WITS END - JO LEE Magazine
WITS END - JO LEE Magazine
WITS END - JO LEE Magazine
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
THE RICH AND THE FAMOUS<br />
By<br />
Heide Van Doren Betz<br />
San Francisco – California<br />
Heide Van Doren Betz is a consultant in fine art, specializing in Egyptian,<br />
Greek and Roman art and Icons. She has taught History of Art and has<br />
created world famous collections of Antiquities and Icons.<br />
STUNNING<br />
CHATEAU<br />
DE VILLETTE<br />
PARIS - FRANCE<br />
Dan Brown’s super novel The Da Vinci Code brought to fame<br />
not only the quest for the Holy Grail, but an extraordinary<br />
chateau - Chateau de Villette.<br />
I had the good fortune to spend a week at Chateau de Villette<br />
to celebrate New Year’s with the beautiful and elegant owner,<br />
Olivia Hsu Decker. Every corner of the estate, inside and out,<br />
afforded visual pleasure beyond compare.<br />
This exquisite chateau is one of the most stunning period<br />
works of French architecture. The 180 pristine acres of<br />
forests, gardens, lakes, cascading and sculpture adorned<br />
fountains, are located a short drive from Versailles.<br />
Chateau de Villette was designed by the famous French<br />
architect Francois Mansart, whose subtle and elegant<br />
architecture is known to be a precise expression of French<br />
classical design, and completed by Jules Hardouim-Mansart,<br />
his grand nephew, in 1696 for the Count of Aufflay, Lois<br />
XIV's Ambassador to Italy. Ms. Decker has faithfully restored<br />
the exterior of the chateau to its period origins and<br />
reconfigured the interior into modern bedrooms and<br />
bathrooms with numerous sitting rooms, kitchens and salons.<br />
The elegantly proportioned gardens were designed by the<br />
greatest French garden and landscape designer Andre Le<br />
Notre. His visually breathtaking landscape designs at<br />
Versailles, which were created between 1666 - 1700, are<br />
perhaps the most famous gardens in the world. Marley, the<br />
retreat for Lois XIV when life became too hectic, and Vauxle-Vicomte,<br />
designed before Versailles for the French<br />
financier Fouquet, are superb examples of baroque French<br />
seventeenth century design by Le Notre .<br />
With such beauty and inspiration, no wonder The Da Vinci<br />
Code’s Sir Leigh Teabing had the inspiration to decipher the<br />
code.<br />
80 <strong>JO</strong> <strong>LEE</strong> SUMMER 2007
Change language