I’m always interested in knowing what inspires authors to write the books they write. What draws their muse? I love to travel.  I've been to ten different countries.  I love history.  Both stir my imagination.

So why did I write a story set during the reign of Louis XIV?  Answer: I just couldn't resist. :)  It was a time of high culture and corruption. Of elegance and excesses. The pursuit of sinful pleasures - a sport. Sex - an art form all its own. 

This fascinating time period had:

A glittering court,

The first School of Ballet,

World renowned Salons,

Tantalizing gossip sheets,

Poisonings,

The Man in the Iron Mask,

The Hope Diamond,

Playwrights, poets,scholars and larger-than-life Musketeers,

And, of course, sinfully sexy French lovers--famously uninhibited in the boudoir.

Their lusty King was among the connoisseurs of the carnal arts. Louis XIV had sex twice a day well into his seventies.

Because of the setting in my “Touch” series, it was easy to combine the two things I love to find in a historical romance novel - loads of steamy sensuality and intrigue. 

Authors take great pride and pains to make their stories as accurate and believable as possible.

While researching Fouquet’s chateau, Vaux-le-Vicomte, I sent those at Vaux an email to ask about their chapel. Did Fouquet have one built in Vaux, and if so, where was it? (I thought he likely had, as it was the custom of the time).

The last thing I expected was to get a response from the owner of Vaux, Count Patrice de Vogüé! I was so excited, I called my husband and then all my friends. Next to visiting the actual chateau itself, this is the most thrilling thing that happened to me while writing this book.

In a most delightful email, he advised that Fouquet had two chapels at Vaux - one for the servants in the east outbuildings and one on the second floor of the chateau. The windows of the original chateau chapel can be seen above the statues at the main entrance. Click HERE for photo. Sadly, in the nineteenth century, the chapel was dismantled and made into two rooms. According to the Count, the chapel had “wood paneling and wood columns all around and four stained-glass windows.”

So how does this info actually translate into the book? It’s a one sentence reference. But for me, that one-sentence puts a smile on my face just thinking how a kind Count took the time to answer my questions personally.

Merci, monsieur!

 

 

The man who built Vaux-le-Vicomte - the chateau in Touch Not the Angel.

A younger Nicolas Fouquet

 

This engraving was done shortly before his arrest in 1661. He is 46 years old here.