I capture the castle

Royal presence: the Donjon of Vincennes © Paris et P.Berthé

The French tricolore flaps from the top of the Donjon of the Château de Vincennes over the heads of our little group. Despite the spitting wet wind, we are feeling pretty smug about being almost within touching distance of it, for we are among the first visitors to the top of this stunning medieval tower since it was opened earlier this month (February 2011), after a 13 million-euro restoration.

Not having visited the Château de Vincennes before, despite it being at the end of the 46 bus route which goes past the end of my road (and just as easy to get to on Métro ligne 1 and many other buses), I began scrambing for my camera as soon as the site came into view. The donjon is a magnificent tower and at 50 metres high the tallest surviving keep in Europe.

Though the modern town of Vincennes creeps up to the walls of the castle, it dares only go so far and no further. So the donjon stands commandingly proud of its surroundings, still dominating after all these years. Built in 1366 by order of Charles V,  this is the only medieval royal residence in France still standing.

Children will be thrilled to find every feature they could wish for in a castle  – indeed many were probably invented here at Vincennes. Moat? More than one and both huge – though grassy rather than watery. Drawbridge with chains? Two. Arrow slits? Battlements? Holes in the floor for pouring boiling oil on your enemies? Different holes for long-drop latrines? Check to all that.

Though the lower floors are open to all, the trip to the top is restricted to small groups with a guide, since there is only one set of spiral stone stairs. The commentary is only in French so far, but that shouldn’t deter non-French speakers who have already wandered round the  lower floors of the donjon and the rest of the castle grounds with the exhaustive – almost exhausting – audio guide. You’ll have had enough of the keep’s history by the time the group gathers on the second floor.

As we ascend, the floors become gritty and dusty underfoot and the rich carving of evangelists and angels playing bagpipes on the ceilings of lower floors changes to plain vaulting. This is where the soldiers and their big guns were quartered. The guide explains that all is solid again now that the central pillars have been restored – they had become fragile after a century of vibration by the métro trains far below. Charles V’s belt-and-braces architecture came to light when restoration workers discovered that metal reinforcements joined the central pillars to the outer walls – we can see the iron in the door lintels.

Donjon vaulted ceiling © Renata Rubnikowicz

The donjon went through many changes of use over the centuries – as royal palace, office of the head of state and prison as well as premier defence post.  Those incarcerated ranged from celebs like Diderot, Mirabeau and the Marquis de Sade to common criminals. But the  names carved into the stone on the top floor are more recent. During the second world war, Dutch and Italian prisoners left their marks on the central pillar, as did their Nazi captors. In August 1944, at the beginning of the liberation of Paris, 26 prisoners were executed by firing squad outside this donjon.

WWII prisoners left their mark © Renata Rubnikowicz

Then it’s up to the roof. It’s taken us about 250 steps up spiral stairs to get up here from ground level. As the wind whistles past our ears, the guide explains a little of the more recent history of Vincennes. Long after the days of trebuchets and cannons, the kings of France continued to enjoy staying at Vincennes to hunt in the forest. Far below us two falcons, these days retained to keep the pigeons down, wheel and cry in a mock fight, as they must have done since the  9th century when Capetian kings built their first hunting manor on this site.

Much later, Louis XIV employed Le Nôtre to create formal gardens around his palace. Part of his vista remains; the rest has disappeared under the buildings that were put up to house the workers who came here a century and more ago to work in the cinema city created by Pathé.

In the far distance, I can make out the Tour Montparnasse through the winter haze – and by screwing up my eyes very hard, the Eiffel Tower, the towers of Notre-Dame and the dome of the Invalides. Much nearer is the famous artificial rock that was home to the mountain sheep and goats of the currently closed  and much debated Parc Zoologique, and the woods of the Bois de Vincennes.

Soon – probably in 2012 – the restoration of the outside of Sainte-Chapelle will begin. (The decade-long restoration of the light-filled, soaring interior has already been completed.) After that, it will be the turn of  the curtain walls around the donjon to get a makeover, so this is a good time to visit and take some photos,  before the scaffolding goes up again and the Centre des monuments nationaux resumes its loving polishing of this gem of France’s heritage.

Reservations essential: 01 43 28 15 48; www.chateau-vincennes.fr