The Château de Bouges is an 18th-century mansion in the town of Bouges-le-Château, in the Indre département of France, in the Loire Valley. It is classified as a monument historique and the gardens are listed by the Ministry of Culture as among the Notable Gardens of France. The château and gardens are open to the public.
History
The château was built in 1765, probably by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, on lands acquired by Charles-François Leblanc de Manarval, the master of the royal forges and the director of the royal manufacturer of cloth in Châteauroux. The château was modeled after the Petit Trianon at the Palace of Versailles. In 1818, the château became the property of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the former foreign minister of Napoleon Bonaparte. Talleyrand put it at the disposition of his niece and, according to rumours, his one-time mistress, Dorothée de Courlande (1793-1862), who held successively the titles of Comtesse Edmond de Périgord (1809), Duchesse de Dino (1817), Duchesse de Talleyrand (1838) and finally Duchesse de Sagan (1845). She was also owner from 1828 à 1847 of the Château de Rochecotte at Saint-Patrice.Then chateau was purchased by Tunisian general Mahmoud Benaiad.
In 1917, the château was purchased by Henry Viguier and his wife, Renée Normant, who restored it, decorated and refurnished it. Viguier was the président-directeur-général of the Paris department store Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville. In addition to the château, he owned a Paris town house on the avenue Foch, a manor house in Houlgate and a villa in Grasse. The Viguiers, who had no children, left the house and its furniture to the French state in 1968.
The château and the park were location scenes in the film Le Colonel Chabert with Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant.
The château has a park of eighty hectares, which include a landscape garden, an arboretum, a floral garden created in 1920, large greenhouses, and a formal French garden. It also includes large stables which were later used as garages by the last owners.

Château de Bouges

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Bouges was originally a rural manor house with a fortified château. In 1759, Claude Charles François Leblanc de Marnaval, Louis XV’s general tax collector, purchased the land and soon replaced the old château with an elegant “Italian style” construction.
The new, fashionable building was a demonstration of the ambition of its rich ironmaster, who had managed to make his name in the Parisian finance world and had recently gained a noble title (through marriage). His lifestyle was the subject of both astonishment and jealousy. Some 12 years later, he found himself bankrupt and his château was repossessed and sold.
During the 19th century, the site passed through a number of owners, including the Prince of Talleyrand.
The majority of the transformation work on the château was conducted by Henry Viguier, the director of a large Parisian store, and his wife Renée, from a rich family of drapers. They revived the property by installing stunning pieces of furniture, in harmony with the surroundings. They also modernised the château by introducing electricity, heating and running water.
The purchase of Bouges gave Henry Viguier a chance to devote himself to his love of equestrianism, and he used his horses for every aspect of his daily activities (hunting, horse-riding, picnics, travel and purchasing supplies). He owned a stable of racehorses, and was particularly fond of attractive horse-drawn carriages. The stables, saddleries and carriage hall provide a particularly good representation of this passion.
Renée Viguier, meanwhile, was passionate about flowers, and this recurring motif can be seen throughout the interior décor of the château. The couple transformed the existing vegetable garden into a flower garden (the “jardin bouquetier”), and exotic plants were installed in the large greenhouse. They also restored the plants and landscapes in the English and French formal gardens created by the Duchênes under the previous ownership.
In 1967, with no descendants, the couple left the estate and its collection to the Caisse nationale des monuments historiques et des sites (now the Centre des Monuments Nationaux). Henry Viguier’s express wish was that the estate should be open to the public, and that the income generated should be used to maintain and restore the property.
http://www.chateau-bouges.fr

Château de Bouligneux

Château de Valençay is a residence of the d'Estampes and Talleyrand-Périgord families in the commune of Valençay, the Indre département of France. Although geographically, it is part of the province of Berry, its architecture invites comparison with the Renaissance châteaux of the Loire Valley, notably the Château de Chambord. The manor was praised as "one of the most beautiful on earth" by George Sand, who also noted that "no king has owned a more picturesque park". It is at an elevation of 135 m.
History
The château, sited at the edge of a plateau that overlooks the little Nahon river, was built on a royal scale by the d'Estampes family of financiers over a period of some 200 years. Construction started in 1540 at the behest of Jacques d'Estampes in place of the demolished 12th-century castle and was not completed until the 18th century, when the south tower was added.
The 18th century saw a rapid succession of owners, including the notorious Scottish banker John Law, who purchased the estate in 1719. Nearly a century later, in 1803, Napoleon ordered his foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand to acquire the property as a place particularly appropriate for reception of foreign dignitaries, notably Ferdinand VII of Spain and his brothers the Infante Carlos, Count of Molina and the Infante Antonio Pascual, who would spend six years in Napoleonic captivity at Valençay. The treaty providing for their release in 1813 took the estate's name.
The period of Talleyrand's occupancy was the golden age in the history of Valençay, with twenty-three communes reportedly administrated by the ruling prince. Undoubtedly the most celebrated of Talleyrand's servants employed at Valençay was his chef, Marie-Antoine Carême. After Talleyrand's death in 1838, the great statesman was buried in a small mortuary chapel in the park. His collateral descendants retained the ownership of the estate until 1952, when the male line ended. The last prince bequeathed the property to his stepson, who sold it to an association of historic chateaux in 1979.
The Princes of Talleyrand-Périgord ranked among the mediatized German nobility, by virtue of their nominal control of the duchy of Sagan in Prussian Silesia (now in Poland). On this technicality, the château was spared the German occupation during the Second World War. Having established his personal neutrality, the Duke of Sagan saw treasures from the Louvre (like the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo) safely sheltered at Valençay.
Features
Relics of the 16th century include an outsized round tower at the western corner, capped by a dome à l'impériale, and the central block in the shape of a donjon, with a slender tower on each corner, grouped around the raking roof. Its feigned battlements are evocative of the Middle Ages, a retrospective formula stylistically derived from Chambord but somewhat vitiated by ample fenestration, including characteristic Renaissance dormers.
The exterior has withstood time and the elements remarkably well. It is clothed in classical orders: the Doric order on the ground floor, the Ionic order on the first floor, and the Corinthian order on the second. This was an innovative feature anticipating French classicism. An arcaded gallery rings the courtyard. The western wing with its Mansard roof dates from the 17th century.
Talleyrand's château boasts one of the most advanced interiors of the Empire style anywhere. There are a hundred rooms, of which a quarter comprise Talleyrand's apartments. A room of King Ferdinand is also shown to tourists. The western wing contains the Talleyrand Museum, formerly housed in outbuildings.
The formal French gardens, dating from the early 20th century, cover about forty hectares, not counting the area of Talleyrand's vineyards. Llamas, peacocks, and other exotic animals kept in the park provide amusement for tourists.