Chateau de Vincennes

Vincennes began as a hunting lodge and was rebuilt through the fourteenth century into a fortified royal residence, with a donjon of about fifty-two metres that is the tallest surviving medieval keep in Europe, set inside its own moated enclosure within the larger curtain wall. The keep held the king's apartments on stacked floors, with a vaulted chamber on each level. The Sainte-Chapelle in the courtyard, begun in 1379 and finished under Francois I, copies the Paris original in plan. Later the castle became a prison, holding Fouquet, Diderot and Mirabeau among others, and then an arsenal.

What you actually see

• The donjon - Europe's tallest medieval keep, climbed floor by floor.
• The Sainte-Chapelle - a royal chapel modelled on the one in Paris.
• The moated enclosure - the keep's own defended precinct within the walls.
• The prisoners' graffiti - inscriptions cut by inmates in the keep chambers.

When to go

Year-round; the keep is cold and the stairs numerous. The Bois de Vincennes beside it makes a good combination in warmer months. Weekday mornings are quiet.

Honest expectations

Interiors are largely bare stone with little furnishing. The climb through the keep is many steps with no lift. Part of the site remains under military use and closed.

Nearby

The Bois de Vincennes adjoins; central Paris lies west.