Château d'Asnières
With adjoining stables at the edge of its grounds (capable of housing 120 horses and known as the "entrepôt général" or central depot for the Asnières stud), the château was one of the finest estates near Paris in the mid 18th century.
It shows the artistic ambitions of Marc-René d'Argenson, marquis de Voyer, who gathered the best artists and craftsmen of his time to work on the building—the architect Jacques Hardouin-Mansart de Sagonne, the craftsman Nicolas Pineau, the sculptor Guillaume Coustou the Younger, the painters Brunetti and Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, and the bronze worker Jacques Caffieri.
They were linked to the château by a vast avenue flanked on both sides by triple rows of trees—de Sagonne had exploited a motif employed by his great-great-great-uncle François Mansart at Maisons-Laffitte.
The centre of the wings was marked by a forecourt with semi-circular lawns and topped by a bust of the king with the marquis' monogram on the base to remind the viewer of his royal post.
Raised on two levels and topped by a covered way in the Italian style with railings, the château has a z-shaped floor plan, evoking the Grand Trianon by de Sagonne's grandfather Hardouin-Mansart.
The château d'Asnières's notoriety increased during the 18th century thanks to the presence of the collector and engraver Claude-Henri Watelet then the famous Genevan banker Thélusson, future client of Claude Nicolas Ledoux.
In the mid 19th century it was the setting for soirées and balls for the Parisian middle classes, mentioned by (among others) Offenbach in a first act rondo in La Vie parisienne: "Qu'on me mène au bal d'Asnières!"
On 25 August 1850 a great international festival was put on there, gathering the best French and Belgian amateur choirs of the time and totalling 2000 singers and 25,000 spectators.
[2] Offenbach referenced this in the seventh scene in Geneviève de Brabant (1867), which takes place in the imaginary "château d’Asnières, home of Charles Martel" and includes the phrase "Amis, faisons vibrer sous ces dômes brillants / Nos chœurs les plus bruyants !"
