Monday, February 20, 2012

Chateau Vincennes

Did you know that this Chateau pictured above is really close to Paris? Like not in 'versailles' paris (which is close, but not close at all) but like a 10 minute drive, 22 minute bike ride or a 35 minute run from my house? It's Chateau Vincennes and I discovered it on Saturday and am totally amazed. First off, IT'S HUGE!!! The castle part itself is not the biggest I've seen, but the structure takes up an incredible amount of space. It's also magnifed by the fact that it's 'on the subway' line close to Paris....You're just minding your own business, going down a beautiful parisian street and then BAM huge ass castle. Gotta love France.

We visited the chateau on saturday when we decided to go on a bit of an adventure, which started by renting a bike via the Velib service here in paris. For those of you unfamiliar, it's a shared bike service which is pure genius. I pay 29 euro a year and I have unlimited bike use for up to 30 minutes. If you want to bike for more than 30 minutes, put the bike back and take out another one, or pay a euro or two extra. Easy as that! And they are all over Paris, so it's quite convenient. The hard part is biking in Paris. I must say that I've used bad weather as an excuse as to avoid trying this service, but really I was just being scared. I find walking terrifying in Paris somtimes (Motorbikes are the worst!!) so I could only imagine biking. Alors, determined to tackle our fears, we grabbed a bike and set our destinies on Chateau Vincennes.

The second part of the adventure was not only seeing Chateau Vincennes but going for a run around the Parc Vincennes. Unlike other major cities, there aren't really 'central' parks in which to run in Paris. And that makes it quite difficult as a runner because there are cars everywhere and you end up having to stop a lot or people honk at you and it's just a disaster. Considering I don't like gyms and I'm not keen on getting run over by a car, I needed to find another solution to exercise (and no, running through the cemetry pere lachaise is forbidden, despite looking like beautiful green space on a map. We know first hand). So we set our sites on Parc Vincennes and it did not disappoint. It was a huge, had lots of paths, tons of trees, grass, dogs...I was truly one with nature (or perhaps as one with nature you can get within the confines of Paris).

And it had the added bonus of an ancient chateau! Culture + exercise, what a pair! The chateau "like most chateaux' according to wikipedia was constructed as a hunting lodge for one of the Louis Kings. It's actually quite a famous castle, many of the kings were married there it's been added onto throughout the years (fortified, as they say). It was abandoned in the 18th century, made into a porcelain factory, a state prison (in the 1700s so not like those kind of prisons) and now is a beautiful place to go for a run. I highly recommend it.

2 comments:

Natalie Corinne said...

if we come back you have to take me there and we can work out for sure :)

Lindsay C said...

You mean when!