Claude Pâris la Montagne

After studying law in Grenoble,[3]: 13  he began his career by assisting his father Jean Pâris, a cereal merchant in Moirans, supplying grain to the army.

In April 1691 he went to Lyon and asked the magistrates of the city to release the wheat kept in store so that he could send it to the army in Grenoble, promising to reimburse them when the spring thaw again made it possible to stock up in Burgundy again.

[7] Recognized for their skills, admired for their logistical operations and benefiting from the support of the comptroller general of finance Nicolas Desmarets, Claude and his brothers were now connected with the inner circles of power in France.

The purpose was to tax any income that had previously escaped the attention of officials, and to persuade the holders of existing notes to exchange them for new credits on terms more favourable to the government.

When the construction was completed, Claude Paris set up a superb French-style garden opposite his residence, organized around a pond overlooked by a terrace with a horseshoe staircase.

He was himself exiled and the new Comptroller General of Finance, Félix Le Pelletier de La Houssaye, hastened to recall Claude and his brothers to Paris.

Although he owned a castle in Croix Fontaine in the Paris region, he hardly stayed there and spent his time between his lands in Serpaize and his home in Moirans.

He bequeathed his library of valuable books and manuscripts to his second son, Joseph Louis Pâris de Surieux (1714–1744), who died a few months after his father.