Île-de-France is France’s capital region, the political, economic and cultural heart of a country that has been centralised for centuries. But beyond Paris and its Haussmannian boulevards, the region boasts a territory of exceptional heritage, where royal forests, legendary castles and medieval abbeys coexist with dense suburbs and new towns.
Versailles is the region’s most famous monument: this palace, built by Louis XIV to embody the omnipotence of the absolute monarchy, with its 700 rooms, its 83 hectares of gardens designed by Le Nôtre and its grand apartments decorated by Le Brun, is the universal symbol of French classicism. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it welcomes over ten million visitors every year. Fontainebleau, Vaux-le-Vicomte, Chantilly, Écouen, Malmaison, Pierrefonds… The region boasts a concentration of castles and historic residences unrivalled in France.
The forests of Fontainebleau, Rambouillet, Sénart and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, whose stands of oak and beech have formed the royal hunting grounds since the Middle Ages, envelop these châteaux in their mantle of greenery. The valleys of the Seine, the Oise, the Marne and the Loing complete this picture with their landscapes, which inspired the Impressionists and the Fauves, from Monet to Vlaminck, via Sisley and Pissarro.