Rambouillet: station history
Served by: Transilien N.
Did you know?
A station in the Yvelines on the Paris-Montparnasse to Brest line, at 161 m altitude and kilometre point 47.810. The line opened to the public on 12 July 1849, after an inauguration on 5 July 1849 at Chartres; at that inauguration, President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was welcomed at Rambouillet station, at 11 o'clock, by the mayor and the sub-prefect. The municipal council had approved the railway project on 1 September 1841, and construction of the station began on 10 May 1848. The old station was destroyed by a bombing raid in August 1944; the present station was built in 1956 and inaugurated by René Coty.
Anecdote
The 1956 station building has ticket offices adapted for disabled people, machines, induction loops for the hard of hearing and a real-time information system. The site has two central platforms and one offset side platform, framing five tracks, and an underpass lets passengers change platforms. It is served both by TER Centre-Val de Loire trains and by Transilien line N. A project to extend Transilien line U to Rambouillet was abandoned.
Audio guide
The castle of Rambouillet, "La gothique crapaudière."
“La gothique crapaudière” This is how Marie-Antoinette nicknamed the Château de Rambouillet. Not very kind for a royal residence!
It all began in the 14th century: the knight Jean Bernier built a fortress here against the English threat. All that remains is the big tower, where Francis I reportedly died on March 31, 1547, of sepsis. This great hunting enthusiast often came to these game woods.
Two centuries later, Louis XVI bought the estate. Is his queen bored? He secretly had her build a ceremonial dairy in the park, where she came to play the farmer. He also created an experimental farm, the future National Sheepfold, populated by Merino sheep, which now houses a school for shepherds.
Napoleon hunted there, Charles X abdicated in 1830 after the Revolution of the Three Glorious, the presidents of the Republic received there. Today, the English-style park, dairy and cottage with shells can be visited 45 minutes from Montparnasse by train.
Around Rambouillet
- Château de Rambouillet, 950 m away — A former royal and presidential residence, where François I died in 1547 and where De Gaulle set up his headquarters in August 1944.