Ecouen 8-28-15

For my birthday, Deb bought me a little book called "An Hour From Paris" which has 20 some day trips all within an hour of Paris. She tracked it down after our walk out to the Guinguette Auvergnate, which was closed for August at the time, based on a blog we read that mentioned the book as the source.  
I looked through the book and based on a forecast of cool sunny weather, selected a trip out to Ecouen-Ezanville about 25 minutes north of Paris.  So we took the train from Gare du Nord out to the town where we got off.   The book details a quiet walk through the forest that leads up to a chateau. Due to yesterday's rain it was a bit damp but the path is paved part of the way and the forest looks to be old growth Oak and other trees which we can't identify.  It has very heavy undergrowth and would be pretty disquieting in the dark.  Anyway after about a kilometer of hilly walking we got to the chateau.

Overlooking the town is a full blown Renaissance chateau, Chateau d'Ecouen, set in a large forest park.  Built in the early 1500's it was the seat of the Ducal Montmorency family, the first Duc Anne was the constable of France at the time of Francois Premier and his son Henri II.  So a very powerful and rich family indeed.  It now houses the Musee Nationale de la Renaissance and contains objects associated with that period of time.  Many of the pieces came from the Louvre, the Cluny Museum, when that museum decided to focus on the Medieval period, as well as family treasures and donations from private citizens.  
I know I've been overusing superlatives, but it was beautiful and the museum has many fantastic objects.  The crowning pieces must surely be the 15th century tapestries, thought to have once belonged to Henry VIII of England, detailing the biblical story of David and Bathsheba. There are 10 tapestries panels each at least 12 feet tall and ranging in length from 15 to 25 feet, the literally fill a full quarter of one floor of the chateau.
 There are so many objects from this time period that one can't possibly encompass them here.  But two other notable things were:  an automated Galleon/Clock that propelled itself down a table while playing music and shooting a small cannon, and a machine used by metal workers to extrude wire from various types of metal, like gold, silver, brass, and iron.  Both quite fantastic in their conception and execution.  There were perhaps 30 other people in the museum while we were there  museum it must surely be little visited by tourists, unless they are French, due to it's location.

A rennaisance lace collar

We then had a very agreeable walk back to the train station and a nice ride back home.