Prochain point : lat="49.024752" lon="1.89249"
Château Gaillon
A prime location
A vast estate...
Originally, the château consisted only of a main building framed by four lodges. The estate began gaining in importance in the sixteenth century. By then it comprised two mills, a wine press, barns and cowsheds, a large park, a pond, vineyards, woods and arable land. A chapel was built in the château in 1724. By the nineteenth century, the estate covered 200 hectares. At that time, the château was refurbished and now comprised 33 habitable rooms and numerous vaulted cellars. A double spiral staircase and numerous outhouses were added. The park was redesigned by architect and gardener Warée, who created the water feature and the waterfalls that cascade down the sloping land.
...created by the Vion family
Ownership of the château passed to the Vion family, originally from Burgundy, as a result of an alliance by marriage to a noble family from Mantes-la-Jolie. Eleven generations then succeeded each other between 1583 and 1969. At this point, the estate was purchased by Mr Simeoni, a public works entrepreneur who made it his main residence after carrying out considerable restoration work. The estate was finally divided up in the late 1970s. Adjacent to the château, the farm became independent until it ceased operating in the 1990s. At this time, the Château de la Chouette estate covered 132 hectares. In 1989, a project for an 80-hectare golf course took shape. The course was designed by American golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Junior. The first nine holes opened in 1990, and the full 18-hole course was inaugurated in 1998.
During this time, an 840-metre-long drystone wall was built, marking the landscape.
