Chapter I: Front Matter

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ROYAL PALACES AND PARKS OF FRANCE

* * * * *

_WORKS OF

FRANCIS MILTOUN_

_Rambles on the Riviera_ $2.50

_Rambles in Normandy_ 2.50

_Rambles in Brittany_ 2.50

_The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine_ 2.50

_The Cathedrals of Northern France_ 2.50

_The Cathedrals of Southern France_ 2.50

_In the Land of Mosques and Minarets_ 3.00

_Royal Palaces and Parks of France_ 3.00

_Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine and the Loire Country_ 3.00

_Castles and Chateaux of Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces_ 3.00

_Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy and the Border Provinces_ 3.00

_Italian Highways and Byways from a Motor Car_ 3.00

_The Automobilist Abroad_ net 3.00

(_Postage Extra_)

_L. C. Page and Company_

_53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass._

* * * * *

ROYAL PALACES AND PARKS OF FRANCE

by

FRANCIS MILTOUN

Author of "Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine," "Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy," "Rambles in Normandy," "Italian Highways and Byways from a Motor-Car," etc.

With Many Illustrations Reproduced from paintings made on the spot by Blanche Mcmanus

Boston L. C. Page & Company 1910

Copyright, 1910. by L. C. Page & Company. (Incorporated) All rights reserved

First Impression, November, 1910

Printed by The Colonial Press C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U. S. A.

Preface

"A thousand years ago, by the rim of a tiny spring, a monk who had
avowed himself to the cult of Saint Saturnin, robed, cowled and
sandalled, knelt down to say a prayer to his beloved patron saint.
Again he came, this time followed by more of his kind, and a wooden
cross was planted by the side of the "Fontaine Belle Eau," by this
time become a place of pious pilgrimage. After the monk came a
king, the latter to hunt in the neighbouring forest."

It was this old account of fact, or legend, that led the author and illustrator of this book to a full realization of the wealth of historic and romantic incidents connected with the French royal parks and palaces, incidents which the makers of guidebooks have passed over in favour of the, presumably, more important, well authenticated facts of history which are often the bare recitals of political rises and falls and dull chronologies of building up and tearing down.

Much of the history of France was made in the great national forests and the royal country-houses of the kingdom, but usually it has been only the events of the capital which have been passed in review. To a great extent this history was of the gallant, daring kind, often written in blood, the sword replacing the pen.

At times gayety reigned supreme, and at times it was sadness; but always the pageant was imposing.

The day of pageants has passed, the day when lords and ladies moved through stately halls, when royal equipages hunted deer or boar on royal preserves, when gay cavalcades of solemn corteges thronged the great French highways to the uttermost frontiers and ofttimes beyond. Those days have passed; but, to one who knows the real France, a ready-made setting is ever at hand if he would depart a little from the beaten paths worn smooth by railway and automobile tourists who follow only the lines of conventional travel.

France, even to-day, the city and the country alike, is the paradise of European monarchs on a holiday. One may be met at Biarritz on the shores of the Gascon gulf; another may be taking the waters at Aix or Vichy, shooting pigeons under the shadow of the Tete de Chien, or hunting at Rambouillet. This is modern France, the most cosmopolitan meeting place and playground of royalty in the world.

French royal parks and palaces, those of the kings and queens of mediaeval, as well as later, times, differ greatly from those of other lands. This is perhaps not so much in their degree of splendour and luxury as in the sentiment which attaches itself to them. In France there has ever been a spirit of gayety and spontaneity unknown elsewhere. It was this which inspired the construction and maintenance of such magnificent royal residences as the palaces of Saint Germain-en-Laye, Fontainebleau, Versailles, Compiegne, Rambouillet, etc., quite different from the motives which caused the erection of the Louvre, the Tuileries or the Palais Cardinal at Paris.

Nowhere else does there exist the equal of these inspired royal country-houses of France, and, when it comes to a consideration of their surrounding parks and gardens, or those royal hunting preserves in the vicinity of the Ile de France, or of those still further afield, at Rambouillet or in the Loire country, their superiority to similar domains beyond the frontiers is even more marked.

In plan this book is a series of itineraries, at least the chapters are arranged, to a great extent in a topographical sequence; and, if the scope is not as wide as all France, it is because of the prominence already given to the parks and palaces of Touraine and elsewhere in the old French provinces in other works in which the artist and author have collaborated. It is for this reason that so little consideration has been given to Chambord, Amboise or Chenonceaux, which were as truly royal as any of that magnificent group of suburban Paris palaces which begins with Conflans and ends with Marly and Versailles.

Going still further afield, there is in the Pyrenees that chateau, royal from all points of view, in which was born the gallant Henri of France and Navarre, but a consideration of that, too, has already been included in another volume.

The present survey includes the royal dwellings of the capital, those of the faubourgs and the outlying districts far enough from town to be recognized as in the country, and still others as remote as Rambouillet, Chantilly and Compiegne. All, however, were intimately connected with the life of the capital in the mediaeval and Renaissance days, and together form a class distinct from any other monumental edifices which exist, or ever have existed, in France.

Mere historic fact has been subordinated as far as possible to a recital of such picturesque incidents of the life of contemporary times as the old writers have handed down to us, and a complete chronological review has in no manner been attempted.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY 13
II. THE EVOLUTION OF FRENCH GARDENS 14
III. THE ROYAL HUNT IN FRANCE 43
IV. THE PALAIS DE LA CITE AND TOURNELLES 61
V. THE OLD LOUVRE AND ITS HISTORY 75
VI. THE LOUVRE OF FRANCIS I AND ITS SUCCESSORS 85
VII. THE TUILERIES AND ITS GARDENS 106
VIII. THE PALAIS CARDINAL AND THE PALAIS
ROYAL 131
IX. THE LUXEMBOURG, THE ELYSEE AND THE
PALAIS BOURBON 151
X. VINCENNES AND CONFLANS 168
XI. FONTAINEBLEAU AND ITS FOREST 180
XII. BY THE BANKS OF THE SEINE 203
XIII. MALMAISON AND MARLY 215
XIV. SAINT CLOUD AND ITS PARK 229
XV. VERSAILLES: THE GLORY OF FRANCE 244
XVI. THE GARDENS OF VERSAILLES AND THE TRIANONS 260
XVII. SAINT GERMAIN-EN-LAYE 279
XVIII. MAINTENON 296
XIX. RAMBOUILLET AND ITS FOREST 309
XX. CHANTILLY 324
XXI. COMPIEGNE AND ITS FOREST 342
INDEX 363

PAGE

TERRACE OF HENRI IV, SAINT GERMAIN (_see page 286_) _Frontispiece_
THE LOUVRE, THE TUILERIES AND THE PALAIS ROYAL OF TO-DAY _facing_ 12
"JARDIN FRANCAIS--JARDIN ANGLAIS" 15
HENRI IV IN AN OLD FRENCH GARDEN _facing_ 20
PARTERRE DE DIANE, CHENONCEAUX 27
PLAN OF SUNKEN GARDEN (JARDIN CREUX) 30
A PARTERRE _facing_ 32
BASSIN DE LA COURONNE, VAUX-LE-VICOMTE _facing_ 42
A "CUREE AUX FLAMBEAUX" _facing_ 46
AN IMPERIAL HUNT AT FONTAINEBLEAU _facing_ 52
RENDEZVOUS DE CHASSE, RAMBOUILLET _facing_ 56
BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF OLD PARIS (Map) _facing_ 74
THE XIV CENTURY LOUVRE _facing_ 82
THE LOUVRE _facing_ 90
ORIGINAL PLAN OF THE TUILERIES (Diagram) 106
SALLE DES MARECHAUX, TUILERIES _facing_ 116
THE GALLERIES OF THE PALAIS ROYAL 146
BOURBON-ORLEANS DESCENDANTS OF LOUIS PHILIPPE (Diagram) _facing_ 146
PALAIS DU LUXEMBOURG _facing_ 154
DOOR IN THRONE ROOM, LUXEMBOURG 156
THE PETIT LUXEMBOURG _facing_ 156
THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS _facing_ 158
THE THRONE OF THE PALAIS BOURBON 161
VINCENNES UNDER CHARLES V 168
CHATEAU DE VINCENNES _facing_ 172
A HUNT UNDER THE WALLS OF VINCENNES _facing_ 174
CONFLANS 176
ORIGINAL PLAN OF FONTAINEBLEAU 180
FROM PARIS TO FONTAINEBLEAU (Map) _facing_ 180
PALAIS DE FONTAINEBLEAU _facing_ 186
SALLE DU THRONE, FONTAINEBLEAU _facing_ 190
FRAGMENTS FROM FONTAINEBLEAU _facing_ 192
CHEMINEE DE LA REINE, FONTAINEBLEAU _facing_ 194
MONUMENT TO ROUSSEAU AND MILLET AT BARBISON _facing_ 200
CHATEAU DE BAGATELLE 204
CHATEAU DE MALMAISON _facing_ 218
THE GARDENS OF SAINT CLOUD _facing_ 236
THE CASCADES AT SAINT CLOUD _facing_ 240
COUR DE MARBRE, VERSAILLES _facing_ 264
THE POTAGER DU ROY, VERSAILLES _facing_ 270
THE BASSIN DE LATONE, VERSAILLES _facing_ 272
THE FOUNTAIN OF NEPTUNE, VERSAILLES _facing_ 274
PETIT TRIANON _facing_ 276
LAITERIE DE LA REINE, PETIT TRIANON 277
SAINT GERMAIN (Diagram) 280
THE VALLEY OF THE SEINE, FROM THE TERRACE AT SAINT
GERMAIN _facing_ 288
FAUTEUIL OF MME. DE MAINTENON 297
CHATEAU DE MAINTENON _facing_ 300
AQUEDUCT OF LOUIS XIV AT MAINTENON _facing_ 306
CHATEAU DE RAMBOUILLET (Diagram) 309
LAITERIE DE LA REINE, RAMBOUILLET _facing_ 312
CHATEAU DE RAMBOUILLET _facing_ 316
CHANTILLY (Diagram) 325
STATUE OF LE NOTRE, CHANTILLY _facing_ 326
CHATEAU DE CHANTILLY _facing_ 336
COMPIEGNE (Diagram) 343
NAPOLEON'S BEDCHAMBER, COMPIEGNE _facing_ 352
COURS DE COMPIEGNE _facing_ 356

Royal Palaces and Parks of France