Explore Ile de France: Ecouen

Ecouen is a quick 25 minute train from Paris, and is home to an original 16th century French Renaissance chateau. The chateau was built by Constable Anne, Duke of Montmorency (yes, Anne was a man... not sure how that works), one of the wealthiest men in all of France at the time. It now houses Renaissance art, especially objects d'art, which refer to smaller items like jewelry, ceramics, etc. Although the sky was grey and we were drizzled on during our walk to the chateau, it was a wonderful day nonetheless. In fact, the walk from the train station to the chateau was through a beautiful wood:

With a pedestrian signpost that for some reason reminded me of some sort of torture device... Is that bad?

And the approach from the wood to the back of the chateau makes it easy to see why they would choose that location:

Although the moat was no longer filled with water, the chateau still stood impressively:

And the views of the little village of Ecouen from the front of the chateau were charming:

The most famous art housed in this chateau is a tapestry set from Brussels, made in the early 1500's telling the story of David and Bathsheba. The awkward thing about it is that the clothing and decor was all Renaissance... In this small scene (I could only back my camera up so far), you see Uriah on the left kneeling to David when he is called back from war, and then you see on the right Bathsheba seeing him off as he leaves for war, with no hanky-panky in between (which, of course, was the problem).

I also thought this little piano was super cool:

But my favorite piece of art was this little statue that I think represents the Trinity: Father, with his odd crown, Son dying in his arms, and Spirit as a dove between the two. Pretty different, but captivating:

We snapped one more picture in the courtyard before the rain caught us:

And Chris snapped this lovely photo when I got home. Since so many of you have been asking for belly photos (I know my coat kind of covers it up), maybe this will help (of course, I'm already bigger... gosh it grows so fast!!):