'I was offered the choice of any one of the four complete compartments which this building containts, in addition to a ground floor, which is given up to a ballroom, a billiard room, and a kitchen. I chose the smallest and simplest, above the kitchen, of which I also had the use. It was neat and charming, and furnished in blue and white. And there in that deep and delightful solitude, amongst the wood and the waters, to the sounds of birds of every kind, and amidst the perfume of orange blossom, in a continuous ecstacy I composed the fifth book of Emile, the fresh colouring of which I to a large extent owed to the sharp impact of the locality in which I wrote it.'

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 'Confessions', Book Ten, page 483.