Visiting Pierrefonds and Compiègne (France): Fortress Towns North of Paris by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
On
another cold, winter weekend in Paris, my husband Laurent and I drove north to
the imposing fortress on the Oise River named Pierrefonds.
Pierrefonds
is lit up dramatically at night, but there is not much to visit inside the Château.
The
Château at Pierrefonds reminds me of Barbara Tuchman’s book entitled The Proud
Tower. The Tower in the book is medieval
and watches over human wars and corruption and loses a few stones here and
there, but remains strong due to its solid stone construction – what the French
call “vielles pierres – “old stones.”
We
drove through the Fôret de Retz and the Fôret de Compiègne for an hour to arrive
at Pierrefonds to take photos.
There
has always been a château on the Pierrefonds site since the 12th
century. It is a fortress not a luxury
château. The main purpose of the Château
at Pierrefonds is to serve as a barrier against invasion on the Oise River.
To
finish the day off, we went to the town of Compiègne to do grocery shopping and
visit the town where my husband Laurent did his engineering studies in computer
science (hardware, software, and communications and electrical systems between
the two).
Compiègne
is famous as the place where Louis XVI met Marie-Antoinette in 1770. She was very beautiful; Louis XVI was said to
be “paralyzed with timidity” when he met his Austrian bride-to-be.
Both
cities have a spooky air to them when you drive through the forests with hoar
frost hanging off of them.
Both
of these “vielles pierres” towns might not be on the agenda for a first or
second trip to France, but maybe a third.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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