The Most Beautiful Castle in France is Not in France

       Chateau des Thons sits majestically atop a wooded rise overlooking 12 private acres of lush formal gardens and leafy oak groves – an unexpected “time warp” that looms up suddenly at the end of a long winding driveway, confronting the awestruck visitor with a Versailles-like vista of spouting fountains, elegant balustrades, and lofty towers whose ivy-covered turrets dwarf the surrounding trees, and stretch more than 5 stories into the sky.
       The chateau was once the luxurious country estate of Voltaire, famed 17th century author of Candide, where he lived with his mistress, la Marquise du Chatelet in the decades before the French Revolution. Acquired in 1927 by multimillionaire financier Ashbel Barney (of Salomon Smith Barney) under a special dispensation from the French Government, the chateau was disassembled, literally piece by piece, with every stone, brick, tile and wood panel being individually marked and numbered.
       Then, gathering hundreds of master artisans and stone masons from every corner of France, and paying them on a scale which at that time must have seemed lavish beyond their wildest dreams, Barney put them all on a private steamship together with the stones, turrets, mullioned windows and priceless oak paneling and transported them to America, where they lovingly reassembled the chateau on seven prize acres of Long Island's exclusive North Shore. This area – the legendary “Gold Coast” – was the playground of America’s social and financial elite. Immortalized in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “The Great Gatsby,” this was where the Vanderbilts, Astors, Doubledays and other members of Barney's social circle had already built stately mansions of their own. The chateau soon became the scene of innumerable lavish dinner parties and society balls, where the rich and powerful gathered to flaunt their wealth, negotiate dynastic alliances, and marry off their pampered offspring into one another's families.
       One of the last of the great Gold Coast estates, the chateau stands as a superb example of French manorial architecture, a priceless treasure which the French press recently valued at $10,000,000, and whose "arrogant removal by a rich American" 70 years ago is regarded by members of the French establishment as an artistic and cultural tragedy which they have never ceased to regret – or resent.
       Among the chateau's many outstanding architectural features are: a 1,000-square-foot grand salon with exquisite floor-to-ceiling wood paneling of museum quality whose 10-foot-high glass-paneled doors open onto a magical vista of spouting water fountains and lofty oaks, an astonishing 330-year-old circular staircase, built during the reign of Louis XVI that rises to a height of nearly 40 feet and is hand-hewn entirely from native French oak, a 5,000 cubic-foot Master Bedroom with an 18-foot-high mirrored fireplace and domed chandeliered ceiling that soars to more than 22 feet at its apex.     Though impeccably faithful to its 17th Century heritage, the chateau boasts a 21st Century kitchen capable of serving 300 guests. Occupying over 400 square feet, the kitchen is outfitted with state-of-the-art restaurant-grade appliances, including an eight-burner Viking professional range, dual Subzero refrigerator-freezers, multiple sinks, and 30 running feet of stainless steel counter space. The chateau is also centrally air-conditioned, with a temperature controlled wine vault, and an oversize heated swimming pool covering more than one thousand square feet.