Château de Villers-Cotterêts and the Cité internationale de la langue française: tickets, opening hours, access from Paris
The Château de Villers-Cotterêts (Aisne), which houses the Cité internationale de la langue française, is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6.30pm (closed Monday) for a ticket from €9, according to Tiqets; it is about 45 minutes from Paris Gare du Nord by TER. It is where François I signed in 1539 the ordinance that made French the language of law and administration in place of Latin. The château, begun in 1532 as a hunting residence, was restored by the Centre des monuments nationaux and turned into a museum of the French language. It is rated 4.7 out of 5 from 114 reviews on Tiqets. The permanent route has about 150 objects, documents and artworks and some sixty interactive displays across 15 rooms: a 360° projection under a dome tracing where words come from, a "magic library" and an immense word-search grid. The Jeu de Paume courtyard is covered by a glass roof under which a "lexical sky" of words floats.
Highlights
François I's château
Begun in 1532 as a hunting residence, the château was restored to house the Cité. It stands in the Retz forest and also contains the king's staircase and the royal chapel.
Practical info
Tips
- Ticket from €9 on Tiqets (the official site's full price was not consulted: check before you come). Combined tickets exist with the Château de Pierrefonds (€15) and a three-site pass (€20), according to the Château de Pierrefonds page. The venue also hosts temporary exhibitions, sometimes included in the ticket: ask. The site also has a café, a bookshop, courtyards and gardens.
How to get there
1 place Aristide Briand, 02600 Villers-Cotterêts. By train: TER from Paris Gare du Nord, about 45 minutes; the château is a few hundred metres from the station. From the airports: RER B to Gare du Nord, then the TER.
Opening hours
Nearby
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