An Escape To Domaine de Chamarande
A random day trip took us to a hidden jewel in the Essonne department.
When you think castle or château, the first name that pops into the minds of many Francophiles is “Loire.” The region about 2 hours south of Paris is renowned for its spectacular châteaux. Our epic family bike trip through the Loire remains one of the highlights of our time in France.
But for a day trip, the Loire is just a bit too far from Paris (at least for us). We prefer to limit travel to about an hour. So with an open weekend, we decided to plan a little getaway. Because we are still relatively new to the North of France, the surroundings of Paris are a bit of a blank spot for us.
Not having a ton of time to research and prepare, I opened Google Maps and drew a mental circle of about an hour around our home on the western side of Paris. Within that parameter, I spotted a vast stretch of green called the Parc Naturel Régional du Gâtinais Français which offered lots of hiking, biking, and other outdoor activities.
This is not a park that’s likely to show up on many travel guides or Top 10 destination lists. I suspect it’s a bit overshadowed by the Forêt de Fontainebleau just to the east. After our trip, I mentioned Gâtinais to some French friends who said they had never heard of it and had no idea it existed. Just blank looks and shrugs.
Given the size of Gâtinais, we still had to narrow it down to a particular spot. Zooming in, I saw a castle thingy in a northwest corner of the park called Chamarande. Good enough. We hopped into the car, largely flying blind.
Domaine Départemental De Chamarande
One of the great things about living in France is that you can just close your eyes, point at a random spot on the map, and there is a very good chance that it will turn out to be lovely.
Ok, not every spot. The drive from our apartment took us through a lot of homogenous suburban nothingness filled with strip malls and low-rise office buildings and fast food restaurants and generic homes. Again, the kind of places that travel guides won’t mention but also exist in abundance here.
At the end of this somewhat monotonous trail, we arrived at Domaine départemental de Chamarande. As rewards go, this was a good one.
Despite this being a Saturday morning in late June with perfect weather, we basically had the 242-acre domaine to ourselves. As the day progressed, a few more families arrived for picnics and walks, a wedding party posed for pictures, and a non-profit organized a little lunch on the grounds for its members. Yet for most of the day, we could walk for long stretches without crossing another soul.
Chamarande is now run by the Essonne Department. The government council bought the estate in 1978 and turned it into a public good. That includes creating an archive for Essonne’s documents, which comprises an 8-floor silo under the château's courtyard that now has 32 km of shelves. We did not visit the archives.
We did visit the château which is now a contemporary art museum. The current exhibit included works of various media by 9 artists exploring the meaning of “territory.”
The grounds are dotted with other, often surprising artistic works.
But the main attraction remains the grounds themselves.
We walked the paths for hours which are sketched along a series of canals and a larger pond. Canopies of trees kept us mostly cool as temperatures climbed in the afternoon.
Various châteaux and houses for the richy rich had been built on this land as far back as the 9th century. The main predecessor was constructed in the 16th century but was sacked during a fun but obscure piece of French history known as the Fronde.
The Fronde (sling, referring to a preferred weapon by some) was a succession of civil wars between 1648 and 1653 during the reign of King Louis XIV. This was a major bummer for him timing-wise because the Thirty Years War had just ended but now France was at war with Spain. The uprising was led by various nobility and cardinals who were not pleased by a series of tax hikes. So, the king had a lot on his plate. As he tended to do, the Sun King defeated everyone and emerged more powerful.
Post-Fronde, Louis’ secretary, Pierre Mérault, bought the land and built the castle we see today. The brick, rectangular building had a moat and some ornamental trimmings but was not so garish by French castle standards. He also began developing a series of canals, lakes, and a few fountains around the grounds.
Apparently, Mérault wasn’t so good with money. He went bust and sold the estate in 1684 to pay off debts. The buyer was Clair Gilbert d'Ornaison, the "valet de chambre" to Louis XIV who gave it the name Chamarande. Over time, the domaine passed through numerous wealthy owners and local mayors before finally being bought by the local government.
At noon, we ducked out to each lunch at the only restaurant in town, which was decent enough. But the people who brought picnics clearly had the right idea. There are picnic tables sprinkled around the park, and our only regret on this day was that we didn’t pack lunches.
As random day trips go, we felt like we had won some sort of prize. And we still have the rest of the Gâtinais to explore one day.
For now, I’ll leave you with the Chamarande hype video:
Chris O’Brien
Le Pecq
Magnifique, many thanks