A handsome and charming man, Monville danced so well that he was invited to all the balls.
But it was in architecture and landscape design where he really blossomed.
Perhaps the swiftly changing political landscape during the Revolution influenced him to remain.
In 1794, Monville was arrested and imprisoned, having found guilty by a Revolutionary Tribunal.
Desert de Retz passed through the hands of a number of owners.
In the 1930s the garden was abandoned and went into a long period of decline.
During this period, a number of structure, most lamentably the Chinese House, crumbled away and disappeared.
The garden was rediscovered in the 1950s by Andre Breton and his Surrealist friends.
The Column House in particular has been carefully renovated.
Photo:Elring/Wikimedia Commons
A cross section of the Broken Column House at the Desert de Retz.
