“A fortress, right here, in the heart of Vincennes?” The question, whispered with a mix of awe and disbelief, hangs in the air. You might be surprised to find Rue du Donjon nestled here in Vincennes. This unassuming street echoes with the weight of a long-vanished giant, the Donjon du Temple. Once, a colossal tower, a medieval fortress, stood guard where we stand now. It was a place of power, a repository for royal treasures, and then, a grim prison. Imagine, if you will, the year 1792. King Louis XVI and his family, swept up in the tumult of the French Revolution, found themselves imprisoned within those very walls. The tower bore silent witness to their confinement, their hopes, their despair. Years later, Napoleon Bonaparte, fearing the tower’s symbolic power as a rallying point for royalists, ordered its destruction. Today, Rue du Donjon stands as a quiet echo of that turbulent past, a hidden thread connecting us to the kings and revolutionaries who walked these very streets.
Église Notre-Dame de l’Air
Beneath what appears to be a simple stone and wood structure lies a history interwoven with faith aviation and community.