Vaux-le-Vicomte was built in the mid-1600s by Nicolas Fouquet, chief financier to Louis XIV. Legend has it that when the project was completed, Fouquet hosted a great party to which the king was invited. The king, having calmly taken in the supremely coordinated gardens and chateau, realized the extent of his financier's wealth and the degree to which Fouquet had surpassed the king in his own magnificence; the next day, Fouquet was arrested---while Louis XIV took on Vaux-le-Vicomte's architect Louis Le Vau, painter Charles Le Brun, and gardener André Le Notre to create Versailles.
The legend actually exaggerates certain events and motivations, but this chateau and garden certainly represent an important milestone in the history of French architecture that Louis XIV himself recognized.
The chateau is centred on the double-height oval salon (of which I didn't manage to get very good photos). The salon's ceiling would have had a fresco glorifying Fouquet's master the king, while the room itself projects out into the garden. The gardens are, of course, vast, with a very interesting use of level changes and surprise: A broad canal perpendicular to the main axis of the gardens only appears as one approaches, the grotto on the other side revealed to be farther away than it seemed from the salon. Huge bodies of water reflect the sky and, from certain perspectives, the architecture of the chateau.
It is as though these gardens are meant to question the visitor's sense of reality, while the chateau's stable presence reinforces the royal authority that is celebrated in the salon below the distinctive dome.
(The photos are from last September.)
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