Weather Cool and Cloudy
Euro at $1.37
Today I took the RER B line a few stops down to the tiny town of Sceaux.
The town is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Paris and very "Disney" cute.
When taking the RER make sure you take the B line to Robinson direction.
The RER B goes south in two directions and there is Parc Sceaux on one line and Sceaux on the other. The ride is $2.00 from Paris each way from any of the RER B stops in Paris.
The station at the town is small and cute and as you walk off you realize that you are no longer in big messy Paris. You are in a cute village. Very Very French.
Had lunch in a cute cafe and then headed over to the church. The church was built in the 1200s and then destroyed and built later. Of course like many churches and monuments the revolutionists nearly tore this one down too. It was used to store wine and wheat until things calmed down and the church could return.
Walking into the Parc Sceaux from the town you come into a maze of perfect hedge rows, fountains and a wonderful chateau. The house was originally built by Colbert, a finance minister for Louis the XIVeme. Of course at the revolution the house was stripped of goods and torn down. The gardens sat without visitors for many years and has just only recently gone through a major re-vamp. The photographer Atget did a series of pictures on the gardens in the 1920s in their wild abandoned nature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Atget
Here are some great shots.
What I love about this place is that unlike Versailles there are no crowds!
Also it is easy to get to and just amazing, the house is not as large as Versailles, but the house and gardens are just as amazing!
(L-R: Back of House, Front of House, Side of House)
(L-R: From Back Door, From Side of Front Lawn, On Lower Grand Canal)
