirit of restful tradition. The restaurant beneath the Gothic arches serves traditional French cuisine.

If visiting the area by car, Vaux de Cernay, which lies between the chateaux of Breteuil and Rambouillet, is worthy of a coffee/teatime stop even if not spending the night.

Rambouillet

Rambouillet is located just outside of the Regional Natural Park of the Upper Chevreuse Valey, but its close enough (seven miles from Cernay, ten miles from Chevreuse) and green enough to be associated with the above explorations.

The Chateau de Rambouillet has the status of a Presidential Estate, though it’s rarely been used by recent French presidents other than for the occasional meeting with heads of state or international conferences. It is otherwise open to the public on guided tours and is the point of departure for hikes and biking into the Forest of Rambouillet.

At its heart Rambouillet is a fortified castle built in the late 14th century though it has been repeatedly modernized over the centuries. King Louis XVI purchased it in 1783 to take advantage of the hunting grounds of the nearby forest. Though the king was tone-deaf to the troubles that would soon be brewing in his kingdom, he was up to date on the science of selective breeding of farm animals. Under him, Swiss cows, Spanish and African sheep and angora goats grazed here. Napoleon, who also enjoyed Rambouillet, added horses and buffalos to the farm. The National Sheepfold (Bergerie nationale) of Rambouillet still exists.

Louis XVI also had a dairy built for Marie-Antoinette’s pleasure, as with the Queen’s Hamlet at Versalles, and Rambouillet’s Queen’s Dairy, without the cows, can also be visited. Visits of the interior of the castle, the Queen’s Dairy and an exquisite thatched cottage can be visited by guided tour only, departing almost hourly. Closed Tuesday.

Green travels continue in the 50,000 acres of Forest of Rambouillet that spread out beyond the castle’s park. Information on hiking and biking routes on the forest are available at the tourist office near the castle.

Ferme de Coubertin

Exploring the Chevreuse Valley and the Forest of Rambouillet is green enough to make a visitor want to find some fresh goat or cow cheese to make a picnic. And that’s possible at the Ferme de Coubertin, a farm with 60 milk cows and 25 goats along with rabbits and pigs, just a half-mile from the Saint Remy les Chevreuse RER train station, where this report started.

Along with purchasing fresh dairy products, you can visit the farm and watch the cows and goats being milked in late afternoon.

With proper timing you can stop at Coubertin Farm to pick up a dairy picnic before setting out to visit the valley or visit the cows and purchase some cheese before taking the train back to Paris, as I did.

Logistics for visiting the Chevreuse Valley and Rambouillet

Weekending Francilians, as inhabitants of the Paris region (Ile-de-France) are called, are likely to have a car when visiting the Chevreuse Valley and so are able to visit the various sights mentioned in this article without much logistical consideration. If you’ve got wheels, use them.

Using public transportation and taxis requires more forethought but is possible as well as adventuresome.

The easiest way to reach the area by public transportation is to take the RER suburban train line B to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, then setting off by taxi or by bus (Sundays only April-Oct.). RER B runs north-south through Paris (Gare du Nord, Chatelet, Saint-Michel, Luxembourg, etc.), with one of its branches (verify that you’re on the right one) reaching Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse in 50-55 minutes.

The town of Chevreuse is 1.5 miles from the Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse RER station, so that might be your first stop. There’s regular bus service between Saint-Rémy (from the station) and Chevreuse and less regular to Choisel (then a walk to Breteuil), Dampierre, Cernay and Rambouillet. You can always get somewhere by bus, if not everywhere, and in any case close enough on a nice day to finish on foot (excluding Rambouillet). A sweet smile in the parking lot at Breteuil might also get you a ride to your next destination.

If sans bus (and sans smile) you might take a taxi directly to the Chateau de Breteuil from Saint-Rémy, 3 miles away. Vaux de Cernay Abbey is a few miles beyond it in one direction, Dampierre a few miles in another.

On Sundays and public holidays from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, a bus service called Baladobus makes the rounds several times per day from the Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse RER station to the Chateau de Breteuil, 20 minutes away, as well as to Chevreuse, Vaux de Cernay, Dampierre. With careful planning by bus (inquire at tourist office for schedule) it’s possible to hit several of the highlights of the immediate area on a leisurely day or a Saturday-Sunday or Sunday-Monday overnight.

An alternative approach without a car is to begin at Rambouillet, reached in a little over an hour by train from Paris leaving from the Montparnasse station. Rambouillet makes for a daytrip on its own.

A 36-hour adventure from Paris can involve arriving at Rambouillet and departing from Saint-Remy-lés-Chevreuse (or vice versa) and visiting the sights in between according to your touring interests.

Official information websites and details

Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse. There’s a tourist information office across from the RER train station, open Wed., Sat., Sun. and holidays.

Regional Natural Park of the Upper Chevreuse Valley 

Chateau de Breteuil, Choisel, 78460 Chevreuse. Tel. 01 30 52 05 02. Guided tours set out at 2:30pm daily, with an additional tour at 11:30am Sunday and holidays. Can be visited without a guided tour. A creperie stand is open early April to late October. Picnics are welcome at any time.

Chateau de Rambouillet 

Forest of Rambouillet 

 Abbey of Les Vaux de Cernay (hotel), 78720 Cernay la Ville. Tel. 01 34 85 23 00.

The Coubertin Farm, Ferme de Coubertin 

Yvelines Tourist Information.  The sights mentioned in this article are all found in the department of Yvelines, which also includes Versailles, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Maisons-Laffitte, and other towns east and southeast of Paris.

© 2012, Gary Lee Kraut

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* * *

Isabelle and Catherine Orliac, two sisters in Aquitaine, are heirs to a property in southwest France that supplied wine to Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and the Court of France in the 1780s. The Orliac domain lies in the little-known Côtes du Brulhois, 100 miles southeast of Bordeaux, 60 miles northwest of Toulouse.

The date 1780 appears on the label of Royal Heritage, the Orliac sisters’ deep red wine, because it was on Jule 11, 1780, that Louis XVI signed a letter at Versailles inviting the sisters’ ancestor Jean Orliac to provide the Court of France with his wines.

Based on the original recipes, the sisters now produce three wines—Royal Heritage and two flavored wines called Secret de Famille (Family Secret). These are luxury products, available in only a few restaurants and select shops as well as though a form of direct sale in which buyers “sponsor” a vine.

I met Isabelle for two friendly lunches in restaurants where Orliac wines appear on the wine list: Le Bistrot du Sommelier in Paris and La Veranda (Trianon Palace) in Versailles. The two restaurants are described in the second half of this article.

Royal Heritage is made, as it was 230 years ago, from a blend of four grapes: tannat, cabernet franc, merlot, and abouriou. The Orliac sisters produced their first modern vintage in 2005, which is the vintage I tried. It is hefty, full-bodied, dark fruity, mildly spicy wine. Isabelle recommended serving it with lamb, which I did one evening with friends at home, with much success.

For 140€ or 168€ ($190/225), depending on the vintage (2005-2009 are currently available), one “sponsors” a vine on their 10-hectare (25-acre) domain. Eighteen months later, a bottle of wine from the domain awaits you with its wax-sealed cork and its handsome black box. You can have the bottle sent to you (at additional cost) or you can drive over to the Orliac family’s Chateau la Bastide to pick up your bottle.

Royal Heritage is indeed pricey for a Côtes du Brulhois, albeit a big Côtes du Brulhois. This is a confidential wine whose price reflects a combination of quality, limited production, and the added value of marketing a so-called historical product.

I leave it to readers to decide on the added value of royal history on the price of this wine. However, I note a supplemental value for those able to take advantage of it: the possibility of one day visiting your vine and meeting the wine-growers in this rustically beautiful and little-known area of France. Sponsor six bottles and you’ll likely be invited for lunch at their domain.

That’s a delightful and informative supplemental value indeed, to judge by my lunches with Isabelle in Paris and Versailles, where I got a taste of the Orliacs’ other two wines: one red, one pink, both called Secret de Famille.

The Secret de Famille (Family Secret) wines, which the sisters began producing in 2007, largely follow Jean Orliac original recipes for flavored wines, with modifications to properly stabilize them. Isabelle says that she and her sister are also in possession of other recipes, but those can no longer be marketed, at least not as wine, since they call for the inclusion of various of herbs and flowers that would now classify them as drugs.

The pink Secret de Famille is a white wine at heart that has been blended with essence of rose and of ginger. One would naturally refer to its color as rosé in wine terms, but I can’t help but think of it as pink. Distinctly but not overpoweringly rose flavored, it has a zesty peppery taste. It’s a lively, entertaining flavored wine as Marie-Antoinette would have enjoyed. Indeed, it was produced by Jean Orliac and ordered for the Court precisely because it could satisfy the queen’s taste for all things rose (and pink). More floral than sweet, it can be served as an aperitif, though I’d favor it as a dessert wine.

The red Secret de Famille in which the red wine has been macerated with berries, currants and spices, has a dark fruity, slightly peppery taste. On a whim it could be served with meat that has a fruit-based sauce, but I’d recommend saving it, like the other, for dessert, when one is ready to sit back and delve deeper into personal and wine history while sharing one Secret or the other.

The Secrets cost 40 euros (about $55) each through the Orliacs’ website. They’re also available in the museum shops at Versailles, as is appropriate for a product that Marie-Antoinette enjoyed.

– For information about all three wines see Royal Heritage, 2 Soeurs en Aquitaine (2 Sister in Aquitaine), Chateau la Bastide, 47270 Clermont Soubiran. Tel. 05 53 87 41 02. Complete information on vine sponsorship, bottle and shipping costs are available on at www.royal-heritage.eu once you’ve requested and obtained the proper access code on the site.

Le Bistrot du Sommelier
97 boulevard Haussmann, 8th arr., Paris.

Philippe Faure-Brac opened his Bistrot du Sommelier in 1984 at the age of 24, so the bistro’s longevity alone in this tony business/residential neighborhood is laudable. Of course it helped when, in 1992, he made the leap to superstardom among wine connoisseurs by winning the title World’s Best Sommelier in 1992. Other honors have followed (Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole 1995, Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite 2005, Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence 2007) as have books on wine and on wine and food pairing.

This is a place to enjoy hearty, flavorful fare that’s traditionally French and well-constructed without being passé or over-wrought. A gentleman farmer—or in the case of my lunch with Isabelle, an gentlewoman winegrower—might come to feel urban but not too removed from the country… and to enjoy top-flight wine wisdom and wine talk.

Isabelle Orliac is rightfully proud to have her wine on Mr. Faure Brac’s extensive list.

– Bistrot du Sommelier, 97 boulevard Haussmann, 8th arr. Tel. 01 42 65 24 85. Metro Saint-Augustin. Open Mon.-Fri. noon-2:30 p.m. and 7:30-10:30 p.m.

La Veranda at the Trianon Palace
1 boulevard de la Reine, Versailles

Internationally renowned English chef Gordon Ramsay gets top billing at the Hotel Trianon Palace at Versailles since his name brands the gastronomic restaurant here. But Italian chef Simone Zanoni is the one who makes it happen—“it” being the high gastronomy served at the Gordon Ramsay and the polished contemporary cuisine served at the hotel’s second restaurant La Veranda.

La Veranda is a spacious, elegant setting whose décor is unobtrusive enough to allow the main focus of the room to be the wall of windows giving out to a sublime view out to the pastures of the Domain of Versailles, where the troop of sheep may be grazing nearby. Or ignore the windows altogether and request, in fine weather, a seat out on the veranda.

This restaurant is recommendable for a well-polished lunch for those taking the leisurely and luxuriant approach to visiting the town and palace of Versailles for the day or longer. We were certainly in no rush.

– La Veranda at the Trianon Palace, 1 boulevard de la Reine, 78000 Versailles. Tel. 01 30 84 50 18. Reservations typically not necessary on weekdays but recommended for Saturday lunch and more so for Sunday brunch. In any case, it’s worth calling ahead and requesting a window or veranda table. Moderate-expensive. See website for menu.

– The Trainon Palace is a part of the Waldorf Astoria Collection of hotels, Hilton’s luxury line. Though the personality of the rooms and suites is rather subdued, they are handsome and spacious and certainly attractive for business and meeting travelers. Thanks to the hotel’s situation, restaurants and Guerlain spa (with indoor pool), the Trianon Palace is also a setting from which to explore the overall luxuriance of Versailles, both the town, the palace, and the park which begins just outside, so it can certainly lend itself to a romantic getaway from Paris.

© Gary Lee Kraut

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– Château de Versailles is a palace;
– Château Petrus is a vineyard estate;
– a château guest-house or hotel would likely be a large country manor;
– les châteaux de la Loire are mostly Renaissance castles that are best referred to as chateaux (without the hat of a circumflex over the a);
– a château d’eau is a water tower;
– a château de cartes is a house of cards;
– la vie de château is the life of luxury;
– Château de Vincennes is a medieval fortified castle, which is what I’m most likely to think of as castle in France.

I’ve been thinking about the definition of a chateau for two reasons:

1. While writing recently about an exhibition at the Château de Versailles I nearly came to blows with a Frenchman who insisted that I should refer to it as a castle rather than a palace since he remembered being taught in 6th grade that a chateau is a castle.

2. I recently received a copy of a book published by the Center for National Monuments about the Castle of Vincennes naturally entitled Le château de Vincennes.

There are certainly more dramatically situated fortified castles in France than the Chateau de Vincennes, particularly those darker-stone creatures perched on cliffs and hills in southwest France with imposing towers, crenellations, merlons, machicolations, a drawbridge and a moat. But Vincennes is the only fortified castle in the flat region surrounding Paris and it’s easy to get to—just 20 minutes on the metro from the center of the city and you arrive at the drawbridge.

Having spent some time looking west from Paris to the palace of Versailles, I therefore turned my attention east of Paris to the castle of Vincennes. (Not just for historical and architectural reasons, I must say, but also for sporting reasons, since I sometimes play tennis at the courts near the castle or go biking in the woods nearby.)

Le château de Vincennes, the book, is available only in French but it’s heavily and handsomely illustrated so it can serve as an excellent guide or photo album even for someone who might struggle to understand the text. That text, written by Elizabeth Mismes, concisely explains the importance of the castle through the Middle Ages.

In fact, this was one of the most important of royal abodes until Louis XIV moved the Court of France to his new palace at Versailles—after having first ordered the architect Le Vau to built the King’s and Queen’s Pavilions at Vincennes, after which the castle complex was more or less royally abandoned. In her book, Elizabeth Mismes calls this “a kind of treason.”

A brief article about the Castle of Vincennes, particularly it’s royal chapel, can be found on France Revisited here.

Le château de Vincennes, the book, is available, among other places, at the bookstore in the headquarters of the Center for National Monuments located in the Sully Mansion (Hôtel de Sully), 62 rue Saint-Antoine, 4th arrondissement, in the Marais district of Paris.

Le Chateau de Vincennes, the castle, is an easy 20-minute metro ride from the center of Paris. Take the metro to the end of the Château de Vincennes line (line 1), step outside, and cross the drawbridge over the moat.

Endnote: The French equivalent of the expression “A man’s home is his castle” is the proverb “Chabonnier est maître chez soi,” literally meaning that the coalman is master in his own home.

The post A Man’s Home May Not Be His Chateau: From Versailles to Vincennes appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

You see, Henri’s dreams are filled with gold thread, plush red velour and the seats of power. The décor in the royal apartments at Versailles may be too gaudy even for Henri’s taste, yet the scent of royalty and of noble etiquette is the finest of perfumes to his French nostrils.

So the thought that I, an American who owned a GI Joe doll when he was 4, would be invited to the throne exhibition before it opened to the public was as vexing to Henri as a French chef telling a Texan how to barbecue ribs.

“Speaking of saddles,” I said when he ask if I’d seen “True Grit,” “you really should see the exhibition ‘Thrones in Majesty’ at Versailles. I called to see if you wanted to meet the curator with me for a private tour but the line was busy so I figured you were still trying to deal with that little problem of yours.”

The latter was a lie, and I don’t know what little problem he might have been having, but it was enough to bring out hives on his neck. That’s the entire difference between college French and actual Parisian: the former teaches you how to engage in conversation, the latter teaches you how to put someone down.

“I saw ‘Black Swan,’ he said. “Good acting but I didn’t care for much for the story.”

“Yes, well it’s too bad that you weren’t available to go with me to see the thrones. I had the Hall of Mirrors to myself.”

“The exhibition will be there until June 19,” I continued, “but if I were you I’d try to get there by Easter. After that the crowds will make it difficult to see the thrones. After those recent exhibitions relative to the chateau’s decorative splendor or kitsch, the display of the thrones gives an eerie sense of the emptiness of a power once it’s gone.”

“I don’t need a lesson in French history from an American.”

“Not just French, Henri, there are other thrones as well: Chinese, Papal, Polish, African, Incan.”

“I know,” he said, “I’ve seen the catalogue.”

“Yes, I’m sure the catalogue is beautiful. Some people are content with that. Personally I prefer the real thing—but that’s just me. And you’d love to see the throne of the Russian Emperor Paul I. Aren’t you the one with that quaint little collection of copies of Russian imperial Champagne glasses?”

“Yes, you would have those glasses on Saturday if I’d invited you to my dinner party, but it was just for a few close friends.”

Parisians hate when you out-French them.

“You have close friends now?” I said. “How nice for you. Anyway, you really should see the thrones, if not by Easter then at least by May, especially to get an uncrowded view of Napoleon’s throne in front of David’s painting of the Coronation of Napoleon.”

“As a matter of fact,” he said, “I’m planning on going to exhibition right after I return from my weekend with friends who have a chateau in Burgundy. You wouldn’t know them.”

“But you wouldn’t want to go right after the weekend, Henri—the chateau of Versailles is closed on Monday. The gardens remain open through.”

“Yes, I’ve been there many times.”

“Perhaps, but not like this…”

Thrones in Majesty, Chateau de Versailles, March 1-June 19, 2011. Open 9am-5:30pm until March 31, 9am-6:30pm beginning April 1. Entrance: 15€ (chateau+exhibition), including audioguide. To get to Versailles from Paris take RER C to Versailles-Rive Gauche (last stop). The chateau is 10-minute walk from the station.

© 2011, Gary Lee Kraut

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It was a Monday, the day the palace is closed to the public, so relatively few people visit the gardens that day, even though they remain open. Even fewer visit on a cold misty Monday in February.

The alleys were empty. The fountains were silent. There trees were reflected in the still algal water in the basins.

That and more can be seen in the audio slide-show below.

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