This is awesome, another reason to visit my belle France, in all its splendeurs! A must to visit indeed. Another wonderful memory of my dear late wife Martine, and I traveling in her native department the beauty is amazing here and so close to Paris. We came here the second year after marriage in 1992 and have been coming here regularly in our visits from the USA, and then while living in France. This is a wonderful story and a beautiful castle still in private hands ! Do see my other posts on the castle in my blog, as this will be short ans sassy with new pictures. Hope you enjoy again the sublime Château Vaux le Vicomte as I.
The Château Vaux le Vicomte have written plenty on it in my blog but this is new text and pictures from my visit this week, so sorry if repeat myself on the text, As a reminder, the castle is in the village of Maincy, Seine et Marne dept 77 of the Île de France region of my belle France! I like to tell you a bit more on the beautiful garden on this post.
The gardens have a maximum length (from the gate of honor to the Hercules) of 1,500 meters, and an average width of 200 to 250 meters, The park has a total area of 500 ha and is enclosed by a perimeter wall of 13 km, To draw them, its designer, Le Nôtre, used optical effects and the laws of perspective; the red of the embroideries and the parterres is made of crushed brick. The arrival at the castle is made by a bilateral alignment of 257 plane trees. The two lines of trees are very close to the roadway since they are only six meters apart. Together with the thick boles of the trees, this causes an impressive tunneling effect; this is a 1,400 meter long alignment, The garden consists of three parts: the first includes a courtyard and a forecourt; the second leaves from the castle and stops at the small canals; and the third part consists of what is located beyond the small channels.
The crown parterre, on the left, has a golden royal crown located in the center of a basin, in homage to the king, whose ground floor bedroom is also located in the left part of the park. These two parterres are asymmetrical with respect to the central axis of the garden. The castle is reflected in the square basin, located 500 meters from it. It is for the grand canal that Le Nôtre does the most work , View from the castle the cave seems to be located just after the grand basin, but between them is the grand canal, 875 meters long and 35 wide. The cave ,located beyond the Grand Canal, is due to Le Nôtre and Le Brun who designed the sculptures. Caves have been popular since the Renaissance, when ancient villas were discovered buried in the ground, giving rise to the word grotesque for their painted or carved walls, which became a decorative motif. Facing the cave are the waterfalls, invisible from the castle. This type of architecture, recent in France and dates from the first half of the 17C. The cave is largely made of rough stone. The river statues on the sides represent the Tiber and L’Anqueil. It is framed by stairs, ramps and terraces. At the foot of the stairs are four sculptures dating from the 19C, which were planned at the time of Nicolas Fouquet.
In 1891, Alfred Sommier (then owner of the castle) had a large-format gilt bronze reproduction of the famous Farnese Hercules installed above the basin of the Gerbe, which constitutes the final point of view of the long axial perspective. This sculpture is the second largest gilded statue in France, after the statue of the Madonna and Child in the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde basilica, in Marseille
The official Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte:https://vaux-le-vicomte.com/en/
The town of Maincy on the castle: https://www.maincy.fr/patrimoine/
The Seine et Marne dept 77 tourist office on the castle: https://www.seineetmarnevivreengrand.fr/explorer/676128/
The Île de France region tourist board on the castle :https://www.visitparisregion.com/en/chateau-de-vaux-le-vicomte
There you go folks, another dandy road warrior trip this time only with my 3 young men and dog Rex , less but nevertheless, a wonderfully trip down memory lane in Seine et Marne, dept 77. The Château Vaux le Vicomte have written plenty on it in my blog but , never enough on this marvel of our belle France ; of course I am friend of the castle since 2004 and have come more times that I write about it as many in our official visits pictures are not allowed, You must come here to the Château de Vaux le Vicomte and enjoy the wonders of my Seine et Marne, The gardens are just gorgeous and merit philosophical time on them forever,,,Again, hope you enjoy the post on the Château Vaux Le Vicomte as I
And remember, happy travels, good health , and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 
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