The largest Buddhist temple in Europe is located in Île-de-France

Every week, Culture Bus lets you discover unsuspected places a few meters from your bus stop. Gardens, monuments, alternative culture, what if your bus line took you somewhere other than work today?

Between the bus stations of Yerres and Evry, line 91.09 is full of secrets. The journey begins at the “Gare Routière” stop where a house turned museum hides the legacy of the Impressionists. At the end of a stretch of straight-cut grass, the Caillebotte house sits proudly on the driveway.

The painter Gustave Caillebotte spent several years there and the house welcomed his family between 1860 and 1879. It is here that the artist created nearly 80 paintings. The interior has since been refurnished, as has the artist’s studio.

The Caillebotte house regularly hosts exhibitions by its contemporaries. Art also develops in the gardens where we find an orangery, a kiosk or even an ornate farm.

In Ris-Orangis, the “Edmond Bonté” stop is witness to a whole new district which previously welcomed swimming and alcohol enthusiasts during the industrial era around the Lac des Docks.

Along the trails was a place for receiving and storing industrial alcohol before shipping. The place was also called “the lake of alcohol”. Ethanol has since given way to wooded paths. In the 1930s, people also came to swim there.

The bus takes you to a final address, in Evry-Courcouronnes, at the foot of the Institute of Biology. Raising your head, you will then see the imposing ocher towers of the Khanh-Anh pagoda, whose 3,300m² make it the largest Buddhist temple in Europe.

Although the first stone was laid in 1995, it took 20 years for the temple to be completed. We enter the prayer room without shoes and in silence to face a gigantic Buddha covered in gold leaf. The ceremonies take place on Sunday and are followed by a vegetarian meal.

Find all the discoveries that await you on the Ile-de-France lines, in replay on france.tv/idf