Château de Grosbois

The abbey ceded these lands in 1563 to Raoul Moreau, trésorier de l'Épargne relation Nicolas Harlay de Sancy, surintendant des Finances et des Bâtiments du roi, built a château there at the start of the 17th century.

It was confiscated as national property on the French Revolution and sold on 9 November 1797 to Barras, known as 'the king of the Directory'.

In 1804, after Moreau's arrest, Napoleon I bought the château via Fouché and in 1805 granted it to maréchal Berthier, prince of Wagram.

He enlarged the estate to make it the best hunting-ground in the French Empire and gave grand festivals there.

On August 1, 1914, Alexander Louis Philippe Marie Berthier, the 4th Prince of Wagram, left Grosbois to his sister, Elisabeth Berthier de Wagram, Princesse de la Tour d’Auvergne, before leaving for the army.

Due to taxes, upkeep and other financial reasons, the property was sold in 1962 to René Ballière, president of the Société d’encouragement à l’élevage du cheval français, who bought the estate to set up a training centre for racehorses.