Paris | Private Escape to Maintenon Castle - Chartres

🔸11:06-11:54 🚄 Train to Maintenon, a small town. It’s a 15-minute walk from the station to the town center, where you'll find the Château de Maintenon. Currently, the château is closed, so only the gardens are open for visits. 🔸The Château de Maintenon was originally built for King Henry II’s finance minister, and later gifted to Madame de Maintenon by Louis XIV. At that time, she was just the governess to Madame de Montespan’s children, not yet his mistress. With the estate, she earned 11,000 livres per year, allowing her to live independently. Over time, Louis XIV visited her often, their relationship deepened, and she became the Marquise of Maintenon, later his mistress, and eventually his second queen. 🔸Around noon, we entered the château grounds, and there was no one else! It felt like our own private château—so cool! The garden extends to a canal, and there’s a golf course nearby where some geese were splashing around. The sky was clear and sunny, so we sat on a bench facing the river, with the château at our backs, enjoying our packed panini and sushi, soaking up the sun, and watching the geese swim by while classical music played in the garden. As I relaxed on the bench, half-dreaming, I wondered—was Madame de Maintenon’s life like this, 400 years ago? 🔸At 3:03, we took the train 🚄 to Chartres, visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral. There were lots of European senior tour groups! Afterward, we strolled through the main area of the town, but nothing really stood out—just a commercialized medieval town. We joked that Europe has its own version of the water towns in Jiangnan, like a medieval "Zhouzhuang" 😂. #MaintenonCastle #Chartres #Paris #DayTripFromParis #ParisDayTrip