The parks of the upper aristocracy or of financial investors are all located in Paris area. Some squires arranged parks in that fashion. They are less important and less renown, but may be very pleasant. Those which stood in urban areas were allotted. The remaining ones are in the countryside.

Some upper society members, still owning a luxury park, also arranged fabriques in their country estates.

The castle , from the XVIIIth century, is surrounded by a park with fabriques, created by Jean-Baptiste Elie de Beaumont, barrister at the parliament of Paris and of Voltaire's friends.

The dovecote (courtesy M. de Mézerac)

Not as wealthy as other parks owners, he arranged from 1770 to 1785 a philosophical garden with some fabriques, a pond, channels, and an horticultural garden, the " Chartreuses ". These small enclosed cells allow early growing of fruits and trees; today they are the most renown feature of the grounds.
In the middle of the Chartreuses stood an hermitage, which functioned as a free-mason temple. Hot baths in open air were arranged nearby, on the bank of a channel. After Elie's death his son Armand leveled the hermitage and the baths to cut maintenance costs.

Four fabriques remain: the temple of the crying woman (dedicated to Elie's beloved wife), a Chinese kiosk, the Château Béranger, where Huguenots were buried, and an ornamental dovecote.

The castle and the park are opened every day in summer. From Easter to June, 30th, during week-end and at feast days. Phone : 33 2 31 20 05 07 or mail to canon@chateaux-france.com

The family of Jean-Baptiste de Bâmont owned the grounds and an iron blast-furnace operated from XVIth to XIXth century in the same fields.

From 1786 to the Revolution, he arranged the park. Many ponds and a net of brooklets joining them give a very romantic landscape. There is an aviary, a temple, an obelisk, grottoes and a thatched cottage.

Visits in summer   (unfortunately the storm of Decembre 26, 1999 has shorted the efforts of the owners, heirs of the creator, to restore the park)

A park to the duke of Penthièvre, who commissioned the thatched cottage out of the shells in Rambouillet.

He arranged the Saint Just Hall as a retirement place for his servants. He added a dairy, an egg-shaped ice-house and a pavilion. The grounds had a stunning net of water ducts from the beginning of the XVIIIth century, still the most remarkable feature of the park.

Pages about Anglo-Chinese gardens The Désert de Retz Ermenonville Méréville Bagatelle Other famous Anglo-Chinese gardens in France Anglo-Chinese gardens of France parcelled out The Folie Saint-James The Chinese pavilion of Cassan The Nymphaeum of Chatou Country corner The Garenne-Lemot Some gardens of Sweden Some gardens of other European countries