Just 2 hrs from Calais and 45 minutes from Paris, Compiègne is a town of the Oise department, situated close to the A1 motorway, that is famous for its Imperial Palace (the château of Napoleon himself!) and its immense forest. The ideal destination for a weekend combining tradition with nature.
Compiègne Forest: immerse yourself in nature at the gates of Paris!
The forest of Compiègne stretches over 35,800 acres and is a delightful place to go all year round for couples thirsty for a breath of fresh air and natural surroundings.
900 km of roads and paths criss-cross each other forming hundreds of intersections where you can cycle on the cycle paths, go for a walk with a French national forests office ("ONF") guide in search of mushrooms or listen out for the stags bellowing and wander through the enchanting villages of Saint-Jean-aux-Bois, Pierrefonds and Vieux-Moulin.
The Imperial Palace of Compiègne, the residence de Napoleon
Near the hundred-year-old oak and beech trees, the gates of the palace and the main courtyard are at the heart of the town of Compiègne, opposite the cobblestones of the Place du Général de Gaulle. Before Compiègne became the home of the palace that can be seen today, there was already an earlier château going back to the time of Charles V. The young Louis XV, who was particularly fond of Compiègne and its forest for its hunting grounds, found that the château was to cramped, so he had it demolished. Rebuilt between 1751 and 1788, the Palace of Compiègne is one of the most understated monuments of French neoclassical architecture. Its massive structure is the work of Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the architect who, just a few years later, put together the plans for the little Trianon at Versailles and the two hotels of the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
A long countryside walk in the gardens of the Château of Compiègne
The way into this beautiful countryside setting is concealed at the end of a deep tunnel that passes underneath the "Terrasse de la Reine" (queen's terrace)
A word of advice: on leaving the tunnel and before going on your walk along the paths among the statues or losing yourself in the rose garden, go immediately left to get a bit of an overview. From the spacious terrace, the view overlooking the Beaux Monts path is really worth a look.
The Beaux-Monts gap: alternative walk in Compiègne Forest
Spring 1811. When the Empress Marie-Louise went to one of the windows of her apartments, she was stunned.
Whereas the evening before, there were still trees lining the view of the gardens, a splendid gap now cut through the heart of the forest. The legend of the Beaux-Monts was born.
It was Napoleon I who had a 60 m-wide gap cleared through the forest for the love of his wife and to remind her of the view from the Palace of Schönbrunn in Vienna.
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