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The Renaissance museum and a feudal fief

A ferocious world emerges
  • Gorgeousness and brutality
"Soldiers' pay" (detail, 16th-century tapestry at the museum)

 

The National Museum of the Renaissance nestles in a fortress turned into château, in Ecouen (12 miles north of Paris).

 

We can reach it by train with a walk through woods, which removes us from our world and prepares us for another.

 

If we drive, we can also discover stained-glass windows with an unusual focus, an abbey where swallows sweep through the ruins and the church where Gothic architecture began and the kings are buried, Saint-Denis.

 

Or we combine the most exceptional of each.

     

     

    • Sumptuous art and a story that announces modern France

     

     

    Head of a family, loyal to the King for 800 years...
    A Court of great elegance
      • An interpretation of the world these works reveal

       

       

      Martyrdom depicted on a serving-dish
      Destroying crops

       

       

       

      Nineteenth-century valor

       

       

      • We use these and other works of art to illustrate our suggestions.

       

       

      • Costs: please CLICK

      º Museum entry fee
       º Déjeuner

       

      • Transportation: the museum is in the Château of Êcouen, 11 miles from central Paris. We may:


      ° Take the train, from which we walk through a forest to reach the château. That sets the mood for entering another world.  

       

      ° Go by car or motor coach. The driver leaves us at its edge and meets us at the château. We can also go on to the chapel and abbey mentioned above – they were part of the same world. Rarely visited because outside Paris, they are all the more evocative.  

       

       

       

      Credits: Feudal lord (Anne de Montmorency), detail of portrait; hunt / 1930's schoolbook; heroic officer / 19th-century engraving; photos / Claude Abron