The chateau was used as a country house in the 18th century. It was once the centre of the Saron fiefdom – from which the Bochart de Champigny lineage derived its family name from 1630 onwards. From the 17th century, it was a site of astronomical observations by Jean Bochart de Saron and Pierre Gassendi and, in the 18th century, by Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard Bochart de Saron, Roger Joseph Boscovich and Charles Messier. The archives of the French Academy of Sciences mention the chateau as a place used to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun on 3 June 1769, to determine the path of Uranus in 1781, and to observe comets.

The chateau is surrounded by walled grounds that cover two hectares. The grounds include a vegetable patch and are dotted with age-old trees, including a 300-year-old plane tree and 200-year-old box and linden trees. A main court extends in front of the chateau, as does the garden, which an imposing wrought-iron gate separates from the village. A towpath along the River Aube demarcates the property’s lower section. Behind the edifice, a slope leads down to a pond. An outdoor swimming pool and a small greenhouse are hidden behind a large neighbouring 16th-century church and cannot be seen from the chateau.

The chateau

Despite the edifice having been built in separate stages, spread over different periods of history, the central section dating back to 1560 and the wings dating back to 1750 together form a coherent style, typical of the 18th century. A winter garden extends the east wing, to which it connects inside. The existence of an underground passage that leads to a retaining wall in the garden suggests that defensive constructions once stood on this site.

The back of the chateau faces south. The building has three floors and a basement. It is crowned with slate-tiled mansard roofing that has gentler bottom slopes and is punctuated with gabled dormers. Wall rendering leaves elegant dressed-stone quoins and brick window surrounds exposed. Tall cross-windows are filled with small square panes. The front of the chateau is flanked with a slender square tower capped with a pyramidal mansard roof that rises up to a finial.

The ground floor
The main entrance to the edifice is on the north side of the central section: you step into a vast hallway with Versailles parquet flooring and an oak staircase. A large reception room faces south, offering a commanding view of the grounds and pond. It leads out onto a garden terrace. Wooden panelling adorns the walls, all the way up to the ceiling, in all the ground-floor rooms. Indoor wooden shutters are paired with 18th-century windows filled with small square panes. A fireplace stands beneath a trumeau mirror. Paintings from the 18th century feature above the reception room’s four doors. These paintings have been restored and doubtless represent the four seasons. Original cabochon-patterned tiling adorns the floor.

The east wing once housed the astronomical study room of the mathematician and astronomer Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard Bochart de Saron – one of the first astronomers to discover the planetary characteristics of Uranus. This office has been turned into a kitchen. This kitchen features a large Lacanche cooker. Old tomette tiles cover its floor. A pantry adjoins the kitchen and a service entrance area with a lavatory and an 18th-century staircase connects to it too. Next, there is a lounge that connects to the pantry and to the large reception room. It is adorned with wooden panelling that rises up to the ceiling. Versailles parquet embellishes its floor. A trumeau mirror features above a fireplace with piers sculpted to resemble columns and a plate with a floral design.

In the west wing, a library connects to the entrance hallway and has the same style as the dining room. A small lounge with wooden panelling and parquet flooring can be reached from the library. It adjoins the large reception room. Lastly, there is the winter garden. This structure was built like a greenhouse in 1910 in a semi-cylindrical shape. It has glass walls, a glass roof and a splendid Émaux de Briare mosaic floor.

The mezzanine floor
On this intermediate level, there is a bathroom with old tomette tiles and 18th-century cupboards.

The first floor
In the central section, the main staircase leads up to a large landing that connects to several bedrooms. The first of these bedrooms is adorned with wooden panelling, wooden indoor shutters and a fireplace. A wardrobe in an alcove conceals a hidden passage. The second bedroom, which can also serve as a walk-in wardrobe, has painted wood flooring. The third bedroom has 18th-century cross-windows, wooden indoor shutters, strip flooring, an Empire-style marble fireplace and dado panelling. The latter bedroom connects to a bathroom with a modernised Empire-style bathtub.

A small landing in the west wing can be reached from the central section and an 18th-century staircase. It connects to a lavatory and a linen room. Further on lies a bathroom with a remarkable 18th-century tinned copper bathtub that has been modernised with taps. There is a fourth bedroom with painted strip flooring and a Louis XVI style stone fireplace.

In the east wing there are two bedrooms with wood flooring: one is referred to as the blue bedroom and the other has a fireplace.

The second floor
This level is an attic. A loft space extends above the whole building. A raised section in the middle was partly converted into four bedrooms 10 years ago. These bedrooms are plain and in good condition. They are less ornate than those on the first floor. The timber of the furniture and woodwork on this floor comes from an old sycamore tree that a storm uprooted in 2010. Two spare rooms lie in the west wing. In the east wing, there is a multi-purpose room that could be used as a dormitory or games room.

The cellar
The cellars are vaulted. One of them stands out for its colossal central pillar. It dates back to the 16th century.

The parklands
The lush grounds offer a remarkable vista from the chateau: a gentle slope that stretches down to a pond of ducks and water lilies with a touch of romanticism. Linden trees and age-old box and plane trees embellish this unique haven of greenery. An orchard and a vegetable patch complete this splendid outdoor area.