Ermenonville

Ermenonville
Castle of Ermenonville Castle of Ermenonville
Coat of arms of Ermenonville Coat of arms
Ermenonville
Location within Picardy region Ermenonville
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardy
Department	Oise
Arrondissement	Senlis
Canton	Chantilly
Government
• Mayor	Alain Petrement
Area1	16.49 km2 (6.37 sq mi)
Population (2012)2	990
• Density	60/km2 (160/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	60213 / 60950
Elevation	71–122 m (233–400 ft) (avg. 92 m or 302 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Ermenonville is a commune in the Oise department in northern France.

Ermenonville is notable for its park named for Jean-Jacques Rousseau by René Louis de Girardin. Rousseau's tomb was designed by the painter Hubert Robert, and sits on the Isle of Poplars in its lake.

History

In 1974 Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed in the Ermenonville Forest in Fontaine-Chaalis, Oise, near Ermenonville.

Park

Main article: René Louis de Girardin

The garden at Ermenonville was one of the earliest and finest examples of the French landscape garden. The garden at Ermenonville was planned beginning in 1762 by Marquis René Louis de Girardin, the friend and final patron of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Girardin's master plan drew its inspiration from Rousseau's novels and philosophy of the nobility of Nature. Rousseau's tomb is prominently situated on the artificial island in Ermenonville's lake. It is remarked that Hubert Robert was the architect. Completed by 1776 with care and craft, the garden came to resemble a natural environment, almost a wilderness, appearing untouched by any human intervention. Girardin admired the work of William Shenstone at The Leasowes and made a ferme ornee (Ornate Farm) at Ermenonville. An imitation of Rousseau's island is at Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, Germany.

During the early nineteenth century it was much visited and admired. The garden at Ermenonville was described by Girardin's son in 1811 in an elegant tour-book with aquatint plates that reveal Girardin's love of diverse vistas that capture painterly landscape effects. Enhancing the elegiac mood of these views were the altars and monuments, the 'Rustic Temple', and other details meant to evoke Rousseau's Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse.

Nearby is Rousseau's 'cabin' in the secluded désert of Ermenonville.

Napoleon Bonaparte visited Ermenonville, where he remarked to Girardin that it might have been better for the French peace that neither he nor Rousseau had ever been born. Girardin retold this story again and again after the fact.

See also

• Communes of the Oise department

References

• INSEE commune file

External links

• Ermenonville official website (French)
• Château d'Ermenonville website (French)
• Ermenonville, Parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau - a Gardens Guide review