About fifteen kilometers west of Paris, the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was first a royal residence, Louis VI the Gros, Saint-Louis and Louis XIV. In 1862, Napoleon III decided to restore the castle and to install the collections of national archeology. The museum, renovated by Malraux, now houses national antiquities from the earliest settlements of France until the year 1000. It retains the finest known collections of prehistoric art engraved and carved, including the female head of Brassempouy is one of the masterpieces