How much time to allow for a visit?

Do you have to take a tour?

Are there tours in English?

Thanks in advance.

You do not have to take a tour and I do not know if there are any tours in English.

I think that an hour for the medieval castle will do, but there also might be an interesting exhibit in the chapel.

Thank you.

Nearly every such place i've been to also has self-done audio guides you can rent at the entrance. Not sure here but nearly every other such place - in English and do your own tour at you own pace.

Website says free multilingual document for non-guided visit

Also multilingual audio guide, 2.5 hrs, 55 minute interiror (donjon), 50 min exteriror, 45 min for area occupied by defence.

Guided tours by local staff, not in English.
Guided tours by expert guides, not in English
They also have theatrical visits (re-enactments), also not in English

Great information.

It's on my list of Paris to-do's..so if you go, we'll expect a trip report

We took the tour in English and had a very good guide = a teacher of history who had vast knowledge about the history and culture. The tour was one hour more or less, and we were very happy that we did this.
If I remember well, around 12 p.m. we were back in Paris.

For those who have visited...one more question. Do you feel the time of year would make a difference on the enjoyment of the visit? Like Michel, this is on my short-list.

I've been to some where it would not make a difference, and others where it is a very depressing place in the dead of winter. You opinion, please.

Rather than going back to Paris right away, I would visit the gardens next door at the beginning of the Parc de Vincennes (exit the chateau grounds opposite the métro side).

I was just there a couple months ago, I hadn't been in some years. There isn't really much to see, it's not that grand a place, but okay if you have plenty of free time. There was some minor exhibit in the chapel at the time. I don't think I spent more than 90 minutes there in total, if that.

There are no gardens, so time of year doesn't really matter. It's just a rather bare building with little in it.

The Bois de Vincennes does have some nice gardens five minutes from the chateau.

Again, all useful information. I needed this to know when to book a train reservation onward.

The garden next to the château that everyone is referencing is called the Parc Floral and it is a lovely botanical garden adjacent (just across the street) to the château. Worth visiting if you make your way to the château.

If you are into history then the château is worth a visit. It had an important history from the 12th/13th centuries through the time of Louis XIV as it was one of the important royal residences in the Paris area.

The Parc floral:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...7623299527007/

Thanks!!

I didn't go to this place in 2010, but I did go last year in December. For anyone who's been to Paris multiple times and is looking for something new, I recommend it for a pleasant few hours. I spent an hour or so in the Chateau and it was pleasantly uncrowded. I also spent time waling around the center of Vincennes and admired some of the residential architecture and then took a short walk through the Bois de Vincennes.

The Bois de Vincennes is vast but superb - long 'allees' straight as an arrow - equestrians from the Joinville-le-Pont horse and horse-cart racing squads (not sure still there) and some kind of stellar horticultural gardens - from Paris itself I think the raised walkway over an old train line can take you much of the way there.