In 1765, Charles-François Leblanc de Manarval bought land in the Indre department to build a replica of the Petit Trianon. It was a lavish 18th-century mansion designed to mirror the royal retreat at Versailles.
By 1818, the former foreign minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord owned the château. He put it at the disposition of his niece and, according to rumours, his one-time mistress, Dorothée de Courlande. She held many titles including Comtesse Edmond de Périgord and Duchesse de Sagan, and was also the owner of the Château de Rochecotte.
In 1917, the château was purchased by Henry Viguier and his wife, Renée Normant, who restored, decorated, and refurnished it. Viguier was the président-directeur-général of the Paris department store Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville. The Viguiers had no children and left the house and its furniture to the French state in 1968.
Today, the château functions as a museum where visits are only conducted with a guide. The estate includes a park of eighty hectares, which contains a landscape garden, an arboretum, a floral garden created in 1920, large greenhouses, and a formal French garden.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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