Easter at Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte

One of the best-kept secrets in France is the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. I've already expressed how much I enjoy visiting the château in a previous post, but it really is an unforgettable experience. 

For our second visit to the château, we participated in their Easter festivities, namely a huge scavenger hunt through the gardens that led us "around the world" to see how different countries celebrate the holiday.

There were giant blue Easter eggs all around the grounds. London loved them and kept asking me to take pictures of her next to them.

This time we didn't go inside the château, but they had different artists come and decorate giant Easter eggs that looked very beautiful online. There was even an opportunity to win a giant chocolate squirrel!

The chocolate squirrel was 1 meter tall! 

The Easter event took place for a few days around the holiday and the château had everything well-organized. When we bought our tickets, we got a little booklet with the different clues and little facts that would lead us from place to place in the gardens. It was a great thing for London to look at while we walked around.

We met up with a family from Aaron's MBA program and had a wonderful time hanging out with them!

The Yamada family

At each stop, a different country would be highlighted and there would either be an activity for the kids to participate in, live music for us to enjoy, or fun information about the county.

Some of the specific ones that I remember were having the kids roll an egg down the hill (for Germany and the U.K.), catching an egg out of the water with a net (for Quebec), and listening to some wonderful music from Ukraine. Ukraine even had a neat little booth set up where we could buy little decorated eggs and also had a pretty tree all decorated for the holiday.

Such a pretty little tree (decorated from the Ukraine group)

Catching Easter eggs (Quebec)

It was a very nice walk around the grounds and the weather was fantastic! Eventually the scavenger hunt had us loop back around and led us towards the back entrance of the château. We made our last stop where we were rewarded with a bag of Belgian chocolates, one for each person in the group.

It was yet another wonderful day at Château Vaux-le-Vicomte. We ate lunch again at the restaurant here and everything tasted great (again) and the servers were very nice - they brought out a booster seat for London without us ever having to ask or search for one.

We also loved hanging out with our friends! It was so much fun spending the day together and hopefully we can get together again soon!

For more information, check out:
http://www.vaux-le-vicomte.com/

And to see more beautiful photos of this château, check out their Instagram page!

Garden in le domaine de Marie-Antoinette - Château de Versailles

One of my new favorite places these days is the gardens in le domaine de Marie-Antoinette in Château de Versailles. We've been lucky enough to have visited the grounds a couple of times now.

 All of the gardens of Versailles are beautiful. We've been several times and it is always enjoyable to walk around with our children.

The last couple of times though, we've made it a point to visit the Hamlet area of Marie Antoinette's domaine and have loved it.

Walking out of the Queen's château, you first see the English Garden with the Temple of Love. It was built in 1778 entirely out of marble. Marie Antoinette could see it from her room in the Petit Trianon.

 We continued walking past this in order to find the actual Hamlet and farm. I was excited for London and Adeline to see all the animals and was interested in seeing how Marie Antoinette's little village was laid out.

 We saw a few other interesting things along the way: the Rock, the Belvedere, a cute little bridge crossing the stream- all part of the English Garden.

 After a 10 minute walk or so, we came to the Hamlet.

I've always been curious to learn more about Marie Antoinette and now that we live in France and so close to Versailles, I am especially interested in learning more about her.

 The Hamlet was constructed between 1783 and 1787. Marie Antoinette was enchanted by the idea of rustic peasant life and would come here to escape the court of Versailles. No one could enter without her permission.

The village included eleven houses spread around the lake and also a working farm.

This tower was the departure point for boat rides or fishing outings.

 It's a very charming little village and we've enjoyed walking through it on both occasions.

Probably our favorite part though, is the farm.

Walking up to the farm, there is a small vineyard and beautiful little wildflowers. I actually took London's birthday pictures here. It's such a beautiful little area!

The first animals we saw were the chicken and rabbits. Both the girls loved peeking through the fence at them!

 There was also a bunch of goats and sheeps in the field. Of course we had to stop and watch them for awhile too.

 In another area there were different large birds (geese, ducks, etc.). I had to remind our girls not to put their fingers through the fence, but we continued to enjoy seeing all of the animals.

 Unfortunately, after the Revolution, the Hamlet was left in disrepair and wasn't restored until very recently. I'm so glad it has been restored! It was a great place to visit and not very crowded. It's located near the back of Versailles and is a bit of a walk from the actual palace. Luckily, there is parking closer to the Petit Trianon if you only want to visit that area.

We've enjoyed our visits to le domaine de Marie Antoinette and will definitely be visiting again soon!

For more information, please check out:
http://en.chateauversailles.fr/marie-antoinettes-estate

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte

FYI: Photo overload ahead- I couldn't get over how stunning this chateau was! It was hard to pick just a few favorites for the blog so there are tons of photos below. I hope you like them as much as I do. :)

The Monday before Christmas, we went to Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. We had heard that it was an especially nice chateau for children to visit.

The front of the estate

Where we ate lunch, near the entrance- Great experience and good food!

 During the month of December, the chateau is open on the weekends and everyday during the Christmas holidays (except Christmas Day). They have a special Christmas celebration going on complete with breathtaking decorations and beautiful Christmas lights everywhere.

Even the stables were gorgeous. The bottom left photo is of the chateau entrance.

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is privately owned and tickets are a bit pricier than some other chateaus (16.50 euros per adult - but children under 6 are free!), but I do believe it's well worth it.

For children 6 years and older, the chateau hands out a book of riddles for inside the chateau and a treasure hunt guide for outside in the gardens.

All children (and adults) can also rent era-appropriate costumes for only 4-6 euros (Yes, London and I totally dressed up as princesses together. Adeline was too small for the rental costumes - size 2 and up - so we brought a dress from home for her). London absolutely loved dressing up as a princess while we walked through the chateau and insisted that I be a princess with her. It was really neat exploring the rooms all dressed up.

Christmas trees were throughout the whole chateau and each one had a different theme.

At the end of the tour through the chateau, each child is given a souvenir. London got a princess and Adeline got a couple of fairies riding a horse. These are high quality toys that normally would have to be bought in a gift store, but here, it was all part of the experience for the children. I loved how involved the children could be in everything. London still talks about the princess chateau and still plays with her figurine.

There was a ferris wheel. Inside the chateau. 

This little girl was just a bit older than London. Her mom loved how they were both dressed up and the other little girl was so nice to London and kept wanting to hold her hand and be her friend. So sweet.

The bedroom above was my favorite. The middle left photos are of what a toilet, bathtub, and bidet looked like back then. The bottom left is the dining room table and the bottom right is of one of the ceiling murals.

The chateau was originally the home of Nicolas Fouquet. He was the finance minister of France in the mid 1600's during the reign of King Louis XIV.

Checking out their toys. Also, the restrooms here were great and even had changing tables!

 Fouquet brought together an architect, Louis Le Vau, a painter, Charles Le Brun, and a landscape gardener, André Le Notre to create the chateau and surrounding gardens.

This created an estate so much more spectacular than ever before seen and also introduced the formal French gardens now seen at just about every chateau.

The view from the back steps looking out over the gardens.

Everything in the grounds worked together to create beautiful symmetry and guide the visitors' eye to the appropriate area. Towards the of the formal gardens, one can look back and see the chateau seemingly rising above the entire estate. Even in December, the grounds were lovely to walk around.

Different angles of the chateau from different parts of the gardens.

Unfortunately, as soon as King Louis XIV saw the estate, he became very jealous and in August 1661 arrested Fouquet and gave him a life sentence in prison. Vaux-le-Vicomte was shut down and King Louis XIV hired the original three men who designed the estate to come create his famous Chateau in Versailles. 

This part of the land was intentionally kept to look "natural" or "wild" in order to make it seem as if Fouquet's land went on forever. 

Eventually the chateau got acquired and sold a couple of times over the centuries and now the descendants of the last family, the Vogues, run the estate and open it to the public certain times of the year.

We had a wonderful day exploring the chateau and it's gardens. Parking was right next to the entrance so we left the stroller in the car while we toured the chateau itself and went back and got it later for the gardens. Inside the chateau was beautifully decorated for the holidays. We looked around the rooms and enjoyed the decorations and history while in our costumes. London and even Adeline enjoyed looking around at everything.

You can also tour the stables right when you first enter the estate and see a collection of different carriages from throughout history.

For lunch, we ate at the restaurant on site and it was fantastic! Adeline bumped her head right as we were going inside and was rather fussy and a very nice staff member offered to save a table for us while we got our food (it was a bit crowded during the lunch hour). The food itself was delicious and we ended up having a very nice meal.

After lunch, we explored the gardens while our girls napped in the stroller. Christmas lights could be seen throughout the garden and it was all very beautiful.

We ended up spending the entire day at Vaux-le-Vicomte, from when they opened until around sunset. As we were finishing up our visit and letting the girls run around a bit before getting in the car, we could really see all the lights everywhere. There was also classical music playing near the front of the chateau so that combined with the lights and the chateau itself really created quite the magical moment.

We loved our day there and this might really be one of my favorite chateaus so far (although Chenonceau, in the Loire Valley, is also gorgeous!). I highly recommend Vaux-le-Vicomte, especially if you have children (although it's perfect for adults too).

The view from the front gates

For more information, check out:

http://www.vaux-le-vicomte.com/en/

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/a-royal-treat-chateau-hopping-near-paris

Chateau du Clos Luce | Leonardo Da Vinci's Home

London loved playing with all the inventions

As part of our trip to the Loire Valley (read about our other stop here), we visited the Chateau du Clos Luce, Leonardo Da Vinci's final home.

Leonardo Da Vinci moved here in his final years, from 1516 - 1519. This chateau is located only 500 meters from the Chateau de Amboise, where King Francois I lived (he is the one who asked Da Vinci to relocate to France). While we didn't have time to check out the King's residence, we had a lovely time visiting Clos Luce.

A bed similar to the one Da Vinci would have slept in

 First we toured the house. It was neat seeing and reading about how Da Vinci lived his last three years.

An original painting by one of Da Vinci's students

 At the end of the house tour, there's a room with miniature versions of his inventions along with explanations of each. We also got to see the underground tunnel that connected Da Vinci's home to the Chateau de Amboise.

Both of our girls did great as we walked through the home.

 After seeing the house, we had lunch right outside at the La Terrasse Renaissance. The food was great - I had a galette crepe (savory crepe) with tomato and cheese and some other good stuff. We got to overlook some beautiful rose bushes while we enjoyed our meal outside.

The best part of our day though, was roaming through Da Vinci's garden. All throughout the park were life size replicas of Da Vinci's inventions. The whole area was very family friendly. Our toddler had a great time running around and checking out how everything worked and our baby took a nap in her stroller as we enjoyed the lovely weather outside.

Replica of his Flying Machine

 While we were able to see a large part of the grounds, I do wish we could have spent longer seeing everything. This is definitely a place I would like to visit again!

Replica of his idea for a tank

Many of Leonardo Da Vinci's inventions could not be made during his time due to the lack of technology available. It's neat to see how throughout history, humanity has made use of his ideas as they have become possible. 

The chateau is open year round (with the exception of Christmas and New Year's Day). Adults are between 12 and 14 euros and children under 7 are free.

For more information, check out the following sites:
http://www.vinci-closluce.com/en/
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/amboise-charming-visitors-since-leonardo-da-vinci
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clos_Luc%C3%A9