Jan. 20, 2025: Week one visit to Saint-Germain-en-Laye Castle

Hello everybody! It has now been about a week since I arrived in France, and I think I have adjusted pretty well. I was able to go and visit the city and meet all the other incoming international students. It is a great feeling getting to meet so many new people from all over the world, such as Brazil, Guatemala, China, Spain, and, of course, the US!

My first instinct upon exploring the city was to go to the castle at the center of the city. Saint-Germain-en-Laye used to be where the French royalty lived (before they moved to Versailles) and is where King Louis XIV was born and raised. Nowadays, however, the castle has been converted into an archaeological museum. It has artifacts dating from the neolithic period (10,000 B.C.) all the way to relics from Caesar’s time (1st century B.C.)! It was really interesting for me to see this, because we don’t really have this kind of stuff in the US. Due to the youngness of the US, though we do have archeological museums, they are not connected to the history of our nation. In France, however, the archeological artifacts presented in the museum are a direct and physical link to France’s ancient history.

This is not to take away from the beauty of the Castle itself. When walking in and around it, you can really feel the age of the stone and brick. The letter F and fire-breathing salamanders are engraved near the top of the castle in reference to King François I, whose symbol was a salamander. It even has a small, gothic style chapel built into it! There is also a large, very French garden next to the castle, which is a popular place for people to meet up and walk around.