Chateau de Vincennes

There was earlier some confusion on Bopnopper's blog and commentary about "Sainte Chapelle". Someone said it was in the Chateau de Vincennes. Um,.... no. The most famous Sainte Chapelle is on the Ile de la Cite in the heart of old Paris, two blocks northwest of Notre Dame Cathedral and 1 block west of the Paris Hotel du Ville (city hall). Sainte Chapelle is famous for its unbelievable stained glass windows, two-thirds of which actually date from the original Louis IX construction in the early 1200's. (Louis IX is the fellow for whom St. Louis, Missouri is named.) In contrast, the Chateau de Vincennes is a fortress in the town of Vincennes some 8 miles east of downtown Paris. If you take the Paris Metro line to Saint-Mande (where we stayed each time we were in Paris), and then didn't get off at St.-Mande but rode two stops later (at the end of the line) the Metro stops in the town of Vincennes. The Chateau is right at the west exit of the Metro station. The original Chateau de Vincennes was built sometime around 1100, but all that's really left of that time period is the water cistern, a few steps and some foundations. Most of what is there today was built between the 1330's and 1400, well before Christopher Columbus' great-grandparents were even born. As with most castles and fortresses in France, there is a very nice chapel in the courtyard of the Chateau at Vincennes. This chapel is technically a "saint chapelle" (which simply means, holy church). But no one really refers to this one as "the Sainte-Chapelle". That term is used only for the more famous one in Paris. I've been to Vincennes with the Bry, and with Lint Monkey, Dubby, and Bopnopper. I believe Bopnopper has been twice. I can't remember whether PFC-A has been there or not, but if so, I can't find any pictures of his visit at the moment. Here is Lintmonkey at the entrance. Notice the dry moat to the right. Here's Lintmonkey, Bopnopper, and Dubby on the drawbridge over the moat. (Yes, a lot of castles we went to still have moats and drawbridges -- Bouillon, Lembeck, Leiden, Ghent, Tongeren, Horst, Arenberg... to name a few.) And here is the chapel, in the far background, located deep inside the courtyard of the Chateau de Vincennes. Click on the picture and notice the statues in the alcoves of the wall in the near background. Those statues are of the stereotype nude male "roman gods", which at one time had been well-endowed, but over the centuries have been subjected to vandalism of certain essential anatomical parts. These statues prompted Lintmonkey to comment on her preference for American statues, most of whom wear clothes.

The keep of the castle was being renovated on this particular trip. I believe the renovations were completed by the time Bry and I were there a year or two later.

One of the more memorable events that I'll associate with Vincennes is the conversation (in French, of course) that Dubby had with this nice French lady about the interesting cat carrier. (Yes, we actually did find a "nice" French lady (... although the only nice French man we encountered turned out to be from Wisconsin).