Vaux Le Vicomte

South of Paris is the Vaux Le Vicomte which is a remarkable estate built over 350 years ago by the then finance minister of France, Nicolas Fouquet. Unfortunately for him, the King decided that this elaborate house and garden put Fouquet above even the King and therefore sent him to jail.
The main house with wings on either side looks out on a very formal garden and down a long vista. This is a view of the mansion from within the formal garden

The view of the gardens from within the mansion is spectacular

The view from the front doors shows the formal gardens in front and a  long vista to a statue of Apollo in the far (over 1 km) distance.

The formal gardens with their clipped small box hedges would have been filled with flowering annuals originally.

There are lots of water features and of course statuary

At the bottom of the long expanse of formal garden is a "hidden" water feature that is visible only when you walk towards it. The view extends over this feature and to the statue in the distance.