La Chaumière Aux Coquillages De Rambouillet La Fabrique De L'illusion Au Xviiie Siècle

In 1761, the publication of Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who advocated a "return to nature", contributed to the development of a taste for picturesque gardens in France in the last third of the 18th century. Following in the footsteps of the Prince de Condé at Chantilly and Queen Marie-Antoinette at Trianon, the Duc de Penthièvre had an English garden laid out in the park of his château de Rambouillet from 1779 to 1781, with three rustic and exotic structures: a Chinese kiosk, a hermitage and a thatched cottage.

Built in the heart of an island for the pleasure of the Princess of Lamballe, the thatched cottage was entirely restored from 2003 to 2007: this building, in which naturalism is brought to its paroxysm, contains in particular a living room whose extraordinary aquatic decoration still echoes the sumptuous furniture of François-Toussaint Foliot.

This book retraces the history and successive developments of the chaumière aux coquillages, which was for the daughter-in-law of Penthièvre what the queen's dairy was for Marie-Antoinette: an architectural gem in a green setting.