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Vaux-le-Vicomte - springboard to Versailles
The poignant story of a crook who pushed his luck
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It is to the unscrupulousness, naïveté and superb taste of Nicolas Fouquet, the Sun King's first finance minister, that we owe the flowering of France's classic culture. When Fouquet gave an extravagant fête to honor Louis XIV (in 1661), the latter accused him of corruption, imprisoned him for life...
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and took over the bouquet of artists who had created, as setting for the fête, a château and grounds of a new kind.
That was the springboard for the epoch's great art, of which Versailles is the ultimate expression.
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- Today most interesting aspect may not be the château's interior...
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 - Water, a immense luxury: in Paris, ordinary people disposed of a single liter a day.
...but the sublime first expression of the landscaping we associate with France. Most striking innovation: the spectacular use of water from a nearby river. The astonished king grasped how to dramatize a château...
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• Full day, with our specialist, professor of architecture and landscaping history. Morning: Vaux, afternoon: Courances.
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• End of the afternoon stroll, after our countryside exploration
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Vaux / Gilbert Cordier
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