Tuesday, 1 October 2013

St Germain en Laye

Back in Paris, I am trying desperately to see and do absolutely everything and anything while I still have daylight and decent weather and time to spend here.

Sigh.

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Probably the easiest Chateau to get to outside of Paris is St Germain en Laye. It sits upon the RER A station and you just have to cross the street to get to it.

The main appeal here being the remnants of a grand André Le Nôtre garden, views of Paris, and the archeological museum that resides in the chateau. Which, wasn't much really.

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It was pretty basic, and the fact the the security guards seemed genuinely surprised to see me was telling. The place was empty.

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They did have some kind of cool pieces of art on display, especially in the gardens.

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It was quite warm the day I ventured out, and it seems like there are a lot of schools nearby, as there were crowds of teenagers hanging out on the lawns. Picnics were had, along with cigarettes over open books, and the occasional entanglement of limbs.

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There's just something so charming about a vineyard with a view of the eiffel tower.

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The gardens are well-maintained, but at one point the town took a huge chunk of them away to expand and build a road, so they used to be much grander.

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All and all, not the most exciting place to check out, but if you have the time and inclination to wander a garden in the 'burbs, you can't go wrong.

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