Thieves tie up owners of France's Vaux-le-Vicomte castle and swipe €2m in valuables

French police are hunting for burglars who tied up the owner’s of one France’s renowned chateaux overnight and made off with €2 million (£1.8m) worth of valuables.

Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte, a 17th-century castle in Maincy, southeast of Paris, served as a model for Versailles and the backdrop for a string of film and TV productions, including the James Bond classic, Moonraker, and Sophie Coppola's Marie Antoinette.

A group of six masked criminals broke into the private apartment of owners Patrice and Cristina de Vogue, aged 78 and 90 respectively, in the early hours of Thursday.

The robbers bagged cash and valuables, including emeralds from a safe.

Police sources said the owners were unharmed and declined to be examined by a doctor. “The couple are doing well and the chateau remains open to visitors at the normal times,” management told AFP.

The De Vogue’s opened the estate to the public in 1968 and run it with their three sons. It has been in the hands of four successive families since the 17th century.

Vaux-le-Vicomte is the largest privately-owned heritage site in France, with grounds surpassing 500 hectares (1,200 acres), and welcomes 250,000 visitors per year. It is surrounded by a 13km-long (eight-mile) protective wall and comprises many fountains and statues, including one covered by 10,000 gilded leaves.

The chateau was built between 1658 and 1661 for Louis XIV's finance minister Nicolas Fouquet who fell out of favour with the Sun King after staging a lavish party there shortly after its completion.

Legend has it that the fountains, fireworks, buffet and Molière premiere play laid on for more than 1,000 guests dazzled the Sun King but also piqued his envy.

Fouquet was subsequently imprisoned for life and King Louis seized the castle and moved its most precious belongings, including orange trees, to Versailles.

Later, Voltaire was to sum up the famous fête by remarking: "On 17 August, at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France: at two in the morning he was nobody."

The castle was the first major joint project by architect Louis Le Vau, landscape gardener André le Nôtre and painter-decorator Charles Le Brun and marked the beginning of the "Louis XIV style”, which resulted in Versailles Palace.

Its garden is considered a masterpiece of the Jardin à la française, the French aesthetic of formal gardens that swept Europe in the 17th century.

Vaux-le-Vicomte has been hired as a celebrity wedding venue, notably for the 2007 nuptial party for French basketball star Tony Parker and "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria.

The chateau is due to be open to the public as part of this weekend's annual Heritage Days cultural event.