Of all the grand and glorious palaces, the towering fortresses and the imposing monuments, I have to say I have a soft spot for the small ones: the hidden, intimate châteaux built on a human scale, the ones the French call maisons de plaisance. Château de La Motte-Tilly is a fine example of just such a palace, and it is a shame that it is so little known among international travelers.
The history of Château de La Motte-Tilly
Château de La Motte-Tilly sits on the banks of the Seine in the Champagne-Ardenne region, and it is a summer château that strongly recalls Château de Champs-sur-Marne (which I wrote about elsewhere on this site). Both were built in the 18th century in the countryside of Île-de-France to serve as a retreat from the bustle of Paris and Versailles, and to host the hunting expeditions that were the aristocracy’s favorite pastime at the time. In 1710, Louis XIV decided to grant the medieval feudal fortress that stood on the site to the Duke-Marshal Adrien-Maurice de Noailles, as a reward for his loyal service to the crown.
The fortress, named for the mound (motte) it stood on, stood neglected until 1754, when it was demolished and the Château de La Motte-Tilly was built in its place, using the rubble of the old fortress in its construction. The building was designed by the architect François-Nicolas Lancret for the Abbé Joseph-Marie Terray, who served as finance minister and director of the royal buildings under Louis XV (Joseph was a clergyman, and his official religious title was abbot of Molesme).
Antoine Jean Terray (1750-1794) was the owner of the château when the French Revolution broke out. He served as a member of the National Assembly in Versailles in 1789, and since he saw himself as respected and well liked by the common people, he refused to flee the country as many members of the nobility and clergy did at the time to save their lives. That decision turned out to be a bitter mistake: he was beheaded by guillotine in 1794, along with his wife, on the charge that they had smuggled their four children to England about four years earlier.
In his years at the château, Antoine managed to leave his mark by creating English-style gardens, which were at the height of fashion at the time. Around the same time as his execution, the château was nationalized, and its entire contents were emptied out and sold off by the revolutionary government. About three years later, however, it was returned to Antoine’s son, Claude-Hippolyte Terray de Rozières, who in 1818 was appointed an officer of the Legion of Honor of France. The château’s troubles were not over: during the Battle of France in 1814, after Napoleon’s defeat, Cossacks from the occupying Russian army settled into the château and tore up its wooden floors for firewood.
The château passed down through the family for generations, until 1910, when Claude-Hippolyte’s grandson, Count Charles-Gérald de Rohan-Chabot, bought it from his two nephews and began restoring and preserving it. But tragedy struck again when his son and his son-in-law, the Marquis de Maillé, were both killed in World War I just 11 days apart. His daughter, Aliette, Marquise de Maillé de la Tour-Landry, remained the sole heir, and she took on the restoration and preservation of the estate as a lifelong project. She refurnished the château with 18th-century furniture, restored and preserved its buildings and gardens, and even founded an association dedicated to preserving and restoring historic buildings from pre-19th-century France.
When her only daughter, Claire-Clémence de Maillé, Princesse de Polignac, died of cancer in 1970, Aliette decided to donate the château to France’s Centre des monuments nationaux, on the condition that it be maintained and opened to the public. Aliette herself died about two years later, in 1972, bringing to an end the family line that had held the property for over two hundred years.
A few words about the château itself
The building sits in the middle of a sprawling park between the main road and the Seine, and it is connected by arcades to the service buildings (some of which were demolished in the 19th century) standing on either side. These arcades form an impressive entrance to the French gardens behind the château, in the center of which runs a canal in the style of the Grand Canal at Versailles, reaching all the way to the banks of the Seine. The architectural style of the maison de plaisance conveys ease and a deliberate lack of formality: large doors give direct access from the gardens into the building, and many windows let in plenty of light.
The main entrance to the château is through a large but unadorned entrance hall that leads to the grand salons, which include a library, a billiard room, a dining room and various sitting rooms. The spacious staircase is set off to the side of the entrance hall in its own separate space, to avoid unnecessary ceremony and grandeur. While the grand salons on the ground floor connect directly to one another in enfilade (a continuous passage from room to room), the bedrooms on the second floor are connected by a corridor, as is common in modern construction today, in order to create separation and privacy between the rooms. It’s worth noting here that this style of construction, so characteristic of the rural maison de plaisance and the urban hôtel particulier, marks the early beginnings of the modern home we live in today.
As you pass through the main gate on the road, you immediately notice the handsome building with its human scale, its careful symmetry and the pointed roofs so characteristic of French architecture. We were welcomed by a friendly guide who spoke only French, who accompanied us throughout the tour, which turned out to be a private tour of a completely empty site. With our basic French and limited vocabulary, we began the tour in the entrance hall and continued on to the magnificent salons, as she did her best to explain everything to the two baffled visitors who had landed on her out of nowhere.
The fact that it was just the three of us, and the quiet that filled this pastoral place, created the perfect atmosphere for a visit. At times it felt as though we had stepped back into the 18th century, our tour led by none other than the Duchesse de Rozières herself. The elegant salons convey a restrained country grandeur, free of the pomp so typical of the urban hôtel particulier. Wide doors connect the salons to the lovely gardens, and in a quick, unceremonious transition, we find ourselves stepping right into them. After descending a few terraces, we reach the Grand Canal, set within carefully tended French gardens. Walking along it brings us to the banks of the Seine, separated from the canal by only a narrow road. The French gardens are surrounded by English gardens with tree-lined avenues and various structures.
How to get to the château
Getting to Château de La Motte-Tilly is a bit tricky, since there’s no public transportation to the site. To get there, I rented a car from Vincennes and drove about an hour and a half southeast. For opening hours and days, check the website of the Centre des monuments nationaux.
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