Château de Boursault (France)
Located near Épernay (North-East of France), in the town from which it bears the name, the Château de Boursault was built in the mid-19th century for a lady who still makes her name resonate around the world today: la “Veuve Clicquot”, owner of the famous Champagne house.
It was the architect Jean Jacques Nicolas Arveuf-Fransquin who was responsible for building the castle, while he was restoring Reims Cathedral at the same time.
Renaissance style and richly decorated, the Château de Boursault subsequently became the property of the great granddaughter of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot-Ponsardin (the real name of Veuve Clicquot): Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart, better known as the Duchess of Uzès.
There is also a famous painting by Léon Cogniet featuring the Veuve Clicquot, with her great-granddaughter at her feet and the Château de Boursault in the background.
About the Duchess of Uzès:
. She was the first woman in the world to obtain a driving license (in 1898 – called at the time “certificate of driving ability”)
. She chaired the Automobile Club de France feminine. She survived the fire in the Bazar de la Charité (1897)
. She owned several castles: Château de Villette, Château de La Celle, Château de Ronqueux and Château de Bonnelles (her favorite)
. She died at the Château de Dampierre (Yvelines – near Paris)
. She was also: poet, racing driver, sculptor and writer
. She stayed at the Château de Brissac (with her family by marriage), in Maine-et-Loire, where a room still bears her name today.
