Moonraker: Vaux-le-Vicomte or the Drax residence

Vaux-le-Vicomte, build between 1656-1661 by commission of minister Nicolas Fouguet and designed by the famous landscape architect André le Nôtre, is the imaginary residence of villain Hugo Drax in the James Bond movie Moonraker. Presumably imported stone by stone to California we see Roger Moore in a helicopter flying over the garden.
Nicolas Fouguet was eager to impress his King Louis XIV (also known as the Sun King). But he was arrested in September 1661 by order of the King on suspicion of state financial abuse. Until his dead Fouguet remained in prison. After the arrest most of the furniture, paintings, sculptures, even trees were transported to the Louvre and Versailles.
Vaux-le-Vicomte is an extraordinary example of formal landscape design. Le Nôtre's design is powerful mainly because of the illusion of control over the landscape and the apparent infinity of space. Its composition is very specific to the geomorphology of the place, a highly complex three-dimensional geometry which of course could never have been recreated in California.
Ironically when rebuild its prime concept of design would have been totally lost.

[@ganimed1976]

why has that score in the background never been released on any soundtrack album so far? I love this score ;)

[@Ringelpiez68]

ganimed1976
Too short? I like it too.

[@coopersteves]

Some of the score is lost and may never see the light of day.

[@jhaley101]

The Moonraker Soundtrack is downloadable from a number of sources, the ENTIRE score is included. I agree, fabulous music from this film. I loved the way that they started the film at the very beginning while still playing a few seconds of the theme. This was a fabulous piece of work

[@franklinnose]

Ditto.