Alfred Sommier

We owe the survival of Vaux-le-Vicomte to him. Alfred Sommier, a sugar industrialist, bought the château in 1875 when it was under threat, along with its 370 hectares of gardens and parkland.

For more than thirty years, he and his wife poured a fortune into a restoration led by architect Hippolyte Destailleur and into restoring the gardens.

Thanks to this patient undertaking, the masterpiece by Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Nôtre escaped ruin; the estate still belongs to his descendants, who open it to the public.