An Elite October Day Trip: Exploring Château de Maintenon & Vauban's Ruins | Maintenon, France

I took a day trip to the Château de Maintenon and the monumental Vauban Aqueduct, located about an hour west of Paris. Once the private residence of King Louis XIV's secret wife, Madame de Maintenon, the chateau is an intimate, storybook escape compared to the overwhelming scale of Versailles. Right in the backyard stand the towering, unfinished arches of Vauban's aqueduct—a quiet, majestic ruin built to feed the Sun King's lavish palace fountains, long before the funds ran out.