Clamart: Forest, Art and Wine Tradition

Get to know Clamart through its many facets: landscaped green spaces, art venues, a historic building and a local wine tradition. If you are looking for a hotel in Clamart, these themes can help you decide what interests you during your stay. The forest park designed for recreational sports and the historic landscape garden each offer a different focus; art and local history complete the picture.

Forest Park and Historic Landscape Garden

Around 20 hectares in the southern part of the Bois de Clamart have been developed as a forest park for recreational sports. The trees include chestnuts, English oaks, sessile oaks, beeches, ash trees, hornbeams, wild cherry trees, birches and elms, as well as holly and some conifers. In spring, wild hyacinths cover the woodland undergrowth. The Bois de Clamart is therefore not only a landscaped recreational space, but also a place where the undergrowth changes with the seasons.

The Parc de la Maison Blanche offers a different emphasis: it covers about two hectares and was laid out in the 1830s as an English landscape garden. A pond and a music pavilion remain from the original grounds. Walking paths wind between notable trees and sculptures. The difference in size is clear: around 20 hectares of forest park compared with a park of about two hectares. If you are mainly interested in historic landscaping and surviving garden features, you will find these in the Parc de la Maison Blanche; the Bois de Clamart is described as a forest park for recreational sports.

Art and Local History

The Fondation Arp combines a museum and research center and focuses on the artistic work of Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber. At the former Maison-Atelier, visitors can now discover the dialogue between the works of the two artists. The restored former plaster workshop is also part of the art experience described here: nearly a hundred plaster sculptures are on display there, while bronzes stand in the garden. The studio, workshop and collection offer different ways to explore the shared artistic context of Arp and Taeuber.

The Église Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul is an older landmark in the town’s history. It was built in the 11th century and has been protected as a historic monument since 1928. If you are interested in art venues and their surroundings, you can also include the “Figures d’artistes” walking tour. Audio features, texts and photographs introduce artists and places that shaped the artistic development of Clamart and Meudon in the 19th and 20th centuries. The sites visited are not regularly open to the public, so the tour’s information comes with this limitation.

Vineyard and Local Cuvées

The Confrérie du Clos de Clamart tends Clamart’s municipal vineyard, which currently has 193 vines. Each year, the Confrérie holds a spring chapter and a harvest chapter; the specific dates may vary. If you would like to take one of these chapters into account when planning your trip, check the dates in advance.

The wine tradition includes two cuvées described in different ways. Clos de Clamart is a light, fruity rosé made from a blend of different grape varieties and is not sold commercially. Clos Franquet is a white wine cuvée based on Sémillon; this grape variety is gradually being replaced by Chardonnay. These details illustrate different aspects of the local wine tradition, but do not imply that visitors are offered activities such as tastings or tours.

Forest, garden history, visual art and winegrowing thus provide several distinct themes for a stay in Clamart. You can choose your focus depending on whether you are more interested in landscaped green spaces, artists and historic sites, or the local wine tradition.

Discover more destinations: Vaucresson, Courbevoie, Châtenay-Malabry, Villeneuve-La-Garenne, Le Plessis-Robinson, Asnières-Sur-Seine, Gennevilliers, Suresnes.

For the broader travel overview: Hauts-De-Seine.