The remnants of the Château-Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Pavillon Sully and the Rampe des Grottes dominate the hill of Le Pecq.

The history of the Pavillon Sully and the Rampe des Grottes (ramp) cannot be separated from that of Château-Neuf de Saint-Germain and its terraced gardens.

Henri II commissioned Philibert Delorme in 1552 to build the Château-Neuf.  Incomplete at the time of the King’s death, it was Henri IV who dictated its final appearance.  Louis XIV was born at Château-Neuf on 5^th September 1638.  He made a gift of it to Comte d’Artois, his brother, who had it demolished in 1784 in order to rebuild.  This new building was destroyed in the Revolution.  All that remains of the Château-Neuf is the Chapelle du Roi (King’s Chapel), the Rampe des Grottes and the Pavillon Sully.

The Pavillon Sully was the gardener’s pavilion; it was built in 1605 and subsequently occupied in the generations following by Michel Lavechef-Duparc, the royal gardener, and his descendants.

The gardens surrounding this pretty residence have maintained their delicate box hedges, immaculate lawns, flowerbeds, statues, fountain basins, melancholic charm and their unique view of the historic valley, which kings through the ages have strolled through, admired and loved.

The Rampe des Grottes supported one of the five terraces descending in turn towards the Seine.  The gardens between them are in the Italian style.  Within these terraces were grottos, dedicated to Neptune, Hercules, Perseus, Andromeda, and other mythological figures, richly decorated with marble, jasper and porphyry.  Clever hydraulic machines rotated, to produce a scene showing a calm sea at sunrise, and a stormy sea with thunder and lightning.