Hello and welcome to Grand Pré, to the Château du Grand Pré. The Château du Grand Pré is a large and emblematic Provençal castle. as you will see, emblematic of many things in the decorative arts, in the first industrial activities, in the stories of Provençal families. And yet, 3 years ago, it was doomed to ruin. It was about to collapse, and it was a immense crush that made us commit, that we bought it in 2019, and that we have launched these major restoration works, titanic, perhaps a little unreasonable, but which we start today, and I hope you will see it in this film, begins to bear real fruit. We already saved the main part. So I urge you to follow me, to og inside the castle. You are here on the Louis XIV period facade, 1678, date of first construction of the Grand Château, which succeeds a small stately home. We are in the heart of the Luberon. We are in Vitrolles in the Luberon. We are opposite the Sainte-Victoire, 40 kilometers from Aix en Provence. Follow me! We are here in the castle hall, Hall remodeled in the mid-18th century, because the first period of the castle is late 17th century. Construction of the castle at the end of the 17th century by Françoise de Cambis, by the Forcalquier family, the Brancas. And the castle was sold in the middle of the 18th century, by extinction of the Brancas family to a new family, newly aristocratic, that of Doctor Jean d'Ailhaud, who becomes d'Ailhaud Castelet. Recent fortune in the 18th century in Provence, since in Provence the aristocrats have the right to work and to have a job, so they are doctors, but above all they will mark by their spirit of industry, the site itself and I will tell you about it later. Nevertheless, this immense fortune must be manifested by a title of nobility, that of Baron de Vitrolles, Castelet and Montjustin, and by interior fittings in the castle, large interior and exterior fittings, who will leave their mark. I suggest you go to the library, in the 18th century, which was the parade chamber in the 17th, and which is one of the rare pieces which preserve the trace of 17th century architecture. So we go to the 18th century library. Here we pass through the small office, which is typical of architecture and arrangement of rooms in the 17th century century. And here we come to the old parade chamber, which became the library under the d'Ailhaud Castelet family in the 18th century. Family of newly aristocratic doctors, keen on science, very well read. And how do we know it's the library? Quite simply because on the top of the door which is here, on the painted canvas, which is here, we see children reading, leafing through manuscripts. And, a very interesting element, is the small world map placed on the table. You will understand why later. You can also see that there is no door, the castle being in a disastrous state three years ago, close to ruin, The doors had been stolen, stolen. We were able to recover some of them. They are now in the restoration, for others to restitution, and they will come to adorn these passages in a few weeks. You will also measure during the visit, all the workload, discoveries, that it took us to bring this large Provençal house back to life. On this subject, I would like to show you two photographs which will be able to Make you understand how bad the castle was, As you can see in this photo, Which is the south facade, which you will discover shortly. And on this same table, a very pretty anthology of 18th century writings relating to the castle. Here you have what made the fortune of the d'Ailhaud de Castelet family: the treatise on the true cause of diseases. and how to cure them, the universal medicine, who made the fortune of the d'Ailhaud de Castelet family, and which made it possible to develop and give all its magnificence to this castle 18th century. I therefore now suggest that you move forward in the more 18ᵉ parts, from the second half of the 18th century, which characterize this building. We are here in the dining room, which is not the most loaded room in terms of plasterwork, decorations, but which is the most significant of what happened in the middle of the 18th century in the castle. Having a dining room from the mid-18th century is something something wildly contemporary, very trendy, we would say today. And this is the reason why this large room, which was a dining room living in the 17th century, which was the room, that's what we called it, is which became a dining room until the 18th century. We set the table in one room or another. From the middle of the 18th century, we have a dining room and this dining room designed by the d'Ailhaud family, is intended to have a completely new style since you have one of the compartments on the walls that seem very steep, very simple, with decorations of antique vases above the doors and which simply recalls that in 1745, the city of Pompeii was discovered in Italy and that all French decorators are infatuated with the classic style we comes back, we abandon the baroque, we return to the classical style, to the Greek style and this dining room is one of the rare neo style dining rooms Greek, that is to say 1760-1770 in Provence. It is thus compartmentalized, partitioned by plasterwork and it highlights value this large cooler in Tholonet marble, in Aix en marble Provence, Sainte-Victoire marble, with this marquetry of different marble grains which is typical of the Provençal region and which also shows the refinement of the owners since this cooler is a fountain which flows constantly in the castle. Which means that from the second half of the 18th century, we have water common in the castle. It is supplied by a cistern which is in the cellars. Another remarkable element is this stove. Because the stoves in the castles in Provence are not very numerous. We are here on the Luberon, perched with wind and temperatures were surely a little lower in winter than they were near Aix en Provence. This is probably one of the reasons we had stoves. The inventory of the inventory revolution made in 1794 provides us with information and told us that there were two in the castle. He does not place them, the one in the dining room and another probably in upstairs. Once this decor has been set, this decor set, we understand this desire to novelty from the new owners of d'Ailhaud de Castelet. And I will take you piece by piece, towards the end of the 18th century, with the decorations that go with it and their history, because their professional history is also very interesting. A quick stop here. You see that the walnut doorways have not yet been restored. They are. All these unredone parts are the memory of what the castle was in the moment we entered it. A small detail and it's a discussion I had at the Hôtel de la Marine with the former president of the Center of National Monuments who said But it is wonderful, the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris. It's exceptional, it doesn't exist anywhere else. At least 70% of what you see is from the 18th century. And I gave a little smile and said No, I know someone house in Provence where we are surely beyond 80% which dates from the 18th century century. It's at the Grand Pré. For what? Because this family of doctors who made their fortune in the 18th century century, completely lost his memory, lost his social position after the Revolution and respected this castle as a true sanctuary of what had been their past splendor until the end of the 20th century, without ever touch nothing. This explains, despite the poor state of the castle, the freshness of certain decorations which we obviously had to restore and rehabilitate and not damage by restoration. So here, you are in a neoclassical living room, late Louis XV. We are at the time to fix the chronology a little. We are at the time between Madame de Pompadour and Madame Du Barry and we have put two tapestries, after François Boucher who evokes China, since the Ailhaud family traded their miracle cure with the whole world, the Americas and China. Otherwise, we can actually see that these Gypseries decorations, which are still relatively sober in this living room, clearly mark the beginning of the Louis era XV with straight lines which are for this door top for example, very different from what you may have seen in the library. We finish the baroque, finish the effects of overload and curves, we return to the straight line while still maintaining a lightness and a joy of living that we still find in the 18th Provençal. I invite you to continue and as you continue, you see that the general plan of the castle is only a row, that is to say that we are typically in what In the 18th century, rows of rooms were made to be able to have transparencies of light to be able to follow the course of things like that. And this row is reserved most of the time for owners, since you will discover in the parts which have not yet been redone, the movement of servants. This castle has one characteristic, it was created in the 18th century. century of specific circulations for domesticity. This proves a new way of life. We no longer live with servants around us, we live in privacy. Everyone knows the small apartments in Versailles and the desire to Queen Marie-Antoinette to isolate herself. We also find him among the Provençal aristocracy, with his creations of circulation for servants. Welcome to this last and very beautiful living room, surely the most beautiful in the castle. This motivated the state to classify the monument. Because you will have here a real anthology of Gypseries, the quintessence of what can be found in Provence in terms of decor sculpted plaster. The Gypseries is not staff. What is the difference? Gypsum is a... it is a sculpture, made on site. That is to say that the craftsman, craftsman. takes a small mass of plaster, which he fixes to the wall and which he then sculpts. The staff that appears in the next century. It is a plaster molding which is made in the workshop and which is glued to the walls. So less virtuosity and ultimately less humanity in what we will see again in the sets. So this piece is quite incredible, since it also reminds us to what extent the 18th century is modern and contemporary, on several levels. We'll start with the door tops. and you see here a scene which represents the god Hermes or the god Mercury, god of medicine. The vase with the snake is there to remind us of this. And this God of medicine. For what? Because it is the symbol of the activity of this family, of this family of doctors who became rich and became noble. And this God of medicine writes under the protection of two women, one who symbolizes peace, the one who has his foot on the lion, she controls the lion is strength, and she masters it. The other which symbolizes justice. That's interesting because if we had been under Louis XIV, under the Fronde, Les d'Ailhaud de Castelet ennobled would have put a portrait of Louis XIV. to declare their allegiance to the king. We are here in the second half of the 18th century. The lights went that way. Great refinement in expression is also common and one presents one's allegiance to the king in an allegorical form. This means that if the family was able to make a fortune, if she was able to develop her medicine and if she was able to flourish, This is because Louis XV ensures justice and peace reign in the Kingdom. Once we have said that, we will arrive at another allegory which are the family values. And that still exists today. When you join Google, when you join Apple in the United States, in the lobby of the building, large international companies have the habit of displaying their values, their corporate values, the values business and ancestors. They are there, on this other door. Since you have two women who symbolize wealth with the horn of abundance, the other which symbolizes notoriety and celebrity since it wears a laurel wreath and a laurel branch, and they make the charity at a dead end. And the interest of this plasterwork is that it is so fine, so worked, we can still see all the details of the faces, the togas, the pieces of coins which fall into the bowl of the bottom of the bowl. It should be noted that the large paintings in this room were never painted. They are as they were made in the 18th century. In the catering context it was truly a question, a fundamental question. It was not necessary to repaint the plasterwork, it was necessary to save them, restore them. They were ready to fall at any given moment, without the need for painting to hide the restoration. Because the paint would have impastoed the details, would have concealed details, And they are extremely precise. Fortunately, we got there thanks to the help of historical monuments, heritage companies, of the trapper who worked here, whose name is Joël Puisais, who is a formidable gameman, of great experience. And we managed to save these plasterworks, to maintain them as they were could have been observed in the 18th century. Once we have seen these two large paintings. You can note without going into detail about the mirror tops. And these mirror tops symbolize the four seasons. Very simply in the 18th century where, still in castles, winter is symbolized in north, summer is symbolized in the south, spring in the east and autumn in the west. Finally, you can see in the rosettes, children, little cherubs who create scenes, one to say, to symbolize the arts. The family meant that they were very interested in art, the arts liberals, painting, sculpture, music. You can still read the musical notes on the score. We haven't yet tried to find out what it might look like if we was playing, but you can read the score on this central rosette, the small world map that we have in the library over there, which comes back because it's a allegory of maritime trade. And Ailhaud's family sold their miracle cure to the whole world whole at the time. Finally a little sketch which posed a problem for us, because here we have three angels who support a protractor on which we can see all graduations from all angles. And it is incredibly fine, and it was a big question to wondering why a rapporteur, what was the meaning of this rapporteur. Finally, we understood things thanks to Versailles, because the rapporteur symbolizes the gardener's tool, in the sense of the 18th century, that is to say the one who draws the landscape, the one who draws the garden, not one who works constantly. And this rapporteur means a very interesting thing. This is because the large garden of the castle is not in the main axis of the landscape. You will see later, we are here facing the Sainte-Victoire, the mountain of Cézanne, with a very beautiful view of the north face of the Sainte-Victoire. And yet, the large garden is obliged to follow the slope, the slopes and moves into another axis. Everything has been calculated, the angles have been calculated and this protractor reminds us this episode of the layout of the garden, with all the angle calculations which had been created to give the most harmonious garden possible and which fits into the landscape. One of the things also in this castle which is formidable, which is remarkable is that we still have all the 18th century chimneys which, despite the attacks, the burglaries resisted. And it’s a typically Provençal fireplace. This is typically Provençal Louis XV Louis XVI in marble marquetry, black load-bearing marble, yellow marble, white marble. This is typical of the Aix en Provence region and it marks the location geographical location of the building in which we are. So here you are in a show which is a show which aims to impress the visitors, but which is also the last room in the row. And you should know that in Provence, in the 18th century, the most beautiful pieces were reserved for visitors we appreciate, those we love. That is to say that if we do not know you or if it is a pure visit formal, you will be welcomed in the first rooms of the castle. If we like you a lot, if you're close, we'll take you to in the last living room where the decoration is the most exuberant or the most refined, the most demonstrative. And to finish this row of the ground floor. We are at the end of the 18th century. We like to isolate ourselves, we like small apartments and so we finish this adjoining a boudoir which is absolutely delightful since it is evocative of Provence. In all these settings, it is. Everything is very simple, but we see this wonderful work of Gypseries with these olive leaves running everywhere, vine leaves running around ceiling. The ceiling is lower and you will guess why later, but it gives privacy. It's the place where we come to isolate ourselves to think, to read, to rest without being confronted with the crowds that can live in a castle. One detail, the village today has 190 inhabitants. In the 18th century, there were 450. For what? Because the castle and the medicine factory. This is why this castle is so interesting. It supported 450 people, almost three times more than today. And so we can very well imagine that the owners needed, as at Versailles the queen wanted to isolate herself at the Petit Trianon or in her little apartments, The owners had a need for privacy and to isolate themselves in certain rooms of the castle. Maybe you will now take the servants' routes, and arriving in other rooms by circuitous routes. I'll take you there. Come with me. You are here in a small service staircase. We can't speak loudly because the ceiling is low and everything resonates. And then the servants whispered. You must not disturb the master of the house and come, come with me. We are here in a still dark part, because the work has not still advanced and have not yet reached their end. We are not enlightened. We are almost at candlelight and we go up like the footman, like the butler might have gone up. His apartment was here. You see the height which is barely two meters, not even above We. And we will continue. Because if Monsieur d'Ailhaud de Castelet calls, you must be able to access your room directly. Here we are in the master's room. We accessed it as if we were the footman, the butler or a servant who comes to respond to the request of Baron de Vitrolles. This room is just as remarkable for the decorations it presents to the ceiling. And of course, we find these incredible flowers. We have in the castle 300 different types of flowers carved in the plaster. We think that the trapper who worked here in the 18th century was called Cauvet, and that he had worked for the Count of Artois, originally from Aix, left for Paris, returned, and with a very nice Provençal clientele, who asked her for incredible things, like these flowers and these decorations. And he obviously does because the newly aristocratic Baron de Vitrolles, has a rose window made above his bed with two angels who carry his initials Jean Gaspard d'Ailhaud, and a baron's crown. We have a profusion of foliage on the trumeaux, on the fallouts, fallout in the corners. And we are here in typical style. end of the reign of Louis XV, beginning of the reign of Louis XVI where the lightness and purity of Louis XVI, are beginning to impose themselves on all these very, very beautiful decorations from the Louis XV period. I entered through the footman's door, through the servants' door, but the servant could perfectly well also be required to go to work in the dress room, the dressing room, it looks like it’s in the 21st century, by Mr. Castelet. So we arrive in the master of the house’s dressing room. We can imagine that he was a man of great elegance because we see the multiplicity of cupboards. All this dates from the 18th and has never been modified since. If the servant must not pass through the room of the master of the house, he can always find the small staircase hidden by this door. I would like to take advantage of the fact that we are in this large corridor which was the master's apartments to show you the chapel. The Chapel today is not accessible. It is part of the wing of the castle which is still semi-collapsed. It is a very beautiful neoclassical style chapel. Like many rooms in this building. It resembles, from a very distance and all things considered, at the Petit Trianon chapel. And we will be able to observe it through this window. Why a window? Because the chapel existed in the 17th century and it was included in the castle during its expansion in the 18th century. And we kept this window. to come and discover this very beautiful structure, with pilasters, the location of the altar, and above all the very beautiful plasterwork on either side of the altar, which are plasterwork which symbolize which, which present objects of worship, a bottle brush, a censer, a canopy above the altar, monstrances, all the elements of worship which are presented here in the form of what is called a fall, A fall of objects of worship, with a very large bow and a very nice demonstration. It's a very beautiful piece of plasterwork, in a chapel from the end of the 18th century in Provence. The rest is punctuated by these large pilasters with Corinthian capitals, which we find in the very beautiful churches of the end of the 18th century. All these churches that look like ancient temples. Remember the Madeleine church in Paris. We return to the form of an ancient temple to make a church. Now that we have visited the master's apartments, let's visit those of the mistress of the house, Marie-Thérèse de Condorcet, niece of the great philosopher, who married Jean Pierre Gaspard d'Ailhaud. The last of Ailhaud Castelet aristocrats who lived here in Vitrolles before the Revolution, And they are the last who will see the splendor of the castle before the great Revolution arrives, and erase everything that may have existed. And we arrive in the large antechamber of the first floor, that is to say the living room which leads to the bedrooms. We arrived via the corridor, via the small servants' staircase. This is the reason why we do not arrive through the main gate of the great stairs. This large living room is an early 18th century living room which has been slightly retouched by the by Ailhaud Castelet, which can be a summer lounge since it faces west, and in summer we are cooler in this room. We always obviously find the plasterwork, here plasterwork from the beginning of the 18th century. We find the decorations left by the Brancas, at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century. And I'll take you to the bedroom now, of the mistress of the house, because in terms of plasterwork, You will see what you will see. So we arrive in the room of the lady of the house. End of the 18th century. Rousseau. Pastoralism, benevolent nature, the dream of a paradise, of a dream garden, of a lost Arcadia. And this is found on all these door tops which are almost, it's not high relief, but it's not low relief, which are very protruding, And which show completely pastoral scenes, worthy of what we loved at the end of the 18th century. It’s a painting by Jean-Baptiste Pillement, this plasterwork. And things that are quite interesting and that we see appear in the Lady of the house's bedroom: The children. The children appear on the plasterwork. We have maternity scenes on all these door tops. For example, we have here. .. A knight, a rider, with a horse crossing a river And who comes to speak to a shepherd. Which also marks. What is interesting. It is to see that these decorations are here framed by the same rosettes, that we have in the Louis XIV salon. That means one thing, it’s that the gameman, who made the central form, the central decor, the central scene, maintained the overall decor that existed before. But that perhaps also means that we are in speculation, that the transition between the style of Louis XV and the style of Louis XVI, in Provence as elsewhere, was not done in a very brutal way. That is to say that there are rooms of the castle where we wanted to be a little bit radical, and we do a very structured neo-Greek decoration. And then in the rest of the castle, we do as we do everywhere else, that is to say that we move quietly from Louis XV and Louis XVI. The curves are still present in some places, but the decor themes are rather Louis XVI. That's what you have here. Nature is omnipresent with it. all these garlands of flowers, these fallouts, these bay leaves, these fruits and... a typically feminine decoration. What one could have in the bedroom of a great aristocrat at the end of the 18ᵉ, Before the 1790s. And you will see that in the boudoir of the lady of the house, We get a little idea of his personality, because the plasterwork tells us about his tastes. What were the tastes of Marie-Thérèse de Condorcet at the end of the 18th century? Well, we know, because we're here in her boudoir. And here we have a plasterwork which represents children, who are returning from hunting. There is one who blows a horn, another who holds a partridge in his hand, and of course the faithful dog who participated in the hunt. So we are in the boudoir of a woman who loves hunting, which has no nothing surprising since women hunted in the 18th century. It's not just a male pleasure. Some can accompany the hunters, but also Madame de Condorcet loved music and therefore who faces this above door. Here we have, to complete the row of children giving a concert concert with violin, mandolin, flute and a small conductor who shakes his baguette. These plasterworks. Here, in this room, in the same way as the very beautiful ones you have been able to note at the bottom have their restoration because they were in a state calamitous. These had been brushed with oil paint chemistry in the 20th century. We had a lot of trouble restoring them. And this restoration earned us a prize from the Mérimée Foundation. The Sotheby's prize for the restoration of interior decorations. And we are of course very proud of it! We leave Madame de Condorcet's apartments to go to a party much older of the castle and in much worse condition. Here we are again on the grand staircase, the grand staircase of the castle. The circle is complete. We accessed the first floor via a small corridor, a small staircase service and we return to the central part of the castle. The grand staircase still shows all the parts that are under construction, because that it is a long project to revive such a building. And you can admire this large wrought iron railing which is absolutely exceptional, which has not yet been the subject of restoration, but which is absolutely exceptional, with its typically Louis XVI motifs, but which is a true marvel of 18th Provençal ironwork. And the other miracle is that it persists because under the Revolution and Afterwards, many of the castle railings were dismantled and melted down. And here she still stands. She also asks another question. In any case, she doesn't ask questions, she gives us our information. This is because such a ramp, with such a degree of refinement, convinces us that we are in a large, refined castle and we are not in a simple country castle. We return of course to the chapel, but there, from the construction site aspect, the passage of the chapel which had collapsed and which is today the subject of all the restoration, we recreate the passages, we consolidate the walls in order to be able to restore this entire part, because the water was coming back from everywhere and threatened the sets, threatened the walls, threatened the roofs. Finally, because the castle dates back to the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th. I will take you to the pharmacy Pharmacy which is the witness of the pharmaceutical medical activity that took place here in Vitrolles in the Luberon. At this time and which is in the process of restoration, perfect witness to this what was this building when we first visited it where nothing had not been touched since the 18th century and the very beautiful pharmacy with its color and its highlights. Come to see. We are here in one of the first vaulted rooms, a remaining witness to the building from the beginning of the 17th century. It is around this building that the great Corromprai castle developed, first under Louis XIV with Françoise de Cambis Brancas and the family of Forcalquier, then in the 18th century with the d'Ailhaud Castellet family. We are restoring, the vaults have been restored and, we find under the darkness soot, chimneys, things like that. These plaster coatings which always have a bit of this slightly pinkish beige color, and these walls that we are in the process of restoring. But above all, this first small firm anticipates. The beautiful pharmacy. This pharmacy with its woodwork that has never moved. These numbered cupboards with this so typical way of doing the numbers 18ᵉ and which still keeps this very beautiful color, this almond green and this regent red magpie which as it aged became a little pinker and which was the place where the manufacturing, the medicine, before he leaves in cartloads for Marseille. From Marseille the medicine then went to Strasbourg, Avignon, Amsterdam for take to the sea and reach the whole world, China and America. And from this pharmacy, we have and you will carry out the work that has could be ours in three years, which is absolutely intense. These are the remains of the castle, the outbuildings which are still collapsed today in a state of ruins that we will have to rebuild not in totality, but secure to stop the collapse of tall buildings you you will discover. These large rural and industrial buildings from the end of the 18th century century which still exist behind the castle. I suggest to you now that you have taken a tour of the building, saved, to go see the gardens so that I can explain to you what the project is, because that is what will occupy us. If the castle is called the Château du Grand Pré, it is because, in the 17th century, when it was laid out, when the gardens were laid out, we must put ourselves in the place of the traveler arriving from Aix en Provence, who arrives from Manosque, and who took dirt roads, dried out by the Provençal summer, and he arrives at a large castle garden. at the bend of a curve, of a bend, with jets of water, with basins, with real luxuriance which demonstrates the importance of the inhabitants of the castle. And this surprise creates the name of the castle. The Grand Pré is the large garden, it is this large space that I will give you to show. I cross the dining room to talk to you about the garden and on the way, I would like to tell you about this chandelier which has nothing to do with the great 18th century. In any case indirectly. This chandelier which comes from Lustrerie Mathieu, specialized in large chandeliers of historical monuments today. in restitutions. Is the chandelier that you can admire in the bedroom of Louis XV, alias Johnny Depp, in Maïwenn’s film Madame Dubarry, Jeanne du Barry. There you go, so it’s a nice little wink, to say that the 18th still lives on in us a little, Even in the cinema, here in Grand-Pré and in our everyday lives. I'll take you to the garden. We are here on the south terrace of the castle, the one which has been fitted out, enlarged, thought in the 18th century. It responds to a large bridleway with a gate at its end which became the main access to the castle at the end of the 18th century, while under Louis XIV and beginning of the reign of Louis XV, access was through the village and through the large west portal. This large avenue was desired by the d'Ailhaud Castelet family. With the staging that goes with it, and which is that of the Grands Jardins. I'm going to tell you about this big garden. You will follow me, we will see it from above, it is a garden of terraces, a garden which is a mixture of Italian gardens and formal gardens French. In Provence, we are not very far from Italy, since we have sponge cakes at the top of the houses. That is to say this way of treating the overhang of the roof coming from Genoa with this succession of tiles, well we have sponge cakes, we have gardens to the Italian. What qualifies the Italian garden in relation to French gardens? This is because the Italian garden is often a terrace garden which is follow with architectural elements such as walls, fountains and a particular rhythm. The presence of water is absolutely fundamental. Obviously, today, you have to have a lot of imagination to remake live this large garden. This is the great task that awaits us now, after having saved the castle is to recreate this garden. We are helped in this by Versailles, by the School of Architecture of Versailles which was able to highlight all the hydraulic networks which are still buried. All fountain locations. You can see for example at the bottom, this large basin, this trace, this large scalloped shaped basin which was the large basin which ended the perspective with a large jet of water in its center and which obviously collected the water that came down from the Luberon. The Brancas, when they built the castle in the 17th century, Went to fetch water on the slopes of the Luberon, and brought them back by what are called water mines. Galleries. These are stone masonry galleries, still in perfect condition. today here in Grand-Pré, and who brought back water from all the slopes, For
that this water concentrates here, creates a majestic effect in all the fountains and this large pool below, And beyond the road, beyond the basin, this water then left for supply the castle's orchards. I was talking to you earlier about the big jet of water and the alignment and the rapporteur on the plasterwork of the Salon. It's quite simply because you see Cézanne's beautiful Sainte-Victoire there, in the background of the landscape. and one of the big questions we had, with Versailles, it was to say to oneself: why was the garden not oriented towards Sainte-Victoire? As we did in the 18th century. That is to say oriented according to the large landscape. It is at right angles to the castle and runs along the arrival of the grand avenue of 18ᵉ. This is quite simply because it was necessary to calculate very individuals. So that everything is highlighted, and that the rapporteur served enormously at the time, to resolve this issue. I obviously hope one day soon that if you come to visit the castle, you will be able to see the progress of the gardens. This would be our greatest wish.
