The château and its grounds are well worth seeing. I believe it's now possible to get there on a train/bus combination, not the case when we visited some years ago.

We drove there from Champagne in 1995 for the candlelight evening visit, so I can't help you with transport info, but I can tell you that it was a memorable evening for us. I have recommended the excursion to friends for years.

It was not particularly crowded on the warm August evening we visited. We walked up a long drive with hundreds of small blinking candles illuminating our walk. It was lovely. Later we toured the chateau, mostly illuminiated by candlelight. If I remember correctly, it is not all candlelight inside, they sneak in some low electric mood lighting , but it does not distract and the rooms still have a soft glow. Of course, if you are unlucky and it proves a popular evening when you are visiting, some of the pleasure will be lessened. In '95, I believe the candlelights were only available one or two nights a week. It may have changed.

By the way, it occured to me several times during our visit that evening, that we would never have this experience in California. Of course, you say, no French chateaux in CA, but I mean no walking between all those unprotected candles in a public place. Too many potential lawsuits!

First let me say that my first visit to Vaux le Vicomte was so impressive that we went back a second time.

You are correct. There is a shuttle bus, but during the week the shuttle bus has its last departure to Melun at 18:00 or 6 pm

You can check the full schedule at this location:

http://www.vaux-le-vicomte.com/en/horaires-chateaubus.php

Having been to Vaux in both the daylight and the dark, I recommend seeing it first in the daylight for several reasons.

First, at night even though there are many candles, artificial light is still used because the area requiring illumination is so large. The interior of the chateau when we went at night was so dark that I knew from our earlier visit that we were missing details.

For example some of the ceiling paintings were very gloomy as were many of the portraits.

Second, one of the glories of Vaux is the reconstructed gardens of Andre le Notre. Unfortunately, you cannot see these well at all at night.

Third if you go at night, the view from the cupola at the top of the dome is not possible. One of the most interesting aspects of my first daylight trip was to ascend to the top of the dome and admire the engineering required to get that thing up there.

We forget in this modern era just how difficult it was to construct a building like that without high rise cranes and other heavy-duty lifting equipment.

Of course if your first trip is at night, you don't know what you are missing! Let me assure you that it is quite a bit, as romantic-sounding as a candlelight tour may be.

If you go during the week, and want to take the candlelight tour, you will need to take a taxi back to Melun. The taxi is NOT cheap; in fact, its cost would just about compensate for taking a tour from Paris.

When we did our night tour, the trip back to Paris turned into more of an adventure than I had planned for.

First, I learned the hard way that the manned ticket window at the station had closed well before we got there. Then we learned that our antiquated credit and debit cards do NOT work in the ticket vend machines because US issued cards don't have the needed microchip.
(American banking technology is still behind the European standard. Sort of ironic really. I think the plight of the US dollar is highly indicative of just where we stand.)

Secondly, those ticket machines are picky about what kind of money they will accept! I did not have enough money in small denominations, and what money I had was in banknotes that were too large in value for the machine.

Talk about frustration. There we stood with debit and credit cards that would not work, bank notes that were too large for the ticket machine, and insufficient small change.

Luckily the taxi driver who had brought us was still outside the station waiting for his next fare and he gave me the necessary change. For once I did not begrudge the tip I had given him.

Once we had our tickets in hand, we noticed that the fast train back to Paris on my printed schedule was NOT listed on the departure board.

Thank heavens there was a Frenchman there who spoke English very well. He explained to me that he and his wife and baby were in the same position that we were in. Would that train come? We had no way to know for sure, but it was not listed on the arrivals board, and there was absolutely no one to ask. If the fast train did not come, we would be stranded until the next morning.

Given that we had the choice of gambling on the fast train or taking a much slower train back to Paris, we decided to take the slower but safer option.

At least we knew it would finally take us to Gare de Lyon. A deserted Melun train station is rather low on my list of places to spend the night!!

So if you go at night, be prepared for a thrill, the kind I can do without.

I have been there by train during the day. I liked in its tranquility compared to other more popular chateaux. I took a RER to Melun and then had to take a taxi. And then I took another taxi to Fontainebleau. I had a lunch at Fontainebleau, tour the chateau and took a bus back to Fontainebleau station and RER backed to Paris.

It was a long day,

I also looked into the candlelight evening visit but decided against it due to the logistics involved in coming back without a car as well as lateness in returning to Paris.

I went a few years ago during the day with Paris Walks (paris-walks.com.) Usually I go with public transport as I did to Giverny but Vaux le Vicomte seemed a bit more difficult. Don't know how often they do that tour.

We opted for a visit in the daytime. Friends who visited for the candlelight in the evening reported that there are so many guides leading tour groups, in a variety of languages, that is was not so enjoyable.

I know it is not the same( the candle light tour does sound delightful) but for a lovely day trip that takes you to quiet Chateau with a lovely collection of paintings, and a serene setting,, consider Chantilly. Google it, it has a good website.

Vaux le Vicomte is lovely. You can take a Paris Vision tour combing it with Fontainebleu or Chanitlly and others. Their small mini van tours are good.

I always suggesdt my first timer friends to go there rather than Versailles.

The evening candlelight are lovely. I imagine some of them are rather crowded. When I did it, it was not that crowded..it was late in the season, though...one of their last evenings....

Enjoy...........

Hi Jonesie,

I went via public transportation a couple years ago and it was easy. Take the RER to Melun station, then take the Chateaubus. Here's the bus schedule:

http://tinyurl.com/63j33u

I think the gardens are the reason to go, I found the house to be a little shabby, it seems to not get the attention that Versailles does.

Patti

Thank you for all the great responses!!! Since it is early in the season (May 3), I think we will be weather-dependent. It says we can get in with the candlelight tickets after 2pm, so we may head out in the late afternoon, (4ish), so we can still see the grounds and such at daylight, but also see the "candlelight" part after 6pm. We will also have my daughter with us, and the website says you can hire costumes on the weekend, so that might be fun too! Thanks again...

The gardens at Vaux were designed by Andre le Notre who was also commissioned to design the gardens at Versailles.

The gardens went into a state of neglect after Louis XIV looted the place and put Nicolas Fouquet in jail for life.

Over the years the gardens have been restored according to le Notre's grand design.

Not seeing the gardens, particularly in the spring when many plants are in bloom, would be less than ideal.

The inside of the chateau is of course being refurbished as funds permit. Louis looted the furniture as well as Charles Le Brun's paintings.

As I said earlier, if you have any interest at all in the architectural side of its construction, go up in the dome and look at how it is supported. Bear in mind that construction cranes like we have today were not available to Louis le Vau, the chief architect.

I went by train with a group of friends. If you do this some planning is involved. We had trouble that day getting taxis, although I don't recall if it was because of the day of the week or if it was a holiday. In any case, we waited a very long time to even see a taxi. Our group was large enough (5) that the taxi would not take all of us, so the second group had to wait even longer for another taxi. None came around, so we ended up taking the same taxi as the first group when he came back around, bless his heart. We were there in late afternoon and stayed through evening. Going back to the train station, there were more taxis from the Chateau, but again we had to take two. And when we got back to Paris we had to run to catch the last metro before that line closed.

Patti: The Chateau Shuttle looks like a good option, but it looks like it only runs Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Am I reading this correctly on the site?

A lovely day trip. THe taxi question: there is a line in the train station, we shared one with a girl.It was Ok with the taxi driver.
Coming back I went to the shop in the Chateaux and they called one for us. No problem there.

Let me tune in one more time.

Fontainebleau is on the same rail line as Melun. We once did Fontainebleau in the morning to early afternoon, had lunch, took a trail to Melun, took a cab to Vaux le Vicomte, and toured it.

Fontainebleau is actually easy to reach. A regular public bus goes from the station directly to the Chateau itself. You get off near the gate, buy your ticket and enter.

The same bus going in the opposite direction takes you back to the train station.

Both Vaux and Fontainebleau are pieces of French history. Napoleon used Fontainebleau as his residence when he was not on some battlefield, which was not very often!!

Other French monarchs used it as a hideaway as well.

I will admit that doing both in one day takes stamina, but I was in my late sixties when I did the double dip.

ooops Took a TRAIN to Melun.


We did NOT walk a trail. The l is too close to the n.

Good post Jonesie,

We want to go to Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte ourselves next year, so I was interested in all the responses. We too will be going in May. Please can you report back when you return exactly how you managed to get there and back.
thanks,
Schnauzer

There was no taxi line at the train station when I went -- none, and no taxis in sight for a very long time. This is why I'm suggesting that there may be days or times of the day when business is so slow that the taxi queue does not form.

There were a few taxis when the train arrived, but I did not get to the taxi line fast enough to catch one already waiting. There was a telephone number at the taxi shelter but I had no phone. Fortunately a kind French business man called a taxi for himself and and another one for me.

Hi Jonesie, do you realize the sun will not set until 9 pm on May 3rd,, so I doubt the candlelight effect will be even a point till at least 8:30 or later,, just a thought to keep in mind.

I have visited on more than one occasion both Vaux and Fontainebleau ,it is as Bob T.N. says really worth it.. Only thing i do not agree with him is to do both chateaux on the same day.
I would go to their websites and look for special events, and try to attend one of them, relax, have lunch at Vaux ( we did and food was good) or in the case of Fontainebleau to have lunch in town, there are several nice very French little places. We had lunch, long ago, on one restaurant hidden on a first floor, excellent., courtesy of the pharmacist who directed us,
For me to go through two castles on one day is something I could not do at any age.
In Vaux there are little electric carts to rent to go around the park.
The water fountains were on and it was fun.
Good luck and remember you can ask for a taxi back to the station from the souvenirs 'shop in Vaux.

I really enjoyed Vaux le Vicomte back in 1995. We went for a midnight tour or sometime very late in the evening. I can't remember now . . too long ago. However, you are not on your own once you enter the chateau. You are taken in groups and if very crowded, I imagine it could lose some of its charm. I am not sure what night would be least popular, but if you can figure it out, I would good go then. From this board,it appears that Vaux has increased in popularity.

On another note, we went to Fontainbleu the following year, ending up on a Sunday. There was a lovely concert in one of main halls where we lingered for some time. We were told that Sunday Summer concerts were frequently held at different locations. It may be something that only happened that year, or it may be an annual summer event, but we did enjoy several concerts that way on several Sundays. And I particularly enjoyed visiting Fontainbleu, too.

They are such beautiful places, you are sure to enjoy whatever you do.