Heritage Days 2025: concert and events at Désert de Retz in Chambourcy (78)

How about discovering the Désert de Retz during the Heritage Days? This Sunday, September 21, 2025, the site invites you to join us. It's time to immerse yourself in the world of this unusual area, with an attractive free program.

The Désert de Retz in Yvelines is a walk through history. Located in Chambourcy, the site welcomes us for an immersion in an 18th-century park of fabriques, a reflection of the Enlightenment. Designed between 1774 and 1789 by François Racine de Monville, the park was created at a time when architectural beauty and nature merged to create a space for reverie. Unfortunately, the French Revolution left its mark, plunging the Désert de Retz into oblivion.

Thanks to the Chambourcy town council, a wind of rebirth blew in 2009, after two centuries of disuse. Here, we discover fabriques inspired by Chinese, Oriental and antique styles, punctuating our tour.

• To be read
• This Week's Best Deals in Paris and Île-de-France, December 15–21, 2025

Iconic figures such as Marie-Antoinette, the Countess du Barry, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson have walked these grounds. You'll discover the destroyed 25-metre column, the ruined Gothic church, the temple of the god Pan, the Pyramide Glacière, the Tartar tent and the obelisk. A discovery that, we assure you, will not leave you indifferent.

The 2025 Heritage Days program at Désert de Retz :

• Time travel to the Désert de Retz!
  sunday, september 21, 2025 - 10:00 ⤏ 18:00
  

  For the European Heritage Days, the Désert de Retz opens its doors for a journey back in time! A wide range of activities are on the program to help you discover all the facets of this place...

  In partnership with the association "Le Désert de Retz, Jardin des Lumières".

  
  
  
• Alliance Orchestra concert
  sunday, september 21, 2025 - 16:00 ⤏ 17:00
  

  For the European Heritage Days, come and discover the Désert de Retz, an exceptional 18th-century Anglo-Chinese garden, in a whole new light. In partnership with the Département des Yvelines, the commune of Chambourcy is offering a unique concert by a quartet from the Orchestre de l'Alliance.

  
  
  

Here's a good plan to discover for these Journées du Patrimoine 2025 in the Yvelines. We're sure you won't be disappointed by this wonderful escape to an extraordinary place.