Château de Sceaux

Sceaux

In 1670 Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, acquired the estate of Sceaux and commissioned André Le Nôtre to design its gardens: classical vistas, grand canal and basins that make it a masterpiece of the French formal garden. The Marquis de Seignelay, Colbert's son, extended the estate to 220 hectares and had the Orangery built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart. In the 18th century the Duke and Duchess of Maine held there the famous "Nuits de Sceaux": nocturnal festivities mingling theatre, wit and fireworks, thronged by Voltaire and the fine minds of the day — a golden age of aristocratic sociability that remained legendary in the memoirs of the Enlightenment. The Revolution destroyed the original château almost entirely. In 1828 the Duke of Treviso undertook the restoration of the estate and had a new neo-Louis XIII château built between 1856 and 1862. Bought by the department of the Seine in 1923, the park was listed as a monument historique (historic monument) in 1925; the architect Léon Azéma added an Art Deco cascade in the 1930s. Today the museum of the Île-de-France, the estate keeps alive the memory of those sumptuous nights.

Getting there : Departmental park open every day, free access; château-museum of the Île-de-France open Wednesday to Sunday, admission charge; RER B, Parc de Sceaux or Bourg-la-Reine station.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound