Vaux le Vicomte

One of my favourite visits around Paris. A must if you can spare a day outside of Paris. It's preferable to visit Vaux le Vicomte during spring or summer in order to enjoy the gardens and the night candle visits. Check out the websit to see when they organize fireworks and you'll spend a fantastic evening in the gardens.

A magical Romantic evening especially if you invite your beloved to dine in the restaurant "Les Charmilles" situated in the gardens, facing the Chateau. The other restaurant situated at the entrance is a kind of fastfood and is not very charming. It's practical if you want to grab something quickly before the visit.
It's very important to visit it when the weather is nice, at least not raining.

- Candlelight evenings :
Every Saturday from May 7th to October 8th from 8.00 pm to midnight (last admission at 11.00 pm). Possibility to enter in the estate before 8p.m.

Fireworks will be shot on the first and 3rd saturday of the month (except on september 17th) around 10:30 p.m. !

About Vaux le Vicomte:

The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. It was built from 1658 to 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle Île, Viscount of Melun and Vaux, the superintendent of finances of Louis XIV.

The château was in many ways the most influential work built in Europe in the mid-17th century and the most elaborate and grand house built in France after the Château de Maisons. At Vaux-le-Vicomte, the architect Louis Le Vau, the landscape architect André le Nôtre, and the painter-decorator Charles Le Brun worked together on a large-scale project for the first time. Their collaboration marked the beginning of a new order: the magnificent manner that is associated with the "Louis XIV style" involving a system of collective work, which could be applied to the structure, its interiors and works of art and the creation of an entire landscape. The garden's use of a baroque axis that extends to infinity is an example of this style.

For more information, you can visit the Chateau website as well as the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaux-le-Vicomte
Pictures Wikimedia (by Jebulon)Less