maintenon

on the way back to paris from chartres we stopped in maintenon to tour the chateau de maintenon which was built for madame de maintenon, governess to louis xiv's children and later mistress to louis xiv. the chateau is rather charming and homey. unlike versailles, it's not too large and it remained a family home until the 20th century so it has a wonderful mix of furniture and art from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. two of the rooms had the most fabulous hand-painted wallpaper which was obviously inspired by chinese art and reminded me of something james whistler would have done. it was very east meets west, which is a cliché i love in interior decoration. 

the grounds of the chateau are rather fairytale-like because of the ruins of aqueduct of maintenon that run through them.  the aqueduct was built by louis xiv to carry water from the eure river to the gardens of versailles.  the grounds with the ruins reminded me of a germain romanticist painting. the whole chateau is very romantic and, with madame de maintenon being a governess, very jane eyre : )