May 2012
1 post
Boulogne-sur-Mer: Castle and Fortified Town
How to get there:
From Paris to Boulogne there is a cheaper train (Intercite Corail) - around 30eur round trip. It takes 2h 40min to get there. You can find tickets on Voyage SNCF.
At the train station you’ll have a map so it will be easy to get around.
Where to stay:
If you’re in France you’ll always find Accor Hotels, even in small towns
We stayed at Les Gens de Mer, a good...
April 2012
2 posts
The Sceaux Estate: castle, museum and gorgeous...
This beautiful estate is really not far from Paris so there’s definitely no excuse for living here and not visiting. The castle is not among the most impressive ones, but the gardens are absolutely gorgeous, as you can see in the above image.
We had a really cozy picnic in the gardens, with a beautiful view, facing the castle.
How to get there by public transportation:
- RER B from...
La Roche-Guyon: the castle where the bus has no...
La Roche-Guyon is a must see castle within Ile-de-France. We went there around my husband’s birthday, for a b-day castle visit/b-day trip and we were very impressed with it.
We were totally mesmerized by the scenery, the castle is medieval and was built on a high cliff in the 12th century. There is a manor house below the medieval castle; that’s actually where your visit starts.
...
March 2012
1 post
Stop by the Vianden Castle while in the tiny Duchy...
Even if you don’t usually collect castles, you’ll want to pay this one a visit when in Luxembourg.
Well… first of all because there’s not much to do in Luxembourg City. Yeah, the city is capital and its tininess gives it a certain charm, but at the end of the first day you’ll realize there’s nothing left to do and you still have one or two more days to go.
...
August 2011
5 posts
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,...
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 collection, 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...
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...
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...
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,...