Château de La Chaize :
a Historical Monument

In 1667 François de La Chaize d'Aix, Captain of the Lyon Regiment, and later Seneschal of Lyon, purchased the estates of the Lords of La Douze in Odenas. A couple of years later the old castle collapsed, burrying his two sons and leaving him without any direct male descent. The new house was built between 1674 and 1676 after the plans of Jules Hardouin Mansart, Superintendant of the Royal Buildings of King Louis XIV, together with its gardens after the drawings of André Le Nôtre the King's Gardener and landscape architect of the gardens of Versailles.

Little by little François de La Chaize d'Aix enlarged the estate by purchasing bordering fiefs - several hundred hectares - and the estate which by then bore his name was successively raised to the rank of a county (1677) and later of a marquisate(1693).This was partly due to the influence of his older brother, also called François, the Reverend Père La Chaize * d'Aix, the Jesuit confessor of King Louis XIV. After his death the estate passed on to his deceased son's son-in law, the Count de Montaigu, Ambassador of King Louis XV in Venice (whose private secretary was Jean-Jacques Rousseau).

Today the estate is the property of the Marquise de Roussy de Sales who inherited it in 1967 from her aunt the Marquise de Montaigu. In 1968 she started an important program of restoration of both the house and the gardens.Since 1972, the setting, the castle, the winery and its cellars together with the gardens have all been classified as Historical Monuments..

(°) the Père La Chaise cemetery in Paris was given his name after he gave the city the land where he had his country estate.