and “the little patron,” Blouin was considered to be a man of taste and culture. He loved to surround himself with “everything of distinction in the world of arts and letters.” A visitor to the property in Marly would have encountered prominent figures of the era, including Coysevox, Racine, Boileau, Girardon, and Mignard. After Blouin died in 1729, the Comtesse de Feuquières, the daughter of the painter Mignard and Blouin's mistress, occupied the property until her own death in 1742. The Comtesse de Vassé purchased the property in 1751 and lived there until she died in June 1768. In 1769, the Comte de Jaucourt, the heir of the Comtesse de Vassé, sold the château to Augustin-Louis-Marie Rouillé, the chevalier and seigneur of Vaugien. That same year, Rouillé sold the usufruct of the property to Madame de Saint-Martin, whose husband obtained the right to exploit the ice ponds in the surrounding park. Subsequently, in 1781, Rouillé, ruined financially, also sold the bare ownership of the property to the Villemoriens. In 1784, they obtained full ownership by purchasing the rights of usufruct from the heir of the widowed Madame de Saint-Martin. Monsieur de Villemorien, the Farmer General, and his wife, herself the daughter of a Farmer General, owned land separated from the Château du Verduron by a road through the Forest of Marly, a royal domain. They received permission to build a covered bridge over the road and thus enlarge their property. The residence was famed for the hostess's opulent festivities and the distinguished guests who attended them, including Saint-Aubin, who immortalized these gala celebrations in his engraving Le Bal paré. Madame de Villemorien, who had been widowed and subsequently remarried, sold the Château du Verduron to Charles-Michel Trudaine de la Sablière in 1792. He was arrested during the French Revolution and perished on the scaffold shortly thereafter. Sixteen heirs contested the estate, particularly the property in Marly. Ultimately, Citizen Augustin d’Herblez and his wife prevailed by purchasing the shares of the other heirs. The Château changed hands again in 1797, bought by Marie-Joseph Bourgouin. The unoccupied residence was imperiled until its purchase by the Parisian banker Pierre-Antoine Ravel in June 1802. An anecdote from this period tells of the hunting expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte, then the First Consul, who had the gates of the abandoned park opened so that his company could ride through the chateau's salon in pursuit of a