Champs-sur-Marne's park.

Saturday the 27th of July 2013, sun and heat were overwhelming us in our flat. We decided to drive to a park in Paris area. But which one??? There's so many!

Then, my husband Jonathan opened a guide book his brother has offered us last Christmas, and "stumbled" on the page "Castle and park of Champs-sur-Marne". When I looked on the web site Monuments Nationaux, we saw that it had re-opened just a month ago after six years of works and renovations!

After we parked the car on the parking near the entrance of the castle, we could admire the beautiful gate.

A flyer later, I had learned that the park was 28 hectares! Enough to make a LONG walk. With the children, we didn't visit the inside of the castle. Sadly for us, it seems that the renovation is quite successful (sniff...).

Castle on the court side. The access to the garden are either on the right or the left of the castle.
The light was bright, Gabriel couldn't look at me without hiding his face.

Decoration of the wall of adjunct buildings.
It's now a part of the research laboratories of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux.

Façade on the court side.

Details of the façade on the garden side.

The castle on the garden side. I find this frontage in half-moon remarkable. There, are the oval salons: the music lounge on the first floor, the big salon on the ground floor. The façade brings a feminin touch to the castle architecture. The view from the balcony must be great!

Between 1703 and 1707, the architecte Jean-Baptiste Bullet de Chamblain realized this neo-classical country house for a financier. Several owners have succeeded until the State received it as a gift in 1935 (the  historic furnitures have been sold at the same time to the French governement). From 1939 to 1974, it was used as a reception place for foreign Heads of State. Later, it has been opened to the public's pleasure. After six years of intense works, it has been re-opened at the end of June 2013.

The park mix french gardens, woods hiding antic statues and big prairie. Judge for yourself:

View from the terrace. The "embroideries" in boxwood mark
the start of the "Grande Perpsective" of 865 meters long.

One of the two parterres, with the duplicate of an antic "Apollo of the Gazebo".

Scylla's pond.

Secret entrance/exit? Gabriel was sure of it!

Gabou and his dad.

The Orangery with the horticultural garden, and
on the righ a little farther, the vegetable garden.

The prairie.

Prairie.

I'm zero in botanic, I really don't know which kind of tree it is.
 I just found them fascinating.

The big pond.

End of the great perspective and statue in stone "The horses of Apollo" (9m tall).
When you stand next to it, you feel really tiny.

The great perspective from the pond, facing the castle.

A walk in the undergrowth.

We will try to go back for another walk in this vast park. During Fall, the golden leaves must give to the landscape a very different aspect. I will have to do also the castle visit, since it has been restored!

Do not hesitate to discover this flagship of the 18th century architecture!

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I shared this post on the July 2015 link-up All About France, on the Lou Messougo's blog.