Sunday, December 11, 2011

Le Château d'Écouen

Middlebury's last weekend excursion of the fall semester was to the small town of Écouen, just north of Paris, not even as far as Charles de Gaulle airport - we were treated to lots and lots of newly airborne planes in the air. The visit for the Saturday afternoon was to the Musée de la Renaissance, housed in the Renaissance château de plaisance in Écouen. This "pleasure castle" holds France's largest Renaissance museum (oh la la!)... perhaps unfortunately... the place was quite large and the Renaissance is really just not my thing... But there were certainly some cool things to see and the prof leading the group is very knowledgeable (if at times excessively verbose!).

 La forêt d'Ecouen

 Le Château d'Ecouen


 Neoclassical revival architecture characteristic of the Renaissance in France


Decorative ceiling of the chapel

One of the more interesting meubles (furniture) that we saw: 
a trunk with a highly elaborate locking system in the lid

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