Vaux Le Vicomte castle is certainly not as famous as Versailles…however it deserves a visit as much as Versailles does.  This is one of the most magnificent chateaus in France.

Located about 40 miles away from Paris (on your way to Burgundy), the whole estate reaches nearly 500 hectares. It was built by Nicolas Fouquet, Superintendent of Finances under young King Louis 14th.

A 17th century masterpiece, Vaux le Vicomte was the backdrop to many major historical events and witnessed the tragic eviction of its creator, Nicolas Fouquet, who was imprisoned following an extraordinary trial about which the writer Voltaire said: “On 17 August at 6 in the evening, Fouquet was King of France; at 2 in the morning, he was nobody” . Upon Louis 14th request, Fouquet was arrested in Nantes by D’Artagnan, captain of the Musketeers.

 

Vaux le Vicomte gardens also deserve a long stroll. To design the gardens, Fouquet called upon André le Nôtre who was the pioneer of French garden art. The perfect harmony between garden and architecture results from the collaboration of a trio : Le Nôtre the landscape gardener, Le Vau the architect and Le Brun the painter-decorator.

France Just For You

Experts in self-drive tours in France

Travelers Reviews

5.0
Harry
We are independent travelers, and usually I do extensive research on Tripadvisor and other websites, and plan our own itinerary. I started doing this for our France section of our trip, and came across Emilie's France Just for You website. End of research ! After an initial inquiry, Emilie totally customised our Normandy and the Loire Valley trip …
Tony & Carolyn
We had the most wonderful two week trip planned by France-Just For You and it delivered more than we expected The quality of the travel package was amazing and every detail was designed to be most helpful for us. We had never stayed in B&Bs before but this trip has opened up more exciting travel options for us than we could have imagined. I would …
Sheldon
We began planning this trip over a year before our departure date. We have done a lot of traveling but this trip was for our 25th wedding anniversary! Once we decided upon France as our destination all that was left was to get all the details taken care of. Based on previous adventures, we knew that we wanted to drive ourselves on a self- directed …
Suzanne & Bill
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Dan
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Eileen
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