Château de Vallière

Built in 1894 in neo-Gothic style for the Duke of Gramont, its facades and roofs are listed in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments by decree of 29 October 1975.

[1] Bonaparte had the Grand Parc completed between 1808 and 1814, organized around four ponds which were painted by Antoine Watteau and Camille Corot.

Only three years later, her ten-year old goddaughter Sophie Thanaron (the daughter of her sister Charlotte and a retired French officer), inherited the estate following the 1840 death of the Baroness.

[6] After acquiring the estate in 1892, the 11th Duke of Gramont had architect Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe build the Château de Vallière in 1894,[5] for his wife, Marguerite, Duchess of Gramont (née Baroness Marguerite de Rothschild; a younger daughter of Baron Mayer Carl von Rothschild, the first Jewish member of the House of Lords of Prussia),[9] in the Grand Parc of the Mortefontaine and Montmélian estate.

The château is near Thorn Lake (French: Lac de l'Épine), the largest of the four ponds, and Molton Island.

[10] At Vallière, the Duke organized pheasant, duck and deer hunts while the Duchess had plays by Eugène Labiche and tableaux vivants performed.

The Duke set up an omnibus service between the station and the château, comprising sixteen grey horses harnessed in groups of five and led by postilions wearing top hats.

The Duke of Guiche's friend, Marcel Proust, dined with the family at Vallière's terrace on 14 July 1904, who noted that he could see the towers of Senlis Cathedral above the ponds and the foliage.