Pierrefonds and Compiegne

Erin and I drove east into Northern France to visit a couple of chateaus. Very exciting, especially since this was Erin's first time navigating in Europe, trying to figure out which way to turn or exit a roundabout. Road signs around here, as in most of Europe, simply list a town with an arrow, no road names or directions, like I-10 west, simply Paris-->. It is up to you to figure out whether the town you're going to is on the way to Paris, after Paris, or nowhere near Paris. Even worse, you're almost never going to Paris, so you're looking for a sign with an "obscure" town name which may or may not be on your map. Even though she got the hang of it really quickly, I know that there were a couple of moments in the car when she wished that she'd studied our map of Northern France a bit more before we took off.

Pierrefonds

Chateau de Pierrefonds. Louis d'Orleans, the second son of Charles V, built this chateau in 1393. It was demolished in 1617 by Louis XIII. In the 1857, Napoleon III decided to restore the chateau and use it as an occasional imperial residence. Full restoration did not take place, as all work on the chateau ceased in 1885.

The chateau houses the Collection Monduit. The Monduits were master lead-workers, who were entrusted by the great French architects and sculptors to restore the spire of Notre-Dame-de-Paris and create the Statue of Liberty, among other things. This is a very small replica of the Statue of Liberty.

Compiegne

The Chateau de Compiegne is where Louis XVI first met Marie Antoinette. Tsar Nicolas II and the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna were the last royal guests to stay here, back in 1901. This is a picture of the outside of the chateau. The sign said that it closed at 5:00, but 5:00 really means 3:45, since they close all the doors at 5:00. Pretty neat from the outside, huh?

Trees lining the sidewalk along the cobblestone streets in Compiegne as far as the eyes can see.