Chateau, churches and flowers

 

A post from 2016 which, for some inexplicable reason, remained unpublished.
Not so cold this morning so left the heavy jackets and scarves at home and headed for Chateau de Vincennes at the end of metro line 1 and just outside the Peripherique which marks the boundary of Paris (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Vincennes). Originally built as a hunting lodge it later became a royal residence with a rich history - Henry V of England died in the donjon in 1422 following the siege of Meaux and the unlucky builder of the chateaux Vaux-le-Vicomte, Nicolas Fouquet, was also imprisoned there as was the Marquis de Sade. It was at one time the home of a porcelain manufactory which later became known as Sevres which is now located on the opposite side of Paris.

Metro exit right outside the castle and cold wind so we decided to walk around the castle to the Parc Floral de Paris where we thought we would find a flower market. No market but a beautiful multi purpose park with over 8000 varieties of plants (http://en.parisinfo.com/paris-museum-monument/71343/Parc-Floral-de-Paris-Jardin-botanique-de-la-Ville-de-Paris) - it is one of several parks which make up the botanique gardens of Paris. On the way we passed the Fort Neuf military establishment (sandbagged guard posts and men running around in t-shirts and shorts as though it was summer). Couldn't help wondering how many of them are part of the military presence all over the city these days. The fort was built between 1841-44 and is one of 17 built for the defence of the capital. German spy Mata-Hari was executed at the fort on 15 October 1917.

It was too cold to wander around in the Parc but we thoroughly enjoyed the little we did see - including the setting up for some type of exhibition introducing people to edible food gardening with runner bean tepees and straw bale walls. We passed another Guard Republic base as we walked around the back of the Chateau and examined the deep moat and ongoing reconstruction (the Chateau is more open on this side and you can see quite a bit of the inside area). The Keep with its additional sloping walled moat and tower (obviously a place of last defence for the royals) appeared unassailable (there was a strange marking in the lichen of the most walls that looked like a kangaroo).

Deciding that it was top cold to spend any more time investigating this fascinating construct we repaired to a bar for warmth and coffee and to reconsider our plans for the day. In light of the cold weather a warm bus ride across Paris to the market at Clignancourt seemed like a good idea (another place we have not visited for a long while and a ride which takes us through widely diverse socio-economic area of the city) http://www.marcheauxpuces-saintouen.com/1.aspx  As well as the military presence Vincennes is a university town and, riding through town, we were impressed by the quality of the apartments and gardens. Passing over the ever busy Peripherique we passed between the columns of the Barrière du Trône and entered historic Place de la Nation (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Nation)  a double concentric round about where 11 roads converge. Traffic slowed dramatically as we approached Republic and we saw many police vans parked along the side of the road so we're not sure what to expect. When we got there we relived to see that there was no demonstration like Saturday but saddened to note that the police were parked all around the monument and the “nuit debout” people and tents had been cleared out (obviously the police are now taking a much tougher stance).

Forgot to check first and discovered on arrival that the market is only open sat-mon but still interesting to see the area without the crowds (only the stalls selling knock off runners etc are open). A brief walk around then back on the metro to home.