St. Germain-en-Laye

The exciting week of exploring continues...
Yesterday, I decided to take the RER A out to one of its (many) termini.  I ended up in St. Germain-en-Laye, not far at all from Paris really.

It was one of those rare, beautiful autumn days in the Paris area.  Usually, October brings rain...rain...and for a change, more rain.  But lately, actually, we've had some fantastic sunny, yet chilly, weather.
So, after arriving in St. Germain, I crossed the street from the RER station, and ended up in the grounds of the chateau there.  St. Rémy-lès-Chevreuse was a sleepy sort of town.  There weren't many people milling around.  But St. Germaine-en-Laye was crowded with people.  I especially noticed a pretty big high school, college age assortment of people.  (I noticed the university in Nanterre isn't far away.  Wondering if that's the reason for all the kissing, smoking, laughing, snacking kids sitting on the benches and in the gazebos at St. Germain?).  Anyway,  from what I understand, the chateau is quite famous for being the birthplace of Louis XIV, and also, for the being King James' residence during his time of exile from Britian.

The chateau was a really beautiful structure (as it well should be...most members of royalty don't tend to waste their time building mediocre residences...), but I found the grounds to be much more interesting.  There was a terrace that looked back into Paris.  From the terrace, I could see the business district in La Défense, which I found really cool.

I'd read that, during the French Revolution, when the revolutionaries were removing the names of royals from all the cities names, St. Germain-en-Laye was temporarily called Montagne de Bon Air.  As I stood there on the terrace, looking out onto Paris, I understood why they'd chosen the name.

Another interesting tidbit that I learned about St. Germain-en-Laye:  St. Germain-en-Laye was the headquarters of the German army from 1940-1944 during the occupation.  Because of this, there are occasional bunkers to be seen throughout the city.  Here's one I found just beside the chateau:

So, all in all, a fun and educational little day trip.  I enjoyed the chateau, the church, the bunkers, the parks, and the people (see below).

So, where to now?
This weekend is a work retreat in Calvados, Normandy.  From what Google is saying, Calvados isn't far from the D-Day beaches.
So, I'm excited for the history of the area.  I'm not too thrilled, however, about the prospect of the team building games that the high ups have assured us we'll enjoy during the weekend.
Still, I'm looking forward to the crepes and cider of Normandy, because I feel fairly convinced that nothing, not even jeux de connaissance can tarnish Normandy.
Although (and as a disclaimer, these are not my particular feelings toward my co-workers...), I just read this quote in Chris Baty's book, No Plot, No Problem.
Jobs are places where people who have no business ever meeting spend more time together than most married couples, making work an ideal hotbed for plot-generating alliances, rivalries, and schemes.
Often very true...
And speaking of Chris Baty and his National Novel Writing Month, we're only three days away from the start of Nanowrimo.  So, if there's a sudden absence, know that my laptop is busy pumping out 1,667 words of novel every night.
A la prochaine!