Situated on the edge of the Marly forest, on a hill overlooking the Seine, the charming village of Louveciennes, formerly owned by the Abbey of Saint-Denis and built around a Carolingian moutier, has long been a farming village, cultivating vines and fruit trees on the hillsides along the Seine. In the center of the village, still surrounded by old houses, the church of Saint-Martin-et-Saint-Blaise was built between the 11th and 14th centuries and features a beautiful rose window, interesting stained-glass windows and naive Romanesque capitals. The move of Louis XIV's court to Versailles, then to Marly, made the commune famous: the waters of the Seine flowed through the village, thanks to the Marly machine installed in Bougival, before feeding the water features in the parks of Versailles and Marly. The aqueduct built by the architect Mansart still bears witness to this, majestically overlooking the commune with its majestic arches. It's one of the most beautiful hydraulic structures in France. The rise of the pipes along the Seine hillside and the reservoirs still used by the water treatment plants are part of the listed landscape. Several châteaux were built here in the 18th century, due to the proximity of the royal court, such as the château and music pavilion of the Countess du Barry, the beautiful favorite of King Louis XV, who lived here for half her life, until her execution in 1793. The 19th century saw the construction of Château de Voisins, now the training center of the Banque Nationale de Paris, Château Beauséjour, now the town hall, and Château de Prunay, not forgetting the charming 20th-century Château du Pont. With the arrival of the railroads in the 19th century, first in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, then in Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, estates of the upper middle classes were built alongside the châteaux. Bankers such as Laffitte, Beer and Vernes, leading doctors and high-ranking civil servants met writers such as Marcel Proust, Guy de Maupassant and Leconte de Lisle, musicians Gabriel Fauré and Camille Saint-Saëns, sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet and actresses Anaïs Aubert and Julie Bartet in the salons of Mme Aubernon and Jean Dornis. But the calm of the village, its wide vistas over the Seine valley, its soft light and the charm of rural life also attracted the great Impressionist painters during a very fertile period in their art: over 120 paintings by Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley and Monet depict Louveciennes. Few villages have been so celebrated by these masterpieces, now dispersed in museums around the world. More recently, Louveciennes has been home to Marshal Joffre, writer Anaïs Nin, the Count of Paris, Brigitte Bardot, journalist Jean-Pierre Pernaut, actor Jean-Hugues Anglade and conductor Georges Prêtre. Today, with a population of around 7,500, Louveciennes offers tourists the chance to discover an immensely rich and perfectly preserved historical and artistic heritage through its narrow streets, alleys, old buildings and parks surrounding the church.

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