Feel like taking a stroll through thehistory of France? Go and discover the great castles of Ile de France, their stones conceal secrets that are revealed to the curious.
The Palace of Versailles is one of the symbols of the absolute power of the Kings of France. We will never tire of strolling in this universe imagined by Louis XIV to support his power to the whole world! And every weekend, the 55 fountains located in the 850 hectares of Versailles gardens offer an incredible show, inherited from the Siècle Soleil!
Built in the 12th century by King Louis VI the Fat, the Castle of Saint Germain en Laye is first of all a fortress in height, on a high site protected from the attacks. If the kings used it as a pleasure castle, Saint Germain became the favorite residence of King François I, who had the castle transformed into a Renaissance style. The magnificent monument now houses the National Archaeology Museum and brings together masterpieces of Celtic and Gallo-Roman antiquities, i.e. 3 million objects of which 29,000 are on display - from the Paleolithic to the early Middle Ages.
The Château de Rambouillet, originally a medieval fortress, has seen princes and kings come and go over the years, coming to rest 45km from Paris. The fort was transformed with time into a royal domain of pleasure with places dedicated to the leisure of the queens and princesses like the Dairy of the queen Marie-Antoinette and the Chaumière aux coquillages of the princess of Lamballe, remarkable places to discover!
Did you know that the Louvre was the first residence of the Kings of France? In 1190, King Philip-Augustus requested the creation of a fortified castle to protect Paris. At the time, the castle consisted of a square fortress (78 m x 72 m) surrounded by a moat some ten meters wide. Then, the castle was enlarged by its successors, who made it a less militarized royal residence. Saint Louis (1226-1270) had a large pillared room built in the basement of the castle. François I (1494-1547) decided to raze the Louvre Palace to the ground and rebuild it in the Renaissance style. The castle will be occupied by the kings until 1681, when the Versailles castle is built. Traces of the castle can still be found in the basement of the Louvre Museum, and the footsteps of the kings can still be felt in the rooms of the Louvre.
Did you know that? The Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, which belonged to Philippe d'Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV, lost its castle during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. Fortunately, it has kept its large and beautiful site of 460 hectares which offers a good synthesis of what was the art of classical gardens with its terraces, perspectives, green carpets, groves, green rooms, fountains and ponds.
This castle, known for its role as a royal residence in the 14th century, was used as a prison from the 16th century until the 19th century: Fouquet, the Marquis de Sade or Mirabeau were detained there. Transformed into barracks by Napoleon I, the fortress was to protect Paris and is still the headquarters of the Historical Service of Defense. Today you can still visit the King's apartments, the Sainte-Chapelle and even the upper parts of the Donjon!
The Château de Champs-sur-Marne is characteristic of 18th century pleasure houses built in the countryside. Built in 1708 at the request of Louis XIV's financier, it presents sumptuous rocaille decorations, as well as chinoiseries painted in the middle of the 18th century by Christophe Huet. Around it, the 85 hectares of gardens lead to the Marne, thanks to a 900 meters long path punctuated with copses, ponds, sculptures and more natural and wild areas. And a small curiosity, a Brie farm adjoining the castle still allows you to discover a cheese factory in its original state, with period utensils to present the process of making Brie cheese.
The Château de Fontainebleau is the only royal and imperial castle to have been inhabited for 7 centuries. It includes more than 1500 rooms, with 130 hectares of parkland, and has remained unchanged since the reign of Napoleon III, whose grand apartments can still be seen. To visit Fontainebleau is to benefit from an exceptional presentation of French history, art history and architecture.
The first enclosure of the manor of Blandy dates from 1220: the enclosure proposed then a square tower, a small cylindrical tower, a tower of justice and a square master tower, then, was fitted out in strong castle in the XIVth century thanks to a fortified door, a drawbridge and a body of housing... This castle is still visible today, with its keep and its curtain wall, remains of the 12th century rehabilitated by the General Council of Seine-et-Marne.
The Château de Bévilliers is mentioned for the first time in 1560, as a manor house, but the Château de Breteuil as we know it (renamed by the Breteuil family when it was purchased), was built in 1830. The castle gained two wings in return were added and the French garden was restored. Today, the Château de Breteuil hosts a beautiful collection of scenes that take us on a journey through the tales of Charles Perrault with Donkey Skin, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots...
The Saint-Jean de Beauregard Castle is a beautiful witness of the art of living in the Grand Siècle... Its name comes from its architecture which allows the garden to enter the castle and offers a beautiful panorama on the flowered gardens of 2 hectares. Its particularity comes from the fact that the castle is still inhabited but can be visited, as well as its flowery vegetable garden, its stables and its dovecote.
The fortified city of Dourdan is one of the best preserved medieval vestiges of Ile de France. Completed around 1222 by King Philippe Auguste, the fortified castle has preserved most of its innovative defensive structures for the time: dry ditches, curtains, towers and an entrance châtelet.
The Château d'Auvers-sur-Oise was built around 1635 by Zanobi Lioni, a rich Italian financier from the entourage of Marie de Médicis. In 1662, the château was sold to Jean de Léry, President-Treasurer of France, who transformed the residence into a French-style château. Since then, the castle has been rehabilitated as an impressionist museum, leaving little room for its original architecture in the interior rooms, but it is still pleasant to enjoy the 8-hectare park and the three gardens: the Italian Renaissance garden, the French garden and the English garden.
The Château d'Ecouen is a Renaissance castle built in the 16th century for Anne de Montmorency. For his residence, the Constable thought big and hired the best craftsmen of his time, who integrated the most beautiful innovations of their time: pavements, stained glass windows, panelling, friezes and painted landscapes, marbles... Today, the Château d'Ecouen houses a Renaissance Museum, whose works come mainly from the Musée de Cluny (Paris). Note the splendid tapestry of David and Bathsheba, with its constraining dimensions, 75 m long and 4.50 m high, and one of the very first copies of the famous Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, commissioned in Milan in 1506 from Marco d'Oggiono.
The castle of Ambleville is an old castle located in the French Vexin. If it was built in the Middle Ages, Louis de Mornay, its owner in 1711, decided to make a great transformation and asked the architect Jean Grappin to revise the facade to bring a Renaissance style to the castle. The story goes that Madame de Maintenon, then mistress of Mornay, went with the "Children of France" to Ambleville. The gardens, with a surface of 4 hectares, are composed of three terraces inherited from the Renaissance. Today the garden is a'remarkable garden' with its fountain, its pergola, its 4 squares of tulips, its 24 squares of peonies and black tulips, but also its 40.000 narcissus visible in spring!
The history of Villarceaux begins in the 11th century, when Louis VII founded a Benedictine priory of women who lived in quasi-autarchy. In the 15th century, the place was chosen to build a real castle to protect the Kingdom of France. This fortress was developed over time and today there are two castles, a golf course, accommodation in theold renovatedsheepfold and a farm with cultivable land.
The castle of Roche Guy on was built in the Middle Ages with a wall delimited by 4 towers, one of which is 38 meters high, all surrounding a square courtyard and a keep. During the Renaissance, the castle was enlarged with a main building and several terraces supported by arcades. In 1741, the castle of Roche Guyon was embellished with a vegetable garden along the Seine, which made it a charming place appreciated by the impressionists. Today, one can see the guard room, the billiard room, the small lounge and a magnificent library reconstituted in their 18th century state.
The Château de Jossigny, is a rocaille style residence built in 1753 by Jacques Hardouin-Mansart and decorated by rocaille ornamentation artist Nicolas Pineau. The 2.500m² building is composed of a main house and two side pavilions for the chapel and the kitchen. The courtyard is bordered, on both sides, by an orangery on the right, to the south, and the stables, to the left... If the Château still exists, it is nevertheless closed to the public (except on rare occasions). The Centre des Monuments Nationaux has launched a call for projects to enhance the castle and open it to the public in the years to come.
The Château de Maisons is a beautiful residence located at the edge of the forest of Saint-Germain en Laye. It was designed by Jean René de Longueil at a strategic location, precisely on the path leading the king from the Louvre to the Château de Saint-Germain en Laye. The idea was ingenious: to meet the king by offering him a short break during his journey. The nobleman called upon Mansart to build the castle:he even reserved a wing of the building for the monarch, with theKing's Apartment comprising a room with a ceiling of overlapping domes and a ballroom designed for the Sun King. With this strategy, Jean René de Longueil thought he would attract the king's good graces, and the king came to stay there one night in 1671!
Discover the Castle of Monte Cristo, the residence imagined by the writer Alexandre Dumas. In an English garden in the heart of the Yvelines, near Saint-Germain-en-Laye, you can see a castle with an exuberant 19th century style and its small Yew Castle. We take you to discover this hidden heritage, classified as a historical monument.
The castle of Malmaison, located in Rueil-Malmaison in the Hauts-de-Seine, is now home to the Napoleonic National Museum. During the Revolution, Josephine Bonaparte acquired it and the residence became the Imperial Palace of Malmaison, transforming it into the seat of government for a time.
And a little further on :
The Domaine de Chantilly has existed since the Middle Ages, but it was during the Renaissance that Anne de Montmorency decided to have a pleasure castlebuilt in the style of the French Renaissance by the architect Jean Bullant. In the XVIIth century, Louis II of Bourbon brings there great artists like Molière, Racine, La Bruyère and La Fontaine. In the XVIIIth century, great works followed: in 1719, Louis-Henri, Duke of Bourbon, enlarged the domain with the Grandes Écuries, then in 1740, Louis-Joseph continued his father's work with the construction of the Hameau, the theater and the Jeu de Paume. Unfortunately, the Grand Château was demolished during the Revolution, but it was rebuilt in 1875 by the Duc d'Aumale. Since 1898, the estate has been open to the general public and displays all the collections of the Duc d'Aumale.
The Domaine de Compiègne was bought by Charles V to build a fortified castle. This construction will keep a medieval aspect until the decision of Louis XV to rehabilitate the castle of his ancestors. He then called upon the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, but he died before the end of the work. Louis XVI will be interested in this domain and will continue the works of installation with the creation of the new wing giving on the park, whereas Marie-Antoinette makes important interior installations like theapartment of the king and that of the queen. The castle was refurbished under Napoleon I and Napoleon III, and the decorations are still visible.
The Château de Chambord was built at the request of François I in 1519, at a time when France was in full political, intellectual, artistic and philosophical turmoil. The Château was intended to be the architectural jewel of France, a symbol of power to be shown to the whole world even before Versailles. Its masterpiece is special because it is the famous double-revolution staircase, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, which allows people going up to never cross paths with people coming down. A masterpiece! You can also enjoy its gardens(French and Englishgardens ) but also the Cosson, the river that borders the castle.
The Château de Cheverny is one of the most famous castles of the Loire Valley. Built in 1624, the castle has kept its classical style. The apartments on the first floor are a testimony of the French art of living: the birth room, the King's room, the arms room and the private dining room. The park of nearly 100 hectares offers a vegetable garden, an apprentice garden, a tulip garden (to be admired in March and April) and a labyrinth.