• Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church : Built in
siliceous rock from the 12th century, enlarged in 1994. The
nave has a
gothic architectural shape and its
bell tower has a
romanesque style. In the
steeple, the bell, which is classified
Monument historique, has been melted, blessed and then baptized
Louise Auguste Adélaïde by its sponsor
Louis XIV in 1775. • Aqueduc de Buc : Built by
François Michel Le Tellier de Louvois in 1686. This aqueduct purpose was to provide water drained from the Ponds of
Saclay (more precisely,
ponds of Saclé,
Pont Salé and
Saint-Hubert by the time it was used) and delivered to the Domain of the
Palace of Versailles, known as well as the
Gardens of Versailles, in order to supply huge amounts of water to its multitude of fountains and basins. The aqueduct has 19 millstone arches, is 21 meters high and 580 meters long. Now disused, this great architectural work has been classified
Monument historique in 1952. • Château du Haut-Buc : This ancient little castle was part of the Grand parc de Versailles (Great Versailles Domain) and was used by
Louis XIV to accommodate his son
Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse (1681), duc de Penthièvre (1697), d'Arc, de Châteauvillain and de Rambouillet (1711) which later moved into the Pavillon des Eaux at
Louveciennes. Le Château du Haut-Buc was destroyed in 1740 on order of
Louis XV. The actual castle, the
commune property, was rebuilt on the same site in 1864. Today the castle is often used as a showroom as well as a music school. Its park has a playground and a soccer, rugby and basketball pitch . • Fort du Haut-Buc : Made between 1814 and 1880, this
fortification used to be part of the second fortified
defence belt of
Paris between 1874 and 1882. This
military building is currently unaffected and is completely abandoned since 1995. • Near the aqueduct and the
Pond of La Geneste (part of the ponds of La Minière), the
Oak of
Louis XIV, which is probably more than 500 years old, survived a great storm which occurred in 1999, devastating much of the forest. Unfortunately this emblematic tree collapsed from age in the last week of 2004. Buc's forest is part of the Forêt de Versailles (Versailles forest). • Buc local
legend : Some people assert that
beavers can be observed in
La Bièvre whereas nothing really proves the presence of such inhabitants. This river get its name from the
Latin word
biber which means
beaver, which explains the legend. But other roots can be found like
beber (meaning "
brown"), which could describe the natural color of the water, or
bibere (
to drink), which is more than enjoyable on the evening, facing the pond of La Geneste in a peaceful atmosphere with some friends and a good pack of
Kronenbourgs. And surprisingly, it is at those moments that beavers are more likely to appear. • A cartoon festival, the Festival de Buc, is held each year since 1994. The comic book of one of the adventures of
Blake and Mortimer,
S.O.S. Meteors: Mortimer in Paris (1959) of
Edgar P. Jacobs, has its story based in and around Buc. • Buc is the home of one of the three Franco-German high schools and the only one located in France. Franco-German
Baccalauréats are issued. == Administration ==