For more than 200 years the Résidence de Trianon has embodied luxury in the French style. The property with its orangery is one of two identical elements built for Jean-Rémy Moët in the period 1805-1817, making up an architectural complex that is said to have been designed by French decorator and miniature painter, Jean-Baptiste Isabey. Since 1967, following long occupation as a private residence, the Trianon has been reserved for the exclusive enjoyment of distinguished visitors to Moët & Chandon.
The Trianon Residence forms part of the Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars now included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The building complex was designed in counterpoint to Jean-Rémy Moët’s own private residence and built for his two children, the Trianon for Adélaïde and the Hôtel Chandon for Victor, who were gifted the properties in 1833.
Famous visitors to the Trianon include Richard Wagner who stayed in Epernay in 1858 to visit his friend Gustav Kietz, then the chosen portrait painter of the Chandon family.
Richard Wagner was received at the Trianon by music lover and seasoned connoisseur Paul Chandon de Briailles. They say that the composer found inspiration for his opera "Tristan und Isolde" (or was it "Rheingold"?) while playing the 18-rank Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Trianon music room.
Jean Chandon-Moët (1869-1930) and his wife Laure, née de Salignac-Fénelon, were the Trianon’s last residents. Since 1967, a few years after the death of Countess Chandon-Moët, the property has been a reception centre for distinguished visitors to Moët & Chandon.
The French formal garden and the orangery were designed in the early 19th Century, allegedly by Jean-Rémy Moët’s personal friend Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767-1855), first painter of the Empress Josephine’s Chamber and Court and decorator of the imperial theatres.
The building itself features a bottle shape that provides a pleasing counterbalance to its otherwise strictly classical design. Badly damaged in both World Wars, the Trianon underwent extensive renovation in the 20th Century.
The orangery is reflected in a 50-metre long reservoir, its image framed by plants and blossoms of every description (15,000 in summer, a mere 8,000 in winter ...): 50 Trinidad & Tobago rosebushes, santolinas, geraniums, ageratums, begonias, 3000 impatiences, rhododendrons, Japanese azaleas, marigolds, pansies, daisies, myosotis, gillyflowers …not forgetting the 600 metre rows of boxwood. In addition to its purely decorative function, the reservoir also served to keep the garden well-watered in the summer months.
Splendidly set amid rows of tall trees, the monumental staircase and the reservoir, the orangery provides an ideal venue for private receptions, watched over by Kentia palms more than 100 years old. Extensively renovated in 2003, it is also the ideal place to overwinter tender specimens. A greenhouse meanwhile provides sheltered conditions for ficus, orchids, tropical treecreepers and other exotic species.