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?
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We take a route in the lilac color which combines history and poetry today. Line 45 criss-crosses Yvelins and links Arnouille-lès-Mantes and Montfort-l'Amaury.
First stop at Les Vignettes to visit the famous Thoiry castle. A jewel of Renaissance architecture, this building only reveals its secrets to those in the know. Built according to the golden ratio and therefore respecting precise mathematical standards, the castle is also a calendar. The central vestibule is located in a particular axis which becomes a door open to the sunrise and sunset at each solstice.
Within the building itself, the richly decorated spaces have been preserved. The library, the white living room and the green living room each have decorative treasures.
Second stop at the Jean Monnet high school in La-Queue-Lez-Yvelines to immerse yourself in wild nature. Despite its 28 degrees and the high hydrometry, you are not entering a jungle but a butterfly greenhouse. An ideal place for dreamers and fans of small animals.
Lepidoptera are accompanied by sweet plants and Chinese quails which hunt aphids and butterfly-killing microbes.
A moment of poetry before concluding with our last stop at Montfort-l'Amaury for a dive into the 15th century. At Notre-Dame du Bel-Air, an 18-meter tower overlooks the village. Erected by Countess Anne de Bretagne, Countess of Montfort-l'Amaury.
The tower is on the same site as a 12th century castle, destroyed by the English during the 100 Years' War. The countess wanted to rebuild a residence there. The remaining towers as well as a staircase are the remains of this building.
Find all the discoveries that await you on the Ile-de-France lines, in replay on france.tv/idf
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