Saint-Germain-en-Laye

September 26, 2015

I was encouraged by one of my French teachers and by a fellow traveler to visit Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a town west of Paris, while I was in Paris.  It is a lovely town with much to see, including a castle which now houses an archaeology museum, and extensive gardens surrounding the castle.  It is also the birthplace of Louis XIV.

The town is easy to get to-- I took the RER A line from the Opera Metro station, and it cost about 3-4 euro each way.  (It helps that I have a chip-and-PIN credit card for buying tickets from the machines in the Metro stations.)  You do have to make sure you're getting on the right branch of the A line, but that is usually not hard to do; there are generally signs near the tracks that have the destination stops lit up.

It is a nice route, crossing the Seine several times as it undulates back and forth west of Paris.  We passed through a town named Le Vesinet that must be quite posh, judging from the large, elegant houses with yards that I saw right near the train tracks!

The castle and gardens are right there when you exit the RER station in Saint-Germain-en-Laye:


The castle dates back to the 12th century, but of the original, only the gothic chapel remains.  It has been rebuilt and expanded significantly over the years, and it now houses the Musee d'Archeologie Nationale.

Here is a closer view of the front left side, and a view of the back (more renovation going on):



The gardens were designed by the prolific Andre Le Notre, who also designed the gardens of Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte, etc.  They extend for quite some distance around the castle.








To the west there is a large terraced area from which you can look down onto the Seine, and beyond to La Defense (the skyscraper district west of Paris):


I then went in to visit the museum.  It includes historical artifacts from France dating from prehistoric times to about 750 AD (the end of the Merovingean era).  I didn't take a lot of photos, but here are some of the interesting artifacts.

Arrowheads and/or cutting tools, including one paired with the stone it was chipped from:



This is one of a series of carvings dating back about 19,000 years, found in western France during the early 20th century.  According to the accompanying text, these are the original carvings, not reproductions:


The museum described the phenomenon of the "tombe a char", in which a gaulois (Gallic) leader was buried in a tomb along with a chariot and accoutrements, including, for example, the horses' harness, weapons, and armor.  Examples of all of these were shown.  The text stated that these helmets were crafted with great skill from single sheets of bronze-- but it didn't comment on their unusual shapes:



There were many stained-glass windows looking onto the interior courtyard of the chateau:



After exiting the museum, I explored the town a little bit.  The mairie (town hall) is right across the street.  Very impressive looking!


I would have liked to visit a building I had seen illustrated in the architecture museum in Paris -- the Centre de Congres St-Leger, on the Rue de la Croix de Fer, which resembles a small chateau and has a large mirrored surface encircling it, like a moat!  However, I was a little tired, and it was too far to walk.

So I walked up and down some of the nearby streets, with no particular destination in mind.








As you can see, it's a very clean and charming town.  I also met this very friendly resident!



I assume s/he lived in one of the neighboring houses, but s/he didn't mind being petted by a visiting tourist!

Then it was back to the RER.  Because Saint-Germain-en-Laye is the end of the line, returning is easy-- all the trains go back to Paris.





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