Chalet "Marie-Louise"

Completed in 1863, it features a checkerboard pattern of yellow and ochre bricks and light wood friezes. But its two-level galleries, where the emperor liked to smoke and chat in good company, overlooked the street. Napoleon III resented being at the mercy of unwelcome admirers. What's more, an imperial domestic dispute put an end to the empress's stay in Vichy in July 1863. This would explain why Napoleon III asked architect Lefaure to build two other chalets. One, in honor of his imperial lady, to make up for her amorous indiscretions. And the other, to regain more privacy. Doesn't Flaubert attest to the unpleasantness of the imperial aura? When he was on holiday in Vichy, accompanying his mother to a health cure, the writer mocked the Second Empire fans: "bourgeois who fought over the chairs in the park" where the imperial figure could have rested.

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