Alas, non. The story of the Château des Thons, according to Mr. Michel, is somewhat less operatic.

Voltaire, Mr. Michel said, was "never, never, never" in the Château des Thons. The story was started by a former owner of the Upper Brookville home, Mr. Michel believes, who visited Les Petits Thons and may have confused the details of its ownership.

It's no surprise that the tale, like a game of telephone across many years and an ocean, had lost some truth between two chateaus and two Mmes. du Châtelets.

The Château des Thons, as it stands on Long Island, was built from the stones of the original right wing of a castle in Thons once owned by Voltaire's lover's cousin by marriage, Jean du Châtelet, Mr. Michel said. The owner's wife, also a Mme. du Châtelet, lived in that wing.

Voltaire, on the other hand, lived with his Mme. du Châtelet in her husband's chateau in Cirey-sur-Blaise, also near Dijon. With the husband's surprising permission, Voltaire renovated the crumbling Château de Cirey and designed and built an additional wing. Having made some keen financial investments, according to the book "Voltaire Almighty" by Roger Pearson, professor of French at Oxford University, Voltaire had become "wealthy enough to employ his own little army of masons and carpenters to build a love nest" at the Chateau de Cirey.

As for Mr. Barney, who had the chateau transported, local versions of the story were also off a little. He has been described as the Barney of what is now Salomon Smith Barney. In fact, in his obituary in The New York Times in 1945, he was identified as "a member of an old New York family," in charge of the Barney Estate Company, his family's holding company.

No matter for Mr. Brown, the current owner. He considered the story of Voltaire living in his Château des Thons something of a bonus, but not the reason he bought the property. The house itself is distinctive, he said, and at the time that was what he and his former wife wanted. The property is for sale through Linda Brown of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty. Over the years, advertisers have been drawn to the chateau's classic magnificence and have used it in magazine advertisements for various products. Photos have shown flowing-haired models draped over tall horses in the parterre with the faded beige stone exterior and red-tiled roof as the backdrop.

Robin Rougeau of Lake Charles, La., discovered the house in an insurance company ad in Smithsonian Magazine. She fell in love with the house immediately.