Chamarande and Étampes: The Château in Its Park and Queen Ingeborg's Tower

Required Activities

• In the park at Chamarande, find four of the things Pierre Contant d'Ivry put there in the 18th century — the orangery, the belvedere, the ice house and the cascatelle — then hunt for the temple of love at the centre of the oval grove, and on the way in read the pediment carved with a helmet and garlands and the words Pax huic domui

• Climb to the Tour de Guinette and walk round all four lobes of the clover it was built as, each lobe 7 m across and standing 36 m, then find the south postern and the vestibule behind it — anyone who forced the door and ran straight on dropped into a pit four metres deep

• Go round the outside of Notre-Dame-du-Fort to the royal portal on the south side, the best carving on the building, and then look up for the crenellated parapet and wall-walk added in the early 13th century — this is a fortified church. Inside, find the small crypt under the choir, the only piece left of the church Robert the Pious founded around 1022

• Walk the Guinette plateau and look for Étampes houses built with castle stone: in 1589 Henri IV let the townspeople take the castle apart for its masonry, and after the Revolution the new owner worked the keep itself as an open quarry until the town bought the ruins in 1859 to make a promenade of them

• Find the Manoir in the park at Chamarande and the ground kept round it for scouting: French Scout and Guide leaders were trained here from 1922 to 1951, and their training is still called le Cham after this place