Château de Rambouillet

Chateau de Rambouillet in summer

History of Chateau de Rambouillet

Château de Rambouillet is a French castle located near Paris, best known for its gardens, laid out between 1700 and 1789.

Chateau de Rambouillet entrance

The Château de Rambouillet was built and maintained by the d’Angennes family from the 14th to the 17th centuries.

To accommodate the site surrounding the château, essentially a flat, swampy terrain, a canal of 740 m was built that permitted him to establish parterres close to the château: a geometrical quincunx was laid out to the west, and an avenue of cypress trees from Louisiana (unique in Europe) were planted to the east.

A second, transverse, canal created a view toward the forest and the horizon. In the trapezoid formed by these canals were two islands, one of which housed a grotto dedicated to François Rabelais. A tapis vert (a flat expanse of grass) separated the canals from the fringes of the forest of Rambouillet.

Chateau de Rambouillet - Diane

Between 1705 and 1737 Louis-Alexandre, Comte de Toulouse (1678–1737), the legitimized son of Louis XIV and Mme de Montespan, greatly enlarged the château, but it was his son, Louis de Bourbon, Duc de Penthièvre (1725–1793), who extended the area between the canal and the tapis vert and created an English garden between 1737 and 1783.

Garden fabrics, including an arrangement of rocks intended to suggest a grotto, a hermitage, and a thatched cottage, reflected the prevailing taste for the Picturesque and the sensibility of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The pastoral character for which the gardens of Rambouillet are celebrated was, however, established by Louis XVI, who bought the property in 1783. Marie-Antoinette’s Neo-classical pavilion, the Queen’s Dairy, was designed for her by Hubert Robert and constructed in 1785–1788 by Jacques-Jean Thévenin.

The Rambouillet Castle, which suffered during the Revolution and from the subsequent restoration under Napoleon I, is now maintained by the Monuments Historiques; it is the official country residence of the President of France.

Visitor Information

Opening times

Chateau de Rambouillet statue

The Castle is open every day except on Tuesdays:

April – September: between 10,00 – 11,00 and between 14,00 – 17,00
October – March between 10,00 – 11,00 and between 14,00 – 16,00

The Castle is closed every Tuesday, and on holidays:
1st of January, 1st of May, 1st and 11th of November, 25th of December

Tickets:

An adult ticket price is 7€ and a group ticket price is 5,50€ (min. 20 pers)

A school group ticket is 30€ and includes max. 35 students, 2 accompanying adults. For additional adults, a ticket cost is 5,50€

Chateau de Rambouillet view from the garden

Free admission:

Children under 18 (family visit)
Young people between 18 – 25, if they are UE citizens or French residents.
Disabled persons + escorts

Contact details:
Phone – 01 34 83 00 25 / 01 34 94 28 79
Fax – 01 34 94 28 58
Email – rambouillet-reservation@monuments-nationaux.fr

Château de Rambouillet Location

Château de Rambouillet Address: 78120 Rambouillet, France. Get help with directions using the map provided below:

Château de Rambouillet Map

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