Vaux le Vicomte

On Sunday we took my aunt and uncle to visit Vaux le Vicomte.  I had never been there before, and I was pleasantly surprised.  The chateau was nice but the gardens were beautiful.  It was also much nicer to visit than Versailles since there were far less tourists and you didn't have to shove your way through every room of the chateau.  Also, it's 55 km south of  Paris, and it only took us about 45 minutes to drive there, so it was very convenient.

the gardens

the chateau and the crown fountain

Vaux le Vicomte

Lionel and I at the chateau

Inside the chateau you could visit some period rooms with antique furniture and such and there was also an exhibition on Nicolas Fouquet (the vicomte de Melun and Vaux who built Vaux le Vicomte and who was famously arrested by the musketeers under the orders of Louis XIV who was suspicious of Fouquet's ambition) as well as an exhibition on André le Nôtre (the famous landscape designer who designed some of the most famous gardens in France - Versailles, Chantilly, Fontainebleau, Vaux le Vicomte, etc).  Everything was very interesting, though the exhibit on Fouquet was a bit corny, and after visiting the interieur we spent some time wandering around the gardens, enjoying the fact that it wasn't raining.