Malmaison
The British Royal wedding is coming up, therefore a visit to a charming empress’ country house should seem like a splendid idea.
This specific small chateau is one of the closest to Paris and should be on your list of castle visits when coming to or living in Paris. I would call it ‘yet another reason why Versailles shouldn’t necessarily be your first pick’. Yes, Versailles is the symbol of French monarchy and a beautiful architectural piece, but years of high tourist numbers tend to drain the substance out of such a historical site. Plus a photo with you and the castle doesn’t seem as special when you take it with a few hundred fellow visitors.
Chateau de Malmaison made its way into history when it was bought by Joséphine de Beauharnais, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, a couple of hundred years ago.
The origins of the name are uncertain. Malmaison, from the Latin mala domus, means bad house. There’s the assumption that it might stem from the bad or poor attendance during the Middle Ages (e.g.: thieves, Norman invasions)
After her divorce from Napoléon, Joséphine received Malmaison in her own right, along with a pension of 5 million francs a year, and remained there until her death in 1814. Napoléon returned and took residence in the house after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), before his exile to the island of Saint Helena. (from Wikipedia)
Ticket is 6 EUR full price and free if under 26.
I didn’t have an ID with me to prove it, but they were nice enough to just ask me really fast what is my year of birth. 1987 (mille neuf cent quatre vingt sept), with my intermediary French level, went out rather slowly and the guy had to ask ‘Madame, vous etes sure? / Miss, are you sure?’; they still let me in as an under 26 year old, but I’m glad to have a funny story and memory of the Malmaison visit…
Gallery:
Vaux le Vicomte
Vaux le Vicomte is a baroque castle, near Melun, approx 50km southeast of Paris. General impressions: Vaux le Vicomte went straight to number one in our castle visits top, mostly due the unique and intriguing history behind it. Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux was the Superintendent of Finances in France under Louis XIV. When Cardinal Mazarin appointed Nicolas Fouquet as financial secretary in 1653, the collapse of the State Treasury was still causing great problems for France, and Fouquet was appointed to refill the empty Crown Treasury, which indeed he managed to do. Fouquet had already risen rapidly, and in 1641, at the age of 26, he had been able to buy the estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte, thus having been a rapidly rising shining star amongst the officiers. Nicolas Fouquet’s great and rapid success was due to his matchless intelligence and unparalleled daring. To these gifts of a sparkling and winning personality were added abundant generosity, a lively manner and great charms. The château was lavish, refined, and dazzling to behold, but these characteristics proved tragic for its owner: the king had Fouquet arrested shortly after a famous fête that took place on 17 August 1661 where Molière’s play ‘Les Fâcheux’ debuted.The celebration had been too impressive and the superintendent’s home too luxurious. Fouquet’s intentions were to flatter the King: part of Vaux-le-Vicomte was actually constructed specifically for the king, but Fouquet’s plan backfired. Jean-Baptiste Colbert led the king to believe that his minister’s magnificence was funded by the misappropriation of public funds. After Fouquet was arrested and imprisoned for life, and his wife exiled, Vaux-le-Vicomte was placed under sequestration. The king seized, confiscated or purchased 120 tapestries, the statues, and all the orange trees from Vaux-le-Vicomte. He then sent the team of artists (Le Vau, Le Nôtre and Le Brun) to design what would be a much larger project than Vaux-le-Vicomte, the palace and gardens of Versailles. The castle’s rooms are beautifully decorated; along the tour, in some of the States apartments and the basement you’ll get the chance to see an exhibition which puts back to life the most important moments of Nicolas Fouquet’s life, with the help of a neat production, using wax models, period costumes and surprising technical effects. see video below: There’s a great panoramic view from the castle’s Dome; a few narrow stairs, but you shouldn’t miss it. The inside wooden structure of the dome is also quite interesting. How to get there: Gallery:
from Melun there’s a shuttle bus taking you directly to the castle. One way ticket: 3,5€per person or 7€ round trip. Departure Melun Station, avenue Gallieni in front of the “café de la gare”.
Chantilly
Chantilly is a commune in Oise, France. We recently visited, but mostly for the Chantilly Castle and its gardens. Last year I read in the newspaper that they invested 6 million EUR in restoring the gardens… pretty good incentive for visiting.
General Impressions:
The castle itself was not 100% worth visiting. The ticket was 12eur and we just saw a small part of the castle, the one with paintings. They paintings gallery was great, but not enough. The apartments were closed and could only be visited through a guided tour (for which I suppose you have to pay extra).
The gardens on the other hand were impressive, the view was beautiful. Only thing missing were benches. There are 3 large gardens, one of them even has a few kangaroos, a donation made to the Estates. Close to the castle there is a large Hippodrome, Chantilly is famous for its horse races. You can get another ticket and see the horse stables also.
Even after seeing Chantilly I would still choose Fontainebleau as the most romantic visit.
How to get there:
From Gare du Nord you can take either the train or RER line D (30-45min trip). Station you arrive at is Chantilly-Gouvieux. Ticket is ~10eur/pers round trip.
By train you’ll maybe arrive 15min sooner, but RER is more frequent. RER is tricky if you buy the ticket from the vending machine; because the station is not listed (it’s outside Ile de France region). Maybe the best is to ask at the information desk.
When you arrive in Chantilly, outside the train station you’ll see a sign with the direction to the castle. Next to it there’s a Tourist Information Desk which is very helpful; they give you a map of Chantilly and they explain how to get to the castle.
La Capitainerie:
This restaurant is on the ground floor of the castle, in the Vatel’s kitchens. It’s interesting first of all because it looks unique and second because they serve the food as buffet. The cheapest menu/formule is 15 EUR.
Useful tips:
If you use Google maps as reference, note that there’s an error: Chantilly Gouvieux station is called Orry la Ville which is actually the one before Chantilly. It confused us a lot as we thought that’s our stop.
Versailles
We finally took a visit to Versailles, after 4 months of living in Paris; better late than never.
What is strange is that we first visited Château de Fontainebleau and not Versailles. Good that I can now make the comparison though. Versailles is special, it holds so much history, its gardens are great… you need more than a day to visit the entire estate. However, what Fontainebleau has over Versailles is less tourists (close to none), less popularity, meaning that you can truly enjoy the visit and have the best of it. Crowded sites like Versailles tend to spoil the uniqueness of what they can really offer.
The view was like this:
Useful info:
- It’s better to book your ticket online, and then pick it up at the Internet line, which is clearly smaller.
- Plus if you buy online you get 2 tickets at the price for 1
If you want to keep Versailles with you, after visiting, there is available a Chateau de Versailles DVD called The Visit.
In the DVD video “VERSAILLES, the visit”, Gérard Corbiau, the director, and Béatrix Saule, the author of the commentary, guide us for 60 minutes to the heart of Versailles, where we discover the palace, and the park and gardens through a circuit arranged chronologically and by subject matter. Accompanied by the best cinema technicians, the director shows us a sparkling and sumptuous Versailles. Certain areas generally closed to the public (Marie-Antoinette’s theatre, Louis XV’s “petits appartements”) are shown to us in all their intimacy.
The DVD video also includes,
- the making-off : a 20 minute film of the shooting directed by J-C Guillosson, which will show you the difficulties met by the team, both of a climatic nature and inherent to the palace’s architecture, as well as the extent to which the director has created a work of emotion through this documentary.
- the life at court, a two minute short length film showing the the museum’s collections (prints, paintings, etc.).
- the plans of the palace and its gardens.
- access to the film by chapter.
Fontainebleau
When it comes to sightseeing in France, not everything is about Paris. And it’s not all about crowded tourist attractions or endless waiting lines that just turn your leisure activity into an exhausting experience.
For example the region surrounding Paris, Ile-de-France, has several hot traveling spots.
Fontainebleau is for sure one of them. It is located at about 60km south of Paris, its main attraction being The Fontainebleau Castle.
The palace is one of the largest French royal châteaux, dating from the 12th century. Besides its great works of art it holds a lot of historic moments.
It’s great to see Napoleon’s throne or the table he signed his exile at. But for us, what really turned this trip into a great one were the Palace Gardens. Garden is a really limited word to describe the beautiful landscapes that surround the Palace. The place is so quiet and intimate it almost feels like you own it. To spice up you can take a horse carriage garden tour.
The commune of Fontainebleau is a rather small site so the center has one main street with smaller pedestrian ones along.
Fontainebleau is also renowned for the Forest of Fontainebleau and the Fontainebleau Golf Course (designed in 1909).
Useful information
How to get there:
- from Paris Gare de Lyon to Fontainebleau Avon; 35 min with the Transilien train
- train ticket price is 8€
- from the Fontainebleau Avon train-station there’s a 20min walk to the Palace.
At the Palace:
- the entrance ticket is about 10€ including audio guide, and 1€ if you are a student.
- the gardens can be accessed from around the commune and are free
- palace opens at 9:30 and closes at 18:00, as well as the gardens.
