Château de Vincennes

If you're out in the Vincennes area, you owe it to yourself to visit the Chateau. The last real castle in Paris, it has a long history stretching back to the 1400s. You can explore almost the whole thing. It's fascinating just how verticle the whole thing is: each floor is fairly small, but it still has plenty of rooms. A must-see location for any tourist.

I bought my little sister a scavenger hunt book for Paris and this was one of the locations she needed to visit. I would have never thought to come here. But it was a nice visit where we practically had the place to ourselves. There was construction going on at the Saint Chapelle but we were still able to go inside. She really enjoyed the castle and reading about the history and seeing what the various prisoners were there for. There is very little shade on the property outside of the buildings. So wear sunscreen or a wide brimmed hat. Also stairs, stair, and more stairs all in a spiral staircase form. Be prepared for your leg workout and at times the stairwells are narrow. One of the buildings has an elevator so perhaps opt for that to see part of the castle.

Yeah, if you're from Europe, maybe castles are old hat. But I'm not from Europe, and castles are still just about the coolest thing to us, especially if you grew up playing with Lego castles, dressing up like knights and Robin Hood, and watching the world's greatest movie....Princess Bride...

You can imagine my excitement to learn that there was a castle just a few metro stops from the hotel. You don't get to say things like that in the US. If you're lucky enough to even be in a city WITH a metro, you'd be more likely to say, 'yeah...there's a McDonalds a few metro stops away.' But here...here there's a castle.

This place is pretty awesome -- you can wander around outside to your heart's content for free, and if you want to enter into the Sainte-Chapelle and the keep, it's 9€, money well spent in my opinion. The Sainte-Chapelle is gorgeous - it's not as enormous as Notre Dame, but it does come without the huge crowds, so you get a more intimate experience especially if you're there during the off-season.

Did not visit inside, but came to watch Opéra en Plein Air outside. That was a fun and relaxed way to spend our last evening in Paris. You also get to see a wide cross-section of people here, some who dressed up as if going to a party, and some who come in their usual tourist garb (guilty -- less flat-out tourist, but on the more casual side). Be prepared for mosquitoes.

The chateau facade is impressive. Made a cool backdrop for the play.

On 25 April 2013, a friend and I took the Metro 1 all the way to end to find this local treasure. There are wide open spaces for kids to run around and explore. There are lots of stairs to keep your legs in shape! You may have difficulty if you are claustrophobic. Vincennes boasts the tallest Medieval Keep in all of France. As well, the beautiful Sainte Chapelle is there. We had a picture perfect day to explore. Don't forget the sunscreen for this excursion, else you will be reddened by days' end.

Actually in the neighborhood where my daughter is living at present, so we really didn't visit the place like we would a typical tourist attraction, but more accurately, took a stroll through the grounds and a chilly December Saturday. There were circus tents set up in the compound, and lots of people in cheesy Renaissance costumes, including two horses pulling Santa in a sleigh retrofitted with wheels.

Most of what I know about the place is from the previous YELP review. That said, the chapel is, indeed, gorgeous (requires admission charge) and the structure of the entire fortress with mots and drawbridges is impressive. One side backs up to a huge park; the other drops you right in the city of Vincennes. Admitting that we didn't actually buy a ticket to see the exhibits (e.g. inside of the structures) I would say this this all felt a bit less manufactured than Versailles. Worth a visit if you have another compelling reason to be out on the east side of Paris.

The royal history of Vincennes stretches back over 800 years, which is fairly interesting in itself to history buffs.

That said, I suppose it will sound jaded to admit that I was not overly impressed by my visit here. The medieval Donjon seems more or less stripped to its walls, which makes it hard to imagine the lives of the people who lived or visited here centuries ago.

I did really enjoy the Sainte-Chapelle -- not quite as impressive as the famous one in Paris, but on the other hand it is much less touristy. No lines. No metal detectors. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves. And you can go up into a balcony for a different perspective on the chapel.

There is a strong military history around the Chateau. It was a French military HQ during WWII and subsequently was occupied by the Germans, who destroyed parts of it when they blew up their ammunition depots before the end of the war. French Military archives are kept at the Chateau, and restoration work here is ongoing.

ps - My amazing wife discovered that there would be special military demonstrations - horsemanship, military bands, etc. - the day we were visiting. It was a lot of fun to be able to join the local community (no other foreign tourists that I saw) in viewing these impressive displays! You may be able to find information about such events at the Gendarmerie website - http://www.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr/garde_republicaine/Demonstrations/Les-formations-speciales-de-la-cavalerie Our experience viewing these horses and riders performing (to anachronistic techno music) leads me to boost the overall experience to 4-stars, even though they are not technically part of the chateau.