The Roaming Photographer: 2025-10-19

Friday, October 24, 2025

“Meudon, France — A Deep-Dive Feature by The Roaming Photographer”

There are cities we choose to visit — and others that somehow choose us. Meudon, France, is one of those places for me. Nestled just beyond Paris, it’s a town of quiet beauty and deep heritage, but it also holds a personal connection: the birthplace of my first wife, Natalie. Though her parents brought her older sister, and her to America when she was only two years old, the city has remained a gentle echo in our family story. In this feature, I do hope to one day walk the streets she never knew with our son Jeremy, discovering Meudon’s rich history, art, light, and life through my lens. Should this happen I will share some of my adventures there through Windows Photography and our team.

This prologue written by Michael A. Buccilli

This article was researched and

compiled by Michael A. Buccilli

Autumn light over the Meudon forest ridge

and the Seine Valley, with Paris in the distance.

Copyright: © AllTrails

https://www.alltrails.com/france/

ile-de-france/meudon/photos

A gentle mist hovers above the sweeping bend of the Seine as dawn settles on the ridge of Meudon. Here, at the edge of Paris where suburban calm merges into forested heights, you might pause on a narrow lane lined with meulière-stone villas and mullioned windows, the soft scent of damp foliage from the vast woodland behind you. The air carries a faint echo of sculpture and science: somewhere above, the dome of the Observatoire de Paris-PSL reflects the amber light, while a nearby café begins to stir, offering fresh croissants and espresso to early risers. A mother and child walk their dog up the slope; a commuter in a tweed jacket steers a Vélizy-Villacoublay-bound car around a curve. From this height, the rooftops of Paris glimmer beyond the river, the towers of the city framed by sky and tree. You feel the quiet of a place that has always stood “beside” the capital—close yet free—and that intimacy, that sense of quiet elevation, is the first thing you carry away from Meudon.

Why does Meudon matter? Because in this green suburb you find the collision of royal ambition and scientific endeavour, the contour of industry and the hush of woodland, the quiet rhythm of suburban life with the enduring presence of culture and view. To walk Meudon is to trace Paris’s hidden flank from a vantage that has long drawn kings, scientists and artists—and to witness how a twenty-first-century community anchors itself in both prestigious legacies and daily tranquillity.

From Prehistory to Royal Heights

Archaeological traces hint that the wooded slopes of Meudon were settled long before modern roads. Flint tools and other relics suggest that hunter-gatherers once made use of the folds of forest and ridge overlooking the Seine. In the Roman period this area formed part of the fringes of Paris (then Lutetia) and the Gaulish network; by the Middle Ages the village of Meudon had become a modest seigneurial domain, its manor owned by the family of Meudon (de Meudon) and others.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the landscape shifted dramatically. The château of Meudon — originally a pleasure grotto for guests of the king’s court and later a full-scale seat of the Grand Dauphin (the son of Louis XIV) — rose on the heights above Bellevue. Under the minister François-Michel Le Fèvre de Caumartin and others, the property was lavishly embellished. The site witnessed luxury, court theatrics, and the hubris of absolutist monarchy. But in the Revolution the château was ransacked (1789) and later destroyed by fire and demolition in the early nineteenth century.

Into the nineteenth century Meudon witnessed another kind of transformation. In 1842 the most deadly railway accident in France at that time occurred in a cut near Meudon: the Versailles-Paris train derailed, fire broke out, dozens perished. It was a harbinger of industrial risk even in the quiet hills of the suburbs. Around that time a funicular railway also once ascended the slope of Meudon to move goods and people, a vestige of which survives in urban memory.

Then came the turn of science. On the plateau above the Seine, the Observatory of Meudon (now part of the Observatoire de Paris-PSL) was built in the late nineteenth century as an arm of European astrophysical endeavour, with large telescopes and laboratories devoted to solar and stellar spectroscopy. The transformation of a royal leisure site into a scientific one is a metaphor of Meudon’s dual character.

Wars and modern history left their mark too. During the First and Second World Wars, Meudon and its forest were occupied, shelled, and repurposed for military installations. The elevated vantage over Paris made it strategically important; the heavy woods also housed anti-aircraft batteries and camouflage. In the postwar era, Meudon became ever more integrated into the Paris suburb network — absorbing waves of new housing, changing its social and architectural face.

One distinguished local political figure was Hervé Marseille, who served as mayor of Meudon from 1999 to 2017 and later became a senator, cementing the town’s reputation for moderate and pragmatic local governance. Wikipedia In the current decade the mayor is Denis Larghero (2020–2026, affiliated UDI) representing the commune within the Métropole du Grand Paris framework. Wikipedia Under this leadership, the town pursues policies of green-space protection, sustainable mobility and heritage conservation, aiming to reconcile its suburban growth with its woodland heritage.

Cultural institutions took root through this modern era. The Musée Rodin – Meudon occupies the Villa des Brillants where the sculptor Auguste Rodin lived and worked until his death in 1917; it opened in 1919 to preserve his plaster casts, bronze originals and archives. meudon.musee-rodin.fr The Musée d’art et d’histoire de Meudon presents the local story, collections of regional landscape painting and modern sculpture. France-Voyage.com And more recently the extraordinary redevelopment of the massive industrial aircraft-hangar called Hangar Y (in a 9-hectare park on the heights) turned the site into a cultural venue blending art, science and nature. Sortir à Paris

Thus Meudon has progressed from forest edge to grand château, from industrial suburb to cultural enclave. The layers of stratified history are visible in the sloped streets, the forest ridges, the river bend and the panorama of Paris beyond.

The historic dome of the Observatoire

de Paris-PSL Meudon campus, an active

astrophysical site since 1876.

Copyright: © Observatoire de Paris-PSL / CNRS –

Reproduced for editorial use only. observatoiredeparis.psl.eu

Wars and modern history left their mark too. During the First and Second World Wars, Meudon and its forest were occupied, shelled, and repurposed for military installations. The elevated vantage over Paris made it strategically important; the heavy woods also housed anti-aircraft batteries and camouflage. In the post-war era, Meudon became ever more integrated into the Paris suburb network — absorbing waves of new housing, changing its social and architectural face.

One distinguished local political figure was Hervé Marseille, who served as mayor of Meudon from 1999 to 2017 and later became a senator, cementing the town’s reputation for moderate and pragmatic local governance. In the current decade the mayor is Denis Larghero (2020–2026, UDI) representing the commune within the Métropole du Grand Paris framework. Under this leadership, the town pursues policies of green-space protection, sustainable mobility and heritage conservation, aiming to reconcile its suburban growth with its woodland heritage.

Cultural institutions took root through this modern era. The Musée Rodin – Meudon occupies the Villa des Brillants where the sculptor Auguste Rodin lived and worked until his death in 1917; it opened in 1919 to preserve his plaster casts, bronze originals and archives. The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Meudon presents the local story, collections of regional landscape painting and modern sculpture. And more recently, the extraordinary redevelopment of the massive industrial aircraft-hangar called Hangar Y (in a nine-hectare park on the heights) turned the site into a cultural venue blending art, science and nature.

The Texture of Today

The Forêt Domaniale de Meudon, a state forest
covering half the commune’s area.

Copyright: © Comité Départemental du Tourisme

92 –Used with permission / CDT92.fr Press Images.

When you walk into Meudon’s town-centre, you might begin at the covered market of Place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville on a Saturday morning, where local fish-mongers, boulangeries and fromageries share their stalls with Portuguese-speaking families who settled in the 1960s in the new quarters of Meudon-la-Forêt. There is something quietly cosmopolitan here, yet calm—a sense of community that retains the human scale.

In the district of Bellevue, perched above the Seine with sweeping views, terraced houses with slate roofs and wrought-iron balconies reflect nineteenth-century bourgeois ambition. At dusk you might pause at a café terrace facing west, watching the copper glow fading behind Paris. In Bas-Meudon, closer to the river, newer office blocks and apartment towers sit cheek-by-jowl with older villas, and samples of Meudon’s post-war expansion are visible in the mid-century low-rise ensembles near Meudon-la-Forêt.

One popular café is a bistro called La Terrasse de l’Étang, tucked into the forested fringe: the menu offers classic French fare — duck confit, seasonal vegetables from Île-de-France, and regional cheeses — with a spruce-wood interior and terrace looking onto quiet woodland. For something more informal, you might stop at a crêperie near the cemetery of Longs-Réages, where locals speak of Rodin or Dupré with the same familiarity as the menu.

Hangar Y in Meudon, built in 1879 for dirigibles and
reborn as a contemporary art and science venue.

Copyright: © Hangar Y / Société du Hangar Y –

Press Image 2024 (Official Media Kit).
https://hangar-y.com/medias?utm_
source=chatgpt.com

At the top of the ridge near the forest you will encounter Hangar Y — a vast nineteenth-century structure whose long façade of riveted iron, glass-brick and arched timber hints at its airborne past. Built in 1879 from parts of the Galerie des Machines of the 1878 Universal Exhibition, the hangar rose to prominence when the dirigible La France made its first closed-circuit flight in 1884 from this very site. After decades of industrial, military and storage use, it lay dormant until a major restoration initiative launched in 2021, led by DATA and Urban Act architects with landscape designer Christian Fournet and developer Vinci Immobilier. The goal: to re-imagine the site as a cultural and event destination. In March 2023 Hangar Y reopened under the Fondation Art Explora as a 3,500 m² exhibition nave with a 9–10 hectare sculpture park, immersive media installations, a lakeside restaurant and extensive event programming. Today it presents major exhibitions, artist residencies and educational workshops, inviting visitors to wander between art, science and nature in a single luminous space.

Weekly markets still animate the town six days a week across its neighbourhoods. In October the Festival du Film Court d’Humour de Meudon brings short, witty cinema to local screens, while April’s Strides de Meudon races turn forest paths into lively communal routes.

“Rodin’s ‘Le Penseur’ overlooking the valley from the
Musée Rodin – Meudon sculpture garden.”

In the green fringe that covers about half the commune—the vast Forêt Domaniale de Meudon—residents walk dogs, climb the ridges, and ride VTTs along old military paths. Here you might glimpse remnants of fortifications from the 1870 Franco-Prussian War or the hidden stair-way of the old funicular system. In sunshine the leaves glint gold; in winter the frost lingers on the ridges above Bellevue.

Photography-wise, capture the autumnal light slanting across rooftops, the sweeping vista from the Observatoire terrace, and the sculpture-garden at Musée Rodin with its monumental “Thinker” overlooking the valley.

At night the town takes a quieter tempo. Tram and RER commuters have dispersed; neighbourhood bistros fill with families chatting over dinner; the forest rustles in the dark. Amid this domestic rhythm you sense Meudon as a place of retreat, but also of connection—to Paris, to history, to nature.

Meudon lies in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in the Île-de-France region, on the left bank of the Seine, about 9.1 km from the centre of Paris. Wikipedia+1 It is built along hillsides and valleys rising from ~28 metres at the river up to ~179 metres at its highest point. Wikipedia

If you arrive by air, the nearest major airport is Paris-Orly, about 20 minutes away by car (traffic permitting); from there you can continue by shuttle or rental car to Meudon. By train, you may take the RER C line from central Paris to Meudon-Val-Fleury station, or regional SNCF trains to Meudon-Bellevue. The Meudon Viaduct is a visible landmark of the railway line, a masonry arch bridge of 142.7 metres length that carries rail traffic between Meudon and Clamart. Wikipedia

Local mobility is supported by bus lines serving the hills, and the town is increasingly promoting cycle paths. A challenge is the slope—walking up from the valley to Bellevue can be strenuous, so consider a bus or e-bike for the ascent. Car-rentals are straightforward; parking in the forest fringe is easier than in the more built-up centre. Because large parts of Meudon are forested, it remains pleasantly walkable once you have arrived—especially along the ridge, terrace or in the woods.

Seasonally, spring offers cherry blossoms and burgeoning green, summer brings full leafy canopy and long evenings, autumn glows gold and auburn across the forest and the river bend, and winter months, while mild by northern standards, may bring frost or crisp air on the heights. The climate is oceanic-altered typical for the Paris basin: moderate rainfall, mild winters, temperate summers. Wikipedia

For orientation: from Paris you might approach via the A13 or A86 — but for the more serene route, take the RER C to Meudon-Val-Fleury, exit the station and head uphill through the woods to Bellevue. From Bellevue terraces you will immediately sense the vantage over the city. A stay of two nights is recommended: one in the town proper, one in the forest zone for the dusk and dawn woodland experience.

Accommodation ranges from comfortable chain hotels such as the ibis Paris Meudon Vélizy, located near the forest edge, to boutique guest-houses tucked into the meulière-stone villas of Belle Vue. France-Voyage.com Choose the forest‐fringe to wake to birdsong and sloping paths; choose the river-valley side for cafés and proximity to transport.

Getting Your Bearings

Closing Image

As dusk deepens on Meudon, you find yourself once again on the terrace above the valley, the city lights of Paris beginning to twinkle beyond the treetops. The forest now is silent save for the rustle of squirrels and the distant hum of the commuter line. You reflect on the centuries: a château rising and falling upon this hill; kings and sculptors, scientists and suburban families, all drawn here by the view, the air, the near and far. A final glance at the cupola of the observatory, a sculpture’s silhouette in the fading light, a path winding through the trees. Here in Meudon you stand not in the bustle of the capital, but intimately beside it: elevated, peaceful, rooted. And you feel you’ve found a place where history, nature and modern life have quietly converged—and where the next sunrise will reveal new angles, new stories.

Photo Notes

The light in Meudon ranges from the sharp clarity of early morning, spilling over rooftops and the forest ridge, to the golden hour when the west-facing terraces glow warmly above the Seine. In autumn the leaves of the forest domanial blaze in burnt-orange and then settle into amber before falling; winter mornings may offer a low mist in the valley, lending a dreamy, softened panorama to the city below. For sweeping views of Paris take the terrace near the Observatoire; for intimate forest shots wander the woodland trails at dawn; for architectural detail visit the Villa des Brillants at the Musée Rodin just as the sun strikes the bronze of “Le Penseur”. Avoid midday sun in summer which flattens contrasts; instead aim for early morning or late afternoon, when shadows lengthen, textures deepen, and the interplay of ridge, city and river is at its most photogenic.

Sources & Further Reading

“Meudon,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica
“Meudon,” Wikipedia. Wikipedia
“En virée à Meudon, entre jardin à la française et hangar culturel,” Le Monde (April 2025). Le Monde.fr
“My Meudon: Explore the town just outside Paris,” France Today. France Today
“The history of Château de Meudon,” Observatoire de Paris PSL. Paris Astronomy Observatory
“Meudon: Museums, Exhibitions & Discounts,” WhichMuseum. WhichMuseum
“Events around Meudon – market, festivals,” France-Voyage. France-Voyage.com