Well here it is, the second half of September, my how time flies. Pat had expressed interest in seeing a "castle" as one of his must see items. We took him out to Provins on Saturday to see Cesar's Tour, which is medieval but not a full blown castle. So today the goal was to go see the Chateau de Vincennes, the fortress built by Jean le Bon in the 1300's it is by god a real castle. But before we went to the chateau we wanted to take Barb to one of the really good markets in our area.
So we started by taking bus up to Place des Fetes, where on Tuesdays there is a full blown street market. They have everything from food to furniture and in between, there are clothes, shoes, small hardware sundries, etc. We wandered around the market for an hour or so looking at the seafood, the meat and poultry, the vegetables, and fruit. Barb bought some luscious dates which we started consuming on the spot, delicious. But as I said after an hour or so we continued on the bus until we came to a stop that coincided with the tram which would take us to the Porte de Vincennes, which is the edge of the Bois de Vincennes and the location of the chateau.
Deb and I have seen it from outside but we had never taken the opportunity to go in and tour the chapel and the castle keep until today. The first stop was the Holy Chapel, modeled on the famous Sainte-Chapelle on the Ile-de la Cite in the heart of Paris. It had 15th century stained glass in all the windows until a major wind storm in 1999 destroyed almost all of the side glass. It is also the tomb of the Duc d'Enghien who would have been the successor to Louis XVI had he not been assassinated on the orders of Napoleon. It was characterized as the biggest mistake of Napoleon's reign by Tallyrand. Next we we toured "the Keep".
It is the real "castle" portion of the chateau, built in the 14th century by Charles V it is a square building of 4 stories surrounded by a curtain wall, a moat, and a draw bridge. It is 50 meters high and is the highest medieval keep in France. We toured the interior room, some of which still had vestiges of the original paint used to decorate the stone. It is very interesting to see how modest the rooms really are in size, because when we think of a castle we think of gigantic banqueting hall sort of affairs.
It is not the case with this keep other than the center rooms, the satellite rooms are all pretty small, about like a bedroom might be in a modern house. We went through all the open areas and enjoyed the views from the high windows before heading down to the courtyard area and back out to the street for the bus ride home. Great experience for Pat and Barb and us to have seen this edifice together. A first for all of us.
So we started by taking bus up to Place des Fetes, where on Tuesdays there is a full blown street market. They have everything from food to furniture and in between, there are clothes, shoes, small hardware sundries, etc. We wandered around the market for an hour or so looking at the seafood, the meat and poultry, the vegetables, and fruit. Barb bought some luscious dates which we started consuming on the spot, delicious. But as I said after an hour or so we continued on the bus until we came to a stop that coincided with the tram which would take us to the Porte de Vincennes, which is the edge of the Bois de Vincennes and the location of the chateau.
Deb and I have seen it from outside but we had never taken the opportunity to go in and tour the chapel and the castle keep until today. The first stop was the Holy Chapel, modeled on the famous Sainte-Chapelle on the Ile-de la Cite in the heart of Paris. It had 15th century stained glass in all the windows until a major wind storm in 1999 destroyed almost all of the side glass. It is also the tomb of the Duc d'Enghien who would have been the successor to Louis XVI had he not been assassinated on the orders of Napoleon. It was characterized as the biggest mistake of Napoleon's reign by Tallyrand. Next we we toured "the Keep".
It is the real "castle" portion of the chateau, built in the 14th century by Charles V it is a square building of 4 stories surrounded by a curtain wall, a moat, and a draw bridge. It is 50 meters high and is the highest medieval keep in France. We toured the interior room, some of which still had vestiges of the original paint used to decorate the stone. It is very interesting to see how modest the rooms really are in size, because when we think of a castle we think of gigantic banqueting hall sort of affairs.
It is not the case with this keep other than the center rooms, the satellite rooms are all pretty small, about like a bedroom might be in a modern house. We went through all the open areas and enjoyed the views from the high windows before heading down to the courtyard area and back out to the street for the bus ride home. Great experience for Pat and Barb and us to have seen this edifice together. A first for all of us.
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