A Walk of Discovery through the Parc Saint Cloud by Annabel Simms
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Overlooking a bend of the Seine to the west of Paris, the 988-acre Parc Saint Cloud is relatively unknown to foreign visitors. It was designed by Le Nôtre for a vanished château completed in 1690 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart for ‘Monsieur’, the younger brother of Louis XIV.
Its hillside setting sloping down to the Seine with panoramic views of Paris is more visually dramatic than Versailles - without the crowds. Without the château either, of course, but this two-mile walk includes two undervisited museums, a majestic waterfall and a secret garden, ideal for a picnic, ending in the old town of St Cloud and a bus ride back to Paris along the Seine.
Delicate Masterpieces
Despite its name, the Musée de Sèvres is actually on the edge of the Parc St Cloud. It offers you the chance to feast your eyes on some delicate masterpieces of pottery, drawn from every period and every country, but with pride of place given to 18th-century Sèvres porcelain. From the Pont de Sèvres métro at the end of line 9, take the exit for the bus station. Cross the bridge on the righthand side, which gives pedestrian access to the Museum, a handsome building which resembles the Gare de l’Est, complete with clock.
On leaving the Museum turn left for the gate into the park. Continue straight on for about 15 minutes until you come to the 90-metre long Grande Cascade, the stone staircase waterfall completed by Mansart in 1697. Its 24 fountains are turned on annually every Sunday in June, for 25 minutes, at 3 pm, 4 pm and 5 pm. Free concerts are sometimes held in the park at these times if the weather is fine.
Take the lefthand steps to the top, past the allegorical statues of the Marne and the Seine, and continue left, up a steep path. Just over the top of the hill is La Pergola, an overpriced and over-crowded but convenient brasserie. Turn left from here and follow the paved Allée de la Balustrade which overlooks the Cascade, with the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It will bring you to the Grille d’Honneur, the main exit from the park, with the little Musée Historique on your right. This building and the larger one opposite, originally servants’ and guards’ quarters, are the only structures belonging to the château to have survived.
The museum displays the history of the château, which once belonged to Marie-Antoinette, then to Napoleon and was the scene of Napoleon III’s declaration of war on Prussia in 1870. Three months later the Prussians burned it down, and it was finally demolished in 1891. There is a maquette of it in the museum.
Spectacular Views of Paris
The clipped triangular yew trees nearby mark its outline. Above them, to the right, a steep series of steps leads up to the Jardin de Trocadéro, the high point of the park and of the walk, with spectacular views of Paris en route. Designed in 1823 as a private garden for the royal children, it is landscaped à l’anglaise around a central lake and a stream. It contains rare scented flowering trees from Lebanon and China, chosen to give a continuous display of colour throughout the year. It has been open to the public since 1872, but remains a delightfully secluded hilltop retreat, with more birds than people.
Keeping the river on your right and the church spire of Saint Cloud in front of you, descend to a path which will bring you to a children’s playground and leave the park through the Grille des Ecoles, leading into the hillside town of Saint Cloud. Continue along the rue des Ecoles, across the Place de Silly, and turn right down the rue Dr Desfossez, then left down steps to the 19th-century church, built on the site of an earlier one.
Inside the church, at the back, there is a chapel to St Clodoald, the grandson of the first French king, Clovis. A memorial plaque recounts the story of how he escaped the fate of his royal brothers, murdered by their uncles, and grew up to become a priest, renouncing the throne and the world by symbolically cutting off his long hair. He founded a monastery here, which became a place of pilgrimage after his death in 560 and has given the town its name. His relics are preserved in a casket under the altar of his chapel. The plaque on the left commemorates the visit of the Bishop of Saint Cloud on the Mississippi to this church in 1922.
The oldest part of the town still feels like a village, with 17th and 18th-century houses, a few cafés, and steep narrow streets, a good place to stop for a drink. It is to the right of the main entrance to the church as you come out, along rue de l’Eglise and its junction with the rue Royale. Continue downhill across the busy rue Dailly, turn left, then down the rue Audé to the T2 tram stop for Parc de Saint-Cloud. Continue towards the river for the terminus for buses 52 and 72. The 72 follows the Right Bank of the Seine all the way from Exelmans to Châtelet.
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