Hollywood Zenith

Chapter 810 Château d'or Vicomte-2

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After the government entourage left, Lucie turned to Samuel and said in a serious tone, " I will look into it."

" Take care of it and give everyone a warning. The only reason why I am not replacing the prior staff is because I don't want them to lose their job. They must know that my compassion comes with a cost." He didn't go deep into it. He knew that if Lucie knew about it, it wouldn't have happened. They walked back into their vehicle and started driving.

Château d'or Vicomte was a Baroque French château located 55 kilometres southeast of Paris. With a total area of about three hundred hectares, the place was massive. It was built in the mid seventeenth century under for a famous viscount.

After being the family for generation, it was later sold to a wealthy businessman after the monarchy started dying out in the country. It was a famous project that was comparable to Château Vaux-le-Vicomte because same architects worked on this one too.

It was also a little smaller than Vaux-le-Vicomte but the end result were similar, the Louis XIV style combining architecture, interior design and landscape design. It was once a small château, but the later owner had a ambitious vision for it.

To secure the necessary grounds for the elaborate plans for d'or Vicomte's garden and castle, he purchased and demolished three villages. The displaced villagers were then employed in the upkeep and maintenance of the gardens. It was said to have employed 10 thousand workers and cost as much as 13 million livres in old currency.

A pound or livre was 240 pennies or deniers worth, suggesting a value today of around 3,000 dollars. There was no coin of that value, just a unit of account. A 'pound' meant a pound in weight of silver, between a third and a half a kilogram of precious metal.

The château was situated near the northern end of a 1 km long north–south axis with the entrance front facing north. Just like Vaux-le-Vicomte the elevations were perfectly symmetrical to either side of this axis. Somewhat surprisingly the interior plan was also nearly completely symmetrical with few differences between the eastern and western halves.

The château was originally planned to be constructed in brick and stone, but after the mid-century, as the middle classes began to imitate this style, aristocratic circles began using stone exclusively. The main château was constructed entirely on a moated platform, reached via two bridges, both aligned with the central axis and placed on the north and south sides.

Other than the main castle there were two other adjacent building with the same design. They were mostly used by the staff. Having such a large space there had to be two to three dozen people working everyday in various facilities.

These service buildings flanking the large avant-cour to the north of the house remained in brick and stone, and other structures preceding them were in rubble-stone and plaster, a social ranking of building materials that would be common in France for a considerable length of time thereafter. It was to distinguish the main center castle from the surrounding two structures.

Samuel had learned about some of things but he decided most of it was a waste of time but since Elise was interested in horses, he decided to let Lucie know to procure some horses for the abandoned stable.

What was most impressive about the place was it's gardens. The garden was the dominant structure of the great complex, stretching nearly more than half a mile on each side maintaining the symmetry of the place, with a balanced composition of water basins and canals contained in stone curbs, fountains, gravel walks, and patterned parterres that remains more coherent.

The site was naturally well-watered, with two small rivers that met in the park; the canalized bed of one forms the Grand Canal, which leads to a square basin. It used to elevation of the place to form a free flowing small river giving life to everything.

They reached the main bridge that they took to drive inward across the moat. Everyone got off the vehicle to finally see the exquisite beauty of the place. It suffice to say that the five girls were stunned while Elise had a euphoric smile on her face, it was everything she envisioned even more than what she dreamt. She ran up to Samuel and hugged him tightly!