Moonik, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Perched on a plateau above the Seine valley, Saint-Germain-en-Laye owes its fame to its former royal château, but also to the Grande Terrasse, a promenade of more than two kilometres laid out by André Le Nôtre at the end of the seventeenth century, with a panorama stretching to Paris and La Défense in clear weather. The lively, shop-filled town centre keeps fine townhouses and borders the immense state forest covering more than three thousand hectares on the town's doorstep. A former holiday retreat for many notable figures, Saint-Germain-en-Laye has kept a particular art of living, between the air of a court town and suburban gentleness, appreciated for its café terraces and the immediate nearness of its forest.
