| The Turkish carpets"-decorative gardens of boxwood hedges-of the château of Vaux-le-Vicomte have been drawn by the landscaper-architect Achille Duchêne in the erli twentieth century. Designed for Nicolas Fouquet, minister of finance, the château was built in five years by approximately 18,000 workers. The garden, set off by several lakes and fountains, is 8,000 feet (2,500 m) long, which required the destruction of two hamlets. Fouquet invited the young king Louis XIV to visit in 1661; offended by the splendor of his subject’s abode, the king ordered an investigation of Fouquet and had him arrested. Le Nôtre, the gardens architect, was assigned the direction of the royal parks and gardens. He designed other gardens ? la française" for the châteaux of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Cloud, and Fontainebleau, but his masterpiece remains the gardens of Versailles, the palace of the Sun King himself. |