Château de Vincennes

On our last morning in France, we travelled just outside of Paris, in order to visit Château de Vincennes. This was a place that neither Claudio or I had heard of before we even arrived in France - in fact we only found out about it because the last station on Line 1 of the Paris Métro is called Château de Vincennes, and we googled it to see if there actually was a château there. We were really impressed by the pictures we saw on the internet, and so we decided it would be a nice idea to go there, especially as it's just three stops away from Porte de Vincennes, the métro station near the hotel where we were staying. 

For some reason, the château is really off the tourist radar, compared to Château de Versailles, and there were just a handful of other visitors there. But the place is really amazing, with big towers, a moat, a beautiful church, and a classically French palace.

It took us a while to actually find the visitors' entrance, but eventually we managed to get our tickets, which gave us access to both the church and the main tower (le donjon).

The interior of the church was really beautiful.

Inside le donjon, we looked around various rooms and learnt about the history of the château as a royal residence and prison. (Of course, as with most historical places and museums, it's hard to retain much of the information afterwards!)

We also went up on the roof, where we had great views over the rest of the château and the town of Vincennes.

One of the most fun things about our morning in Vincennes was that there was a big film/TV shoot going on at the château, and we could see horses and carriages and lots of actors in Victorian clothing! It would be interesting to know what they were filming!

To sum up, our morning at the château was a really nice way to round off an incredible few days in France. I hope it won't be too long before we're back in the hexagon again, whether that's for another holiday or to actually live there (which is something I'm feeling quite open to!).

After collecting our bags from the hotel, it was time for us to head to Gare du Nord and set off towards the second country of our trip. We were about to spend a very Christmassy couple of days in Bruges, which I'll be writing about next!