The Château de Champs-sur-Marne () is a neoclassical château in

Champs-sur-Marne Champs-sur-Marne () is a Communes of France, commune in the eastern outer suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris, on the left bank of the Marne (river), Marne, in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, ...

, France. It was built in its present form for the treasurer Charles Renouard de la Touane in 1699 by Pierre Bullet, ''architecte du roi''. After the first proprietor's bankruptcy, another financier, Paul Poisson de Bourvalais, took up the project. Jean-Baptiste Bullet de Chamblain, the son of Pierre Bullet, finished Champs in 1706. Ten years later, Paul Poisson was in the

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stormed by a ...

on charges of embezzlement and the château was seized by the Crown. In 1718, it was sold to the ''princesse de Conti'', natural daughter of King

Louis XIV of France LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

and his first official mistress,

Louise de La Vallière Françoise-Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Duchess of La Vallière and Vaujours (6 August 1644 – 6 June 1710) was a French nobility, French noblewoman and the Royal mistress, mistress of King Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. La Vallière ...

. That same year, however, the princess cancelled a debt by deeding Champs to her first cousin, the duc de La Vallière. When the duke died in 1739, he left the château to his son and heir, the famous

bibliophile A bookworm or bibliophile is an individual who loves and frequently reads or collects books. Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. Bibliophiles may have large, specialized book collections. They may highly value old editions, aut ...

Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc (), ''duc de Vaujours'', ''Duchy of La Vallière, ''duc de La Vallière' (9 October 1708 – 16 November 1780), was a French nobleman, Bibliophilia, bibliophile and military man. The present ''Viscounts and Du ...

. The new ''duc de La Vallière'' was later to become a trusted friend of King

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

and his mistress,

Madame de Pompadour Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and rema ...

. Around 1750, the duke added a beautiful

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

''salon chinois'' (Chinese salon) to the château with wall paintings by noted artist Christophe Huet. At the château, Louis César entertained many of the famous writers of the day, including

Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during t ...

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

d'Alembert Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert ( ; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanics, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''E ...

and

François-Augustin de Paradis de Moncrif François-Augustin de Paradis de Moncrif (1687, Paris – 19 November 1770, Paris) was a French writer and poet, of a family originally of Scots origin. He was appointed historiographer royal to Louis XV of France. His parody of owlishly pedant ...

, with whom he also corresponded regularly. After the construction of a magnificent new château at

Montrouge Montrouge () is a Communes of France, commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the centre of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe. After a long period of decline, the population has increased agai ...

around 1750, however, the duke gradually abandoned the Château de Champs-sur-Marne. Eventually, he tried to sell the domain, but he could not find a buyer and was forced to rent it out. Between July 1757 and January 1759, he leased the estate to

for 12,000

livres Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * F ...

per year. The marquise spent 200,000 livres in less than eighteen months to renovate the château. In November 1757, she received the ''prince de Soubise'' there after his defeat at the

Battle of Rossbach The Battle of Rossbach took place on 5November 1757 during the Third Silesian War (1756–1763, part of the Seven Years' War) near the village of Rossbach (Roßbach), in the Electorate of Saxony. It is sometimes called the Battle of, or at, ...

. As the king did not like the château, the marquise left it at the beginning of 1759. In 1763, the duke finally sold Champs to Gabriel Michel de Tharon (1702–1765), a rich shipowner. In 1820, Armand Santerre, nephew of the Revolutionary General

Antoine Joseph Santerre Antoine Joseph Santerre (; 16 March 1752 in Paris6 February 1809) was a businessman and general during the French Revolution. Early life The Santerre family moved from Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache to Paris in 1747 where they purchased a brewery k ...

, bought the ''parc Saint Martin'' surrounding the château. In 1855, his brother Ernest Santerre bought the château as well. Later, in 1895, it was finally sold to comte Louis Cahen d'Anvers, who thoroughly restored it, installing ''boiseries'' designed by

Germain Boffrand Germain Boffrand () (16 May 1667 – 19 March 1754) was a French architect. A pupil of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Germain Boffrand was one of the main creators of the precursor to Rococo called the ''style Régence'', and in his interiors, of the ...

that had been removed from the Hôtel de Mayenne, Paris, and recreated its

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, plats, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the ...

gardens in the hands of

Achille Duchêne Achille Duchêne (1 November 1866 – 12 November 1947) was a French garden designer who worked in the grand manner established by André Le Nôtre. The son of the landscaper Henri Duchêne, Achille Duchêne was the garden designer most in demand a ...

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

was among the guests in this era at Champs. Louis Cahen d'Anvers' son Charles made a gift of it to the state in 1935. The residence was modernised in 1959 to ready it for visiting heads of state of the

French Union The French Union () was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial empire system, colloquially known as the " French Empire" (). It was ''de jure'' the end of the "indigenous" () status of Frenc ...

. In 1974 it was opened to the public and ceased its official capacity. It has served as a location for many films since then, while the

Monuments Historiques () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...

employ some outbuildings as research facilities. The château looks onto a grand

with two basins and an extended central axis that sweeps down all the way to the

Marne Marne can refer to: Places France *Marne (river), a tributary of the Seine *Marne (department), a département in northeastern France named after the river * La Marne, a commune in western France *Marne, a legislative constituency (France) Nethe ...

, laid out about 1710 by

Claude Desgotz Claude Desgots (or Desgotz; c. 1658 – 1732) was a French architect and landscape architect, who designed French formal gardens in France and England. He worked with and was strongly influenced by André Le Nôtre, the designer of the gardens at ...

, the nephew and pupil of

André Le Nôtre André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed Gardens ...

; it is surrounded by a landscape park laid out in the nineteenth century in the English fashion. ''

Cyclone Lothar Cyclone Lothar is regarded as the worst European windstorm recorded during the 20th century. Crossing France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany between 25 December and 27 December 1999, Cyclone Lothar's average winds reached up to 115 ...

'', the storm of 26 December 1999, did a great deal of damage to mature woodland in the park.

Notes

References

*Kimball, Fiske, ''The Creation of the Rococo'' (Philadelphia Museum of Art) *Société Historique de Noisy-le-Grand, Gournay-sur-Marne et Champs-sur-Marne

External links

Château de Champs
– official site

Château de Champs sur Marne, Pictures and History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau de Champs-sur-Marne Champs-sur-Marne, Chateau de Champs-sur-Marne, Chateau de Historic house museums in Île-de-France Museums in Seine-et-Marne