Vicomte Palace Part 2 - A fascinating story of heroes and villains

The story behind the Vicomte Palace could be seen as a story of dishonour and lack of judgment, then a courageous battle for justice against a powerful king who wanted revenge at all costs, then heroism in WW1 and finally, dedication to the history and art of France. 

It all began when in 1656 Nicolas Fouquet, general prosecutor of the parliament of Paris and superintendent of finances, bought a huge amount of land and started building the Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, the correct formal name of the palace.

Nicolas was by all accounts a very passionate and creative man, and his palace was simply beautiful. The best known architect, the best known painter and decorator, and the best known landscape gardener of the time were appointed to fulfill his dream. The genius of these men created a model palace and garden that inspired the whole of Europe for over a century.  

At the time, Nicolas was favourite of King Louis XIV and of Paris society, especially the ladies! Nicolas even hosted a very lavish soiree at the palace to honour the king. He had built a superb, majestic room especially for the king, and even an ornate gaming room. 

But the dream came tumbling down when it was realised where much of the vast amount of money had come from. Nicolas had not differentiated between money belonging to him, and money belonging to the king and parliament. He was the last person who should have been appointed superintendent of finances! The king, who had been quite jealous of him anyhow, was furious! 

The captain of the king’s guard, d’Artagnan (of Three Musketeers fame) arrested Nicolas on September 5, 1665. (No wonder the Three Musketeers feature in the palace shop!) 

The king wanted Nicolas executed for his betrayal of trust, and placed great pressure on the judges to pass the death sentence. (This of course is one of the kings who milked all the citizens for everything he could, even if it meant they were starving.) But one judge on the bench for that trial held out and said that justice must be independent of the king’s wishes. Enough other judges agreed with him to pass judgement that Nicolas should be banished from France, not executed. The king was unbelievably angry and overturned their sentence and changed it to life imprisonment. Some 15 years later, in 1680, Nicolas died in the fortress of Pignerol. 

Over the next two centuries, the castle was owned by three successive families, but in 1875, it was up for sale as an abandoned estate. Fortunately it was purchased by Alfred Sommier, a great French sugar magnate, who undertook a large scale restoration that was faithful to the original design, to preserve it as a palace for the Arts. The palace is now owned and managed by his descendants, the three brothers of the Vogue family, whom I mentioned in my last post.

But that is not all. During WW1 the family converted an outbuilding of the palace into a hospital for the wounded. Whilst the Sommier family member who managed the palace at the time went off to serve France in the war, very bravely as his military cross bears testimony, his wife was actively involved in nursing the patients. 

When you walk around the palace, it is clear that war heroes and mythical heroes were very much celebrated by Nicolas through the frescoes, paintings and sculptures. To me the most outstanding heroes of the story of the palace, however, are the Sommier family members and their descendants who have acted as custodians of the palace since 1875. They not only served France during WW1 and tended the war wounded, but also carefully preserved the history and art of France, out of their dedication and at their own expense. It is their life’s great work which they still are undertaking.

This is the largest private estate in France that is listed as a 'Historic Monument of France'. If you have an opportunity to see it, grab it! It is only about an hour out of Paris. In my view, I would rather see that than the almost obscene opulence of the Palace of Versailles. And you do not have to battle huge crowds. 

The following photos focus on the heroes Nicolas celebrated, and the wartime history of the palace.They are in order of when I saw them. I will write a third post showing some of the magnificent rooms in the palace. 

A painting of a wounded soldier from a past battle.

Some of the medical team at the palace hospital.

The wife of the Sommier family member away at war, who served as a nurse at the palace hospital. 

One of the displays depicting what the palace hospital was like. 

The Cross de Guerre awarded to the Sommier family member who served in WW1.

The following photos show different mythical and war heroes celebrated through art in the palace. The first portrays the ascent into heaven of one mythical hero. One portrays King Louis XIV, who was not a hero at all, in my opinion. But perhaps Nicolas wanted to impress him, putting his portrait next to those of heroes. The last two are sculptures of two of the several leaders of ancient Rome portrayed in a special room. Nicolas clearly admired them.  

This was a portrait of Louis XIV in leather.

Mark Antony

Caesar

Vicomte Palace Part 1 - The palace and gardens

It was with a touch of sadness that I woke up for the last day of touring for our Seine river cruise. I would miss chatting with the friends I made, and that lovely serene feeling of gliding along a scenic river. We were now back in Paris, having arrived there during the night, though again where we were berthed was not a particularly attractive place. In fact a lot of construction work was being done along the bank there, with the usual noise and inconvenience of trucks delivering concrete etc. We had to pick our way past that to reach our coaches. 

This day I chose to visit Vicomte Palace, which had its own unique history and charm, and vast beautiful gardens. This palace is now owned by three brothers, two of whom are twins, who are restoring it bit by bit. Unlike the managers of Chantilly castle, which is now owned by the State, they are very enterprising and have set up many programs and opportunities for visitors to support their work. As well they have a cafe/bistro that was doing quite a roaring trade, as was their shop, which sold many unique items for children and adults. Those for children included kits to build model castles and models of the ‘Three Musketeers’ and their horses as well as of the evil cardinal, a lot of children's books with tales of knights and other heroes, costumes, and so on - everything a child might imagine about the past when visiting an old fairytale castle like this. 

I was in heaven choosing gifts for my two older grandsons, bearing in mind my limited capacity to carry them around in my luggage until I could post them. I have seen very few toys in my travels that were unique to the area. As your might expect, Disney toys are everywhere, even in remote villages, but since you can buy them at home there is no point buying them overseas, then posting them home (at a huge cost, too).

It was a really hot day, but I wandered around as far as I could through the gardens after our tour of the castle. Our guide estimated that  by the time you walked around the canal further down the garden, you would have to walk 8 miles to reach the fountain at the end of the garden! Needless to say, we did not have the time to do that, not that we would have anyway in that heat.

Our guide was a very interesting man. He would have been in his late seventies, and used to be a tour director himself, leading many tours through England and Australia and New Zealand. His English was impeccable, and he had the voice and presence of an actor on the stage. He regaled us with many stories about the castle just like a narrator in a play, but his own story about falling in love with a New Zealand woman when they happened to meet in Bali in their younger days, and visiting her for many years, was just as enthralling, the way he told it.

The following photos show the outside of the castle. In the next post I will show you some of the inside. Notice that they include stables, but I do not think the stables are in use today.  

Vicomte Palace from the front. Its gardens were behind it. 

The stables area.

Close to the front of the palace. You could see through to the back of the palace from this spot. 

Part of the moat around the palace.

The view from the back balcony of the palace. The fountain at the back of the garden that I spoke of is too hard to see in this photo. That will give you an idea of the extent of the gardens.

Looking back up at the back of the palace.

A close-up of the top pf the palace dome.

The back corner of the palace.

View of the palace from the front corner of its back garden.

Some of the flowers in the garden.

Another view of the moat.

Chantilly Castle Part 3 - The art galleries

I meant to mention in the last post that many of the decorative wall papers and pictures in one room in the Petit Chateau featured monkeys. On one side of a room filled with mirrors, the monkeys are seen dressed up and serving the people, and on the other side the people are serving the monkeys. The artist set these up as a metaphor for what their society was like, and what changes might come about. This was painted before the French revolution . . . 

You could not blame the artist for revealing his frustration at the injustice of the vast gulf between the rich and powerful in French society, and the poor. The family who commissioned him no doubt thought his work was a bit of light-hearted fun. 

Below I will repeat the photo of the room in which the monkeys serving the people can be seen in the mirror and on the wall next to it. (I was trying to get an unusual photo.)

The other photos I show below include three gorgeous paintings by Raphael. Sometimes I have shown a group of paintings. These were exhibited in several rooms, which I also have shown, albeit only partially. The walls were covered in paintings! There also were a number of fine sculptures. Unfortunately we only had a limited time there, as usual, but I hope I have given you a sense of why this is regarded as a fine art collection.

This was our last tour before we reached Paris, from where I saw one more castle. After that, I can start talking about my present ocean cruise. As I write this, we have just left the port of Genoa in Italy. 

Which are monkeys and which are human? The left half of this photo is the view in the mirror.

A Raphael.

The ceiling in another gallery.

Another Raphael.

A third Raphael.

More of the gallery for which I showed the ceiling.

Chantilly Castle Part 2 - Inside the castle

Having seen the gardens and buildings in the outside, I was really interested to look inside the Petit Chateau and the Grand Chateau. What would they be like?  Would there be drapes made of Chantilly lace, for example? 

There was no chantilly lace, not even in the shop. (There is always a shop!)  The Grand Chateau, which we visited first, was a very elegant building, but it could not be described as ornate. The Petit Chateau was very ornate, however, and reminded me of some of the rooms in the Russian palaces, though the rooms were quite small. But of course the Petit Chateau was built earlier than the present Grand Chateau, in a different period when gilding was very much in vogue.

We did hear one sad story associated with the castle. Apparently at one stage King Louis XIV stayed at the castle, and a sumptuous banquet was ordered to honour him. The maitre d’ ended up in a dreadful state because he feared that the course of fish would not be ready in time. He was so distraught he went up to his room and killed himself. What a sad reflection on the demands made by the aristocrats of the period that was.

It was a hot day, and I must confess I thought how lovely it would be to have a coffee with a little dab of chantilly cream in it. It was very disappointing that no-one has had the initiative to set that up. The shop sold some nice souvenirs, but in my view was missing a golden opportunity by not setting up a little cafe, even though they don’t get the crowds of visitors that the Palace of Versailles apparently has. 

As mentioned in my previous post, Chantilly Castle, which now belongs to the State, houses some wonderful works of art. I will show some of them in my next post. 

The ceiling above the main staircase up to the chapel in the Grand Chateau. 

The top of the staircase.

One of the stained glass windows in the chapel of the Grand Chateau.

More of the chapel.

The chapel has some beautifully crafted wooden panelling. 

More of the chapel.

Behind the altar in the main chapel was another chapel.

Some of the displays in one of the rooms.

The long library housed thousands of books an has special manuscripts on display.  In the photo is the upper level of the library.

This and the following photos were taken in the Petit Chateau.