First a medieval castle, it was remodeled in the 16th century by king Francis I in the Renaissance style recently imported from Italy (together with local artists who worked there and "souvenirs" that you can still admire on location at the Louvre). The gallery Francis I was the first gallery in France decorated with murals and gilded stucco. Francis's son, Henri II, added the beautiful ballroom, and, from then on, all monarchs until Napoleon III participated in the palace's remodeling and extension.

If you've been to Versailles, imagine almost the same size of palace with double the number of rooms to visit, with no big crowds (such a difference), with different styles of decoration from the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th century and, unlike Versailles, with a lot of furniture inside. The gardens, even though they were redesigned by Le Nôtre at the time of Louis XIV don't come close to the ones at Versailles (or Vaux) though...

The palace itself can be visited in one and a half/two hours. Like Vaux-le-Vicomte (with which it can easily be combined to make a full day excursion), it's 60 kilometers (37 miles) outside Paris South (one hour drive by car from the South limit of Paris).