CHÂTEAUX 2021 THE GUIDE


Château de Fontainebleau has a staggering 1,500 rooms, so be sure to wear comfy shoes when you visit


Château de Joux (Haut-Doubs)


This brooding fortress in the Jura Mountains looks like a backdrop from The Lord of the Rings, looming high and mighty over the valley below and surrounded by jutting cliffs and forests. Just shy of a thousand years old, it was built to defend important trade routes through the valley, although it wasn’t always a stronghold. During the 18th and 19th centuries it served as a bleak state prison, its most famous inhabitant being the revolutionary Toussaint Louverture, who met his end behind bars here. Due to reopen at the start of June. www.chateaudejoux.com


Château de Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne)


There are no fewer than 1,500 rooms in this opulent château, just 34 miles from Paris, most of them adorned with beautiful paintings, tapestries, frescoes, carvings, fireplaces and furniture. At one time even Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’


hung here. The human residents who called it home over the centuries are even more impressive, including kings, queens, emperors, and World War II generals. Beyond the château walls, the 130 hectares of parkland and gardens – partly designed by Andre Le Nôtre – are suitably resplendent. www.chateaudefontainebleau.fr/en


Château de la Hunaudaye (Côtes-d’Armor)


This medieval fortress sits in a


tranquil corner of northern Brittany. As with most castles built in the Middle Ages, it was created to defend – in this case, the eastern border of the Penthièvre territory. Sadly, the château was reduced to rubble in a civil war, before a heroic revival in the late 1300s, which saw the introduction of its trademark circular towers. Eventually, at the tail end of the 15th century, it became a symbol of the Tournemine family’s new-found power and


status, cementing itself as a prestigious regional landmark. www.la-hunaudaye.com/en


Château de l’Islette (Indre-et-Loire)


“Through the trees in the distance, I see the tortuous course of the Indre, and an ancient château, flanked by towers,” wrote the playwright Pierre Beaumarchais in 1769 of this château which overlooks the River Indre. Indeed, the first thing you’ll notice is the castle’s captivating beauty: the glowing white limestone; flower- bedecked walkways; dancing reflections cast in the moat. But there’s more than meets the eye to this leafy oasis in the Loire Valley, for it also once hosted sculptors Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin, who conducted their tempestuous love affair here in the late 1800s. www.chateaudelislette.fr/en


Château de Terre-Neuve (Vendée)


The brooding fortress of Château de Joux is almost a thousand years old


Built around 1590, for Nicolas Rapin, High Provost of the


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IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK, CHÂTEAU DE FONTAINEBLEAU


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