Château de Réveillon

The château de Réveillon stands in the Marne countryside, a 17th-century manor built in Renaissance style. Its U-shaped plan opens onto a paved courtyard, surrounded by moats and enclosed by formal gardens, farm buildings and a large dovecote. The estate once included a melon house and a working farm, all arranged around the central court. The château’s story begins with its founders, Claude II d’Ancienville and Judith Raguier, who built it between 1607 and 1617. Later owners left their mark: the marquis d’Argenson added a sculpted pediment of Minerva, while Jules-Robert de Cotte lined the rooms with panelling and commissioned paintings of the farms. In the 19th century the painter Madeleine Lemaire turned the house into a literary salon, visited by Proust and other writers. Visitors walk through the paved courtyard into the main building, where oak panelling and painted panels recall the 18th-century remodelling. The formal garden east of the house is framed by double rows of white horse-chestnut trees, and a raised terrace edged with hornbeam hedges overlooks the lawns. Westwards a green court leads to symmetrical pavilions and the dovecote, its 40-tonne oak roof still sheltering 3 500 nesting boxes.