Hollywood Zenith

Discover stories at empire

After the government entourage left, Lucie turned to Samuel and said in a serious tone, " I will look into it."

" Take care of it and give everyone a warning. The only reason why I am not replacing the prior staff is because I don't want them to lose their job. They must know that my compassion comes with a cost." He didn't go deep into it. He knew that if Lucie knew about it, it wouldn't have happened. They walked back into their vehicle and started driving.

Château d'or Vicomte was a Baroque French château located 55 kilometres southeast of Paris. With a total area of about three hundred hectares, the place was massive. It was built in the mid seventeenth century under for a famous viscount.

After being the family for generation, it was later sold to a wealthy businessman after the monarchy started dying out in the country. It was a famous project that was comparable to Château Vaux-le-Vicomte because same architects worked on this one too.

It was also a little smaller than Vaux-le-Vicomte but the end result were similar, the Louis XIV style combining architecture, interior design and landscape design. It was once a small château, but the later owner had a ambitious vision for it.

To secure the necessary grounds for the elaborate plans for d'or Vicomte's garden and castle, he purchased and demolished three villages. The displaced villagers were then employed in the upkeep and maintenance of the gardens. It was said to have employed 10 thousand workers and cost as much as 13 million livres in old currency.

A pound or livre was 240 pennies or deniers worth, suggesting a value today of around 3,000 dollars. There was no coin of that value, just a unit of account. A 'pound' meant a pound in weight of silver, between a third and a half a kilogram of precious metal.

It was a huge project which was why, Samuel paid over one hundred and sixty million dollars for it. But he knew that the value was much more than that, it could become a generational family home for vacation. It was further from the city so if something happen, they could temporality take a refuse here to enjoy serene life.

It had a strange history, as soon as the castle was finished. People that were jealous, publically trialed the owner for embezzlement. Soon, it was acquired by another noble that didn't even came to see the castle in person.

He went on to become a madman terrorizing his people and his servants eventually put down by one of the maids. The maid was falsifically sentenced to death after which it was acquired by one of noble's sons who sold the property after few decades.

In late nineteenth century the new owner faced some monetary issue which was why he put up the castle for sale. It was put on a public auction after which a wealthy businessman acquired the property.

The castle already began to wear down after centuries of neglect, the businessman only wanted to restore it to it's previous glory and make a quick buck but it took decades and right before he was planning to sell it world war happened.

Fortunately it didn't have much effect and the place still had the it's previous glory. Another businessman, it passed hands and that's when later generation acquired the place and planned a much further expansion than any of the previous owners.

He restored the garden and followed in the footstep of other people who hold such a culturally significant property. He opened the place for public. It could help fund the future expenses of the property and he could close the visitation for few months during which they could live there to take vacation.

It worked well just until the financial crisis. Unfortunately, he was involved in the estate industry and lossed heavily because of his investments abroad. This was the only reason, Lucie was able to swoop in and acquire the property at 'dirt cheap' price.

The château was situated near the northern end of a 1 km long north–south axis with the entrance front facing north. Just like Vaux-le-Vicomte the elevations were perfectly symmetrical to either side of this axis. Somewhat surprisingly the interior plan was also nearly completely symmetrical with few differences between the eastern and western halves.

The château was originally planned to be constructed in brick and stone, but after the mid-century, as the middle classes began to imitate this style, aristocratic circles began using stone exclusively. The main château was constructed entirely on a moated platform, reached via two bridges, both aligned with the central axis and placed on the north and south sides.

Other than the main castle there were two other adjacent building with the same design. They were mostly used by the staff. Having such a large space there had to be two to three dozen people working everyday in various facilities.

These service buildings flanking the large avant-cour to the north of the house remained in brick and stone, and other structures preceding them were in rubble-stone and plaster, a social ranking of building materials that would be common in France for a considerable length of time thereafter. It was to distinguish the main center castle from the surrounding two structures.

Samuel had learned about some of things but he decided most of it was a waste of time but since Elise was interested in horses, he decided to let Lucie know to procure some horses for the abandoned stable.

What was most impressive about the place was it's gardens. The garden was the dominant structure of the great complex, stretching nearly more than half a mile on each side maintaining the symmetry of the place, with a balanced composition of water basins and canals contained in stone curbs, fountains, gravel walks, and patterned parterres that remains more coherent.

The site was naturally well-watered, with two small rivers that met in the park; the canalized bed of one forms the Grand Canal, which leads to a square basin. It used to elevation of the place to form a free flowing small river giving life to everything.

They reached the main bridge that they took to drive inward across the moat. Everyone got off the vehicle to finally see the exquisite beauty of the place. It suffice to say that the five girls were stunned while Elise had a euphoric smile on her face, it was everything she envisioned even more than what she dreamt. She ran up to Samuel and hugged him tightly!