You know that I can’t say enough about the Amis du Louvre. One of the thing they have are these fantastic day trips outside of Paris to explore art in stiu at some of the grandest châteaus in the countryside outside the city. 

You get to go get fresh air, see gorgeous art and architecture and have a fun lunch on the grounds. I even sent my parents on a trip with them when they visited. The entire tour is in French, because – duh! However, they are incredibly kind and sometimes there are other English speakers along for the ride. 

One of my favorite adventures was heading out to Maincy to see the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. It was built in the mid-1600s and was originally a small royal palace. It was designed by the incredibly famous architect Louis Le Vau. Side note: he also was the architect for the island I live on in the Seine. 

The chateau was purchased by Nicolas Fouquet, the finance guy for Louis XIV. It was famous for its fetes that were considered too elaborate and too royal. He had  Molière as an artist in residence at one point. The night the play ‘Les Fâcheux’ debuted. The party was considered too grand and it was assumed he was stealing from the king, because of the lavishness of the event. 

As Voltaire summed up the whole thing, “On 17 August, at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France: at two in the morning he was nobody.”