This is a fantastic blog. I don't know what impressed me more...the kitchen or the fish in the moat. But I kept thinking as you described the displaced townspeople (lucky souls who lost their independence to become servants), that it's no wonder there was eventually a revolution. Mostly I wondered, why did it take another 130 years for the populace to become enraged?

I visited Paris in 2000 and stayed in Vincennes, where the Château de Vincennes is located. Although this was once a royal residence, it was not nearly as well turned out as Chateau Veux-le-Vicomte. And I can't remember that any other tourists were in evidence.