Baroque architecture in France was not as exuberant as in Italy, but very important in its own right. Like the Italian movement, the French Baroque emerged at the scale of the city as well as the individual building. The stirrings of the baroque city were in the development of several significant urban squares in Paris, notably Place Dauphine in 1607 and Place des Vosges (formerly Place Royale) in 1612. These French places differed from Italian baroque spaces in that they followed the pattern of royal, residential palaces and offered a form of aristocratic housing, rather than making existing buildings (ie. churches) more accessible. Place des Vosges is particularly significant in European urban history as the prototype of the residential square and for its consistent elevations. No longer an array of princes opposing each other (and living in country chateaux), the aristocratic residents of Place des Vosges appeared as a united backdrop for the monarchy.
The chateau, nonetheless, remained a significant French building type. The most important example is Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte, the home of Fouquet, Finance Minister to Louis XIV. Its architect was Louis Le Vau and landscape architect, André Le Nôtre. Vaux- le-Vicomte represented a new connection between architecture and the landscape. The gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte became a gigantic theatre for fêtes, rather than a secluded place for pleasure. The plan of the chateau illustrates typical features of the building type: court of honour, vestibule, salon. The relationship of rooms in French chateaux was en filade.
The story goes that Louis XIV was so impressed with the home of his Finance Minister that he set out to build one equally grand for himself, the Palace of Versailles. He hired the same architects to transform his father's rural hunting lodge into one of the most spectacular places in the world. The design of Versailles underlined the absolute power of the French king; the axis of the scheme centred on the king's bedroom. Indeed, the axis and the manipulation of water are key to this expression.
While the plan of baroque Rome tried to control the way people felt about the Church, the same forms in the context of French politics underlined the authority of the state. Both places set out to impress (overwhelm?) their visitors and to convince them that the world was in order.
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