Welcome

1. Welcome

2. History The name of the village Jouy-en-Josas appears for the first time in the 9th century. The forests which, at that time, covered the region, were gradually cleared by the monks from the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, who, according to all evidence, were the founders of the parish. The estate inventory of the abbey at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, drawn up at the beginning of the 9th century, informs us that the village then counted one hundred and ten hearths, of which ninety-one belonged to the abbey. With the advent of feudalism, the domain of Jouy came into being through the exchange or acquisition of a part of the abbey lands. We don’t have a great deal of information concerning the first lords on the domain. However, we know that the fortified castle belonged to the Jouy family until at least the 14th century. As was the case all over the country, the village of Jouy suffered a great deal during the Hundred Years War. Armed groups laid it to waste on several different occasions. Nonetheless, little by little the village was rebuilt. At that time, the locality was under the influence of a powerful feudal lord, the Constable of Clisson, who perhaps contributed to this reconstruction. At the end of the 15th century, the domain passed into the hands of the Poncher family, and then, through transfer or inheritance, to the Escoubleau de Sourdis family. The last member of this family died in 1666 and the land was put up for sale. Antoine d’Acquin bought the lands and became the new lord of Jouy. Of relatively humble origins, he had won the favour of Louis XIV, and of the latter’s favourite courtesan, the Marchioness of Montespan. However, his luck did not last. The fall from favour of Madame de Montespan, implicated in a poisoning plot, led also to the fall from favour of Antoine d’Acquin. He withdrew to the provinces, leaving Jouy to his daughter for whom he had previously found a suitable husband. In 1749, Antoine d’Acquin’s granddaughter married the Marquis of Beuvron, who ten years later, became the colonel of a cavalry regiment. This promotion was the occasion for great celebrations in the castle at Jouy where he invited all his officers to take part in hunts organised on the grounds. It finally came into the hands of Adolphe-Jacques Mallet, a famous Parisian banker. The marriage of Mallet to Laure Oberkampf, the daughter of the workshop owner, implicated another union - that of the domain and the workshop. The castle of Jouy remained the property of the Mallet family until 1955. Information on the former structures is scarce. We believe that the castle was rebuilt at the end of the 17th century by Antoine d’Acquin. The unusual lower hall dates from this time. An interesting feature of this room is the rib vaulting, where we can see motifs in the form of fish and shellfish. The current castle dates from the beginning of the 19th century and was designed by an architect named Bienaimé. Thefront of the building includes a central building decorated with Corinthian pilasters, and a pediment flanked by two wings set slightly back from the rest of the façade.. The picture windows on the second floor are a little narrow but are nonetheless beautifully made. Taken as a whole, the style is evocative of Louis XVI. The garden was for a long time French in its design with ornamental ponds whose water supply came from the rivers and streams present on the grounds, as at Versailles. From the middle of the 18th century, the Marquis de Beuvron began to modify the general appearance through its transformation into English style gardens. In more recent times, the castle became the hub of the first campus dedicated to management issues in France when the CRC (Centre de Recherches et d’Etudes des Chefs d’Entreprise) was created in the early 1950s dedicated to the consolidation of the skills of top executives. In 1964, HEC took the radical step of moving out of the centre of Paris to a 250 acre campus in the grounds of the castle, thus becoming the first French business school to create a real campus outside of Paris. It was President Charles de Gaulle who inaugurated the groundbreaking new facility, which offered all the advantages of proximity to Paris at the same time as all the charms of the French countryside. The year 2000 saw a very happy union with the merger of HEC and the CRC which has created an academic powerhouse, HEC Executive Development, capable of offering programs catering to very diverse needs. The castle remains an extremely important part of this structure as it is now equipped with classrooms, hotel bedrooms, and a restaurant.