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Chamarande Departmental Estate

Chamarande · Essonne

Chamarande Departmental Estate

French name: Domaine départemental de Chamarande

See on the mapWebsiteWikipedia (in French)
ⓘPatrick GIRAUD · CC BY 2.5
Always free

Free admission

  • Always freeFree every day

Address

38 rue du Commandant Arnoux, 91730 Chamarande

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Opening hours

Jan 09:00-17:00 · Feb–Mar 09:00-18:00 · Apr–May 09:00-19:00 · Jun–Sep 09:00-20:00 · Oct 09:00-18:00 · Nov–Dec 09:00-17:00

Step-free access

Step-free access throughout

Owned by the Essonne département, the Chamarande estate lies at the bottom of the Juine valley, two hundred metres from the RER C station that bears its name. It is, in the département's own words, the largest public garden in the Essonne: a park laid out around ornamental ponds and mature trees, which you walk into freely from morning to evening with no ticket and no gate, with picnic tables, dogs allowed on a lead and two food trucks taking turns through the season. The site also houses the Essonne departmental archives and the stores of the departmental contemporary art collection (FDAC). Since 2001 Chamarande has made heritage and present-day art share the same grounds: every year a thematic cycle invites several artists to take over, one after the other, the orangery, the hunting pavilion and the park itself, where some works stay in place from one season to the next. The 2025-2026 cycle, "De l'ordinaire à l'inconnu", brought together Lucía Peluffo, Nadia Myre and, until 30 August 2026, Lélia Demoisy with "Récits de forêts"; Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil takes over the orangery from 20 September 2026 to 17 January 2027. Access to the exhibitions is free and needs no booking. Two practical caveats. First, the château is shut for renovation work and for the enlargement of its exhibition rooms; the département announces a reopening in 2028, and until then only the park and the orangery can be visited. Second, the exhibition rooms do not keep the park's hours: they open in the afternoon, Wednesday to Sunday between June and October, and only on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from November to May. Family guided workshops, by contrast, are charged (3 to 6 €) and must be booked by email.

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