Château d'Hérouville  The Château d'Hérouville is a French château of the 18th century (1740) located in the village of Hérouville, in the Val d'Oise département of France, near Paris. The château was built in 1740 by Gaudot, an architect of the school of Rome, from the remains of an earlier 16th-century château. In the 19th century, it was used as a courier relay station (between Versailles and Beauvais) and stabled a hundred horses. Several accounts, including one by the BBC, suggest that in the mid-19th Century, composer Frédéric Chopin conducted his love affair with the writer George Sand there. The château was painted by Vincent van Gogh, who is buried nearby. The estate also doubled as a recording studio, producing now iconic hit records throughout the 1970s. The château comprises two wings, plus a number of outbuildings. It has 30 rooms, a swimming pool and a tennis court and is set in 1,7 hectares of parkland. An octagonal stone drinking trough in the courtyard is a protected historical monument. The composer Michel Magne purchased the chateau in 1962. He was best known for having been nominated in 1962 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment for "Gigot". He converted the building into a residential recording studio after a fire devastated its left wing in 1969. The musician, director and sound engineer Laurent Thibault took over management of the studio in June 1974. The Grateful Dead were there on 21 June 1971. Jerry Garcia tells the story:  A recording of the Grateful Dead's performance is available online. During the first years of the studio, in 1971 and 1972, some important records of political Portuguese folk music (Música de Intervenção) were recorded at Château d'Hérouville. These included the seminal record Cantigas do Maio by singer-songwriter José Afonso in 1971. Also in 1971, José Mário Branco recorded his debut album "Mudam-se os tempos mudam-se as vontades" and Sérgio Godinho recorded "Os Sobreviventes". Sérgio Godinho would also record his second album "Pré-Histórias" at the chateau in 1972.