The Château de Montmort is a stately home built on the site of a medieval castle in the commune of Montmort-Lucy in the Marne département of France.
A castle existed as early as the 11th century and there is still evidence of its existence in the ramparts and ditches. The present buildings seem to date from the 16th century, the time of their reconstruction. The lower structure exhibits mullioned bays characteristic of the early Renaissance. At the sides, two flush towers were built to hold cannons. Two wings of the lower structure were removed in the 19th century. The higher structure, built later, carries the date of 1577. The building plan corresponds with a reference to the former castle in an old document: a square keep confined by circular towers. One tower includes an inclined ramp to allow horse to reach the higher levels.
The ground floor is composed of vaulted rooms. On the first floor, in the skirtings of the large living room, the engraver and theatre decorator Eugène Cicéri installed painted fabrics in 1851, taking as his inspiration the engravings of Sébastien Bourdon. The gatehouse with its brick turrets is also a 19th-century addition. The château is surrounded by a park and kitchen garden.
The château and its grounds have been protected since 2001 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. It had previously been classified and declassified in 1888.

Château de Montmort

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The Château de Boursault is a neo-Renaissance château in Boursault, Marne, France. It was built between 1843 and 1850 by Madame Clicquot Ponsardin, the Veuve Clicquot (Cliquot Widow) who owned the Veuve Clicquot champagne house. It was sold by her heir to the Berry family of Canada from 1913 to 1927 and was used as a military hospital in both the first and second world wars. Today the Château de Boursault brand of champagne is made from grapes grown in the vineyards around the château and is aged in its cellars.
History
There are records of the seigneurie de Boursault from the 14th century, when Robert de Flandre, seigneur de Brugny, ceded the land to Geoffroy de Naast. It seems to have been returned, and given to the daughter of Robert de Flandre, who married Henry IV, Count of Bar (c. 1315–1344). In 1409 Cardinal Louis de Bar (c. 1375–1430) was given Boursault and other seigneuries by his father, Robert, Duke of Bar (1344–1411). The old fortress château of the barons of Boursault dated to the 16th century. The surrounding area was covered in vineyards from that time, apart from an interval of one century when it was wooded. By the early 19th century the medieval chateau was very dilapidated.
The present Château de Boursault was built by Madame Clicquot Ponsardin (1777–1866), founder of the Veuve Clicquot Champagne house, in honor of the marriage of her granddaughter Marie Clémentine de Chevigné to Louis de Mortemard-Rochechouard in 1839. It replaced the old castle of the barons of Boursault. Construction began in 1843 and was completed in 1850. Madame Veuve Clicquot retired to the château at the age of 64 and died there when she was 89.
Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart (1847–1933), Duchess of Uzès, inherited the chateau on Madame Clicquot's death in 1866. She was the daughter of Marie Clémentine and Louis. The Duchess sold the property in 1913. It was used as a military hospital in World War I (1914–18) and again during World War II (1939–45). The park was converted to vineyards for production of champagne. The "Château de Boursault" brand of champagne continues to be made in the chateau and aged in its cellars. It is the only champagne with the "chateau" denomination in Marne.
Building
The château was built by the architect Jean-Jacques Arveuf-Fransquin (1802–76). It was located on the wooded summit of a hill planted with vines, and dominates the surrounding countryside and the village of Boursault. It was set in a magnificent park covering 11 hectares (27 acres).
The chateau was designed in a Neo-Renaissance style, to be used for formal receptions. It has monumental architecture with a high roof and heavily decorated windows. It resembles the Château de Chambord, but has many more fireplaces. An 1882 description said "This beautiful residence contains all the riches of modern art, and attests to the generous and intelligent efforts of the princes of finance and industry to maintain the national taste at the level of its ancient traditions."
The Château Deganne on the sea front in Arcachon was built in 1853 by Adalbert Deganne. From the exterior this building, now the Casino de la Plage, is an exact replica of the Château de Boursault.

Château de Boursault

The Château de Condé is a private estate in Condé-en-Brie, Aisne, France, set in a park on the Champagne route 100 km from Paris.
The Château de Condé is a private estate, listed as a historic monument and inhabited year round. Its sumptuous 17th and 18th century interiors were created by the most prestigious artists (Watteau, Boucher, Oudry, Servandoni and others) at the behest of the Princes of Savoy and then the Marquis de la Faye. This château evokes part of France's history, through illustrious characters like the Condés, the Savoies, Jean de La Fontaine, Cardinal Richelieu, Mazarin, not forgetting Olympe and her suspect "powders". Highlights include the "Watteau" wing and its recently discovered frescoes, Richelieu's bed chamber, the magnificent "trompe-l'œil" effects of Servandoni, the "little private apartments" and the outstanding drawing room decorated by Oudry.
History
Since the time of pre-Roman civilisation, the village of Condé-en-Brie was inhabited. In 500 BC., the Senones fought nearby a battle against the Condrusi. Traces of this presence have been found in the village and in the Château itself, which was probably a Gallo-Roman land estate. As a matter of fact, an ancient pavement of Roman times exist under the present pavement of the Château.
The village derives its name from the confluence of two rivers, the Surmelin and the Dhuys, which merge before feeding the river Marne: Condé derives from the Celtic word condatum, meaning "confluent".
The castle's history during the Middle Ages was closely linked to the Coucy family. The first lord of Condé was Jean de Montmirail, whose son-in-law was Enguerrand III, Lord of Coucy. It was he who constructed, at the end of the 12th century, a "keep", part of which is still to be seen, and which had 2 meters thick walls and towering chimneys.
The last heir of the House of Coucy, Marie I de Coucy, Countess of Soissons, moved into the Château with her husband, Henry of Bar, in the 15th century. Condé was passed down through marriage to the House of Luxembourg, and in 1487, Marie of Luxembourg married Francis de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme. Due to this marriage, the family came into contact with the royal family. Their grandson, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, was the father of King Henry IV of France, and his brother, Louis de Bourbon, was the first Prince of Condé, who frequently came to the Château de Condé to hunt, as a child.
Cardinal Charles de Bourbon rebuilt the castle in Renaissance style in the 16th century. The two gatehouses are the testimony of this time. The gatehouse on the right was inhabited by the Captain of the Castle; it still contains an underground jail with an exceptional locking system. The one on the left (now a barn) was the house-keeper's lodge. The castle was one of the strongholds of the Prince of Condé, who was chief of the Protestant party during the French Wars of Religion. His wife, Eleonore de Roye, and her children often came here to get away from the troubles.
Up to 1624, the date of the marriage of Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons to Thomas, Prince of Carignan (the present Italian royal family), the castle belonged to the House of Condé. Unfortunately, it was badly damaged, from 1711 to 1719, by troops that were sent by King Louis XIV of France, who had it confiscated during the Franco-Austrian War (the owner of the time being a cousin of an Austrian general). It was stayed in by the famous Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert, comtesse de Verrue.
The confiscated castle was bought in 1719 by a private secretary of King Louis XIV, whose name was Jean-François Leriget, Marquis de la Faye. He was councillor to the King and a diplomat. It was he who was in charge of finding a wife to the young King Louis XV of France.
The Marquis was a member of the French Academy, a director of the French India Company, and accordingly, was a very rich man. In his mansion in Paris, he often received such famous people as Voltaire and Crébillon.
Much of the castle's final appearance is due to the Marquis' tastes. He brought to Condé, the talents of the Italian architect Servandoni, a master of the "deception" style, and one of the architects of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. He shut down the southern aisle, to allow the sun to penetrate into the rooms, and gave a symmetrical appearance to the other aisle. To achieve this, he was obliged to paint false windows in the medieval part of the Castle, the walls being 2 meters thick. For the interior decoration, he invited fashionable painters of the time - Lemoyne, his disciple Boucher, Watteau and his disciple Lancret, and last but not least, Jean-Baptiste Oudry.
At a later date, the castle belonged to the Count de la Tour du Pin Lachaux, through his marriage with the niece of the Marquis de la Faye. In 1814, the Countess de Sade, the daughter-in-law of the famous Marquis de Sade, inherited Condé from her cousin, La Tour du Pin. Since this time and up to 1983, the castle has remained the property of the Sade family, who restored it with much care after the two World Wars.
Restoration
In 1983, Alain Pasté de Rochefort purchased the chateau which had been for sale for many years. Here he did not feel a stranger since his ancestor Captain Pasté was in the 16th century one of the two captains of the first Prince of Condé's personal guard. He was restless and, with the help of the Administration of Historical Monuments, started a series of works: the roofs were repaired, including those of dependencies such as "La Porterie" and "La Capitainerie" as well as the 17 fireplaces, gutters and stonework. Restoration of the façades could then begin, along with the grand staircase or the small apartments whose woodwork and parquet needed to be partly dismantled. The Watteau wing, which had suffered in both wars, had its colours restored. Each room evokes Watteau and his followers (Lancret and Pater) who painted landscapes, "fêtes galantes", tales by Jean de la Fontaine painted on the walls. While some paintings were hidden (behind wallpaper or mirrors), they were later discovered after many years of restoration.

Château de Condé

Château de Dormans on the Champagne route, 120 km east of Paris, the Château de Dormans is a public domain. Former residence of the house of La Rochefoucauld, is in the park that was built Memorial of the Battles of the Marne Memorial Chapel of the First World War. At the end of the thirteenth century appears in the acts of one John Dormans, Lord of Dormans. In 1373 John II dies Dormans, lawyer, canon, cardinal and bishop of Beauvais, Chancellor of France. His brother William Dormans succeeded him as lord, and as Chancellor of France, in 1373. This family died in Dormans in the sixteenth century by a person of Renault Dormans, whose daughter married Jacques de Laon. Their daughter married in turn Claude Ancienville, to whom she brought the field. In the seventeenth century, the castle belonged to Michel Larchet of Olisy, chairman of the Accounting Chamber. In 1642, Charles de Bullion became lord, but died shortly after. His widow sold Dormans Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, the first prince of the blood, also neighboring lord, since he owned the Castle of Condé, located a few kilometers from Dormans. In 1646, his son Louis de Bourbon, Duc d'Enghien, inherited it with the rest of the property of his line, and then he went to the younger brother of the latter, the Prince de Conti, Armand de Bourbon.On the initiative of Cardinal Mazarin, an exchange took place in 1660, and the king gave the manor of Dormans (erected in county) to one of the Cardinal faithful Charles de Broglie, then he passes Marshal Victor-Maurice Broglie. The son of the latter, Hyacinthe Line Mouy, became Earl of Dormans, and died in 1724.These are Broglie and the line which gave the castle its present appearance, retaining the old fortress that two of the four corner towers, and giving the central body a face of classic style of the era of Louis XIV . During the eighteenth century, the county and the castle passed to the house line to Boucot family for whom it became a marquisate and then to Rouault of Gamache until 1791.Seized as many emigrated, the castle was sold in 1791 in undivided between Paul and Jean Louis Isaac Thelusson. The family kept it until Pierre-Germain Thelusson Ventimiglia, mayor of the town.Portal Marne Por.
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