Château de Marmousse, Castle in Garnay, France

The Château de Marmousse sits in the Blaise River valley, with a main building flanked by two pavilions that mirror each other in style and detail. The grounds hold both French-style gardens featuring a 400-meter canal and English-style landscaping that was added around the redirected river.

The site began in the Middle Ages as a wooden tower on a feudal mound and evolved into a defensive structure against English attacks near Dreux. In the 18th century, Vincent Maynon transformed the property through major water construction and extensive planting programs that reshaped the grounds.

The seigneurial estate was held by the Maynon family in the 18th century; Vincent Maynon had a terrier drawn up between 1726 and 1730 and his son commissioned a plan of the seigneurie in 1756. In the 19th century the comte de Pinieux remodelled the grounds, and his wife's will credits him with works she valued at 260,000 francs.

Access to Marmousse follows the valley routes: from Garnay a straight tree-lined avenue leads to the château and opens onto the main avenue, with the forecourt and its two pavilions on the left and the park, kitchen garden and former mound on the right. The 18th-century plan places the old canal and water mirror on the garden side.

Vincent Maynon had a 400-metre canal dug from the Trou Blanc to the Garnay mill by diverting the bed of the Blaise, and laid out a French-style park with a water mirror. In winter, ice covering the Blaise was broken up, carted away and stored in the ice house.