Castles: the finest sites in France

The Abbadia estate forms a promontory with superb views over the ocean and also over the hinterland.

Château d'Amboise

The Château d'Amboise rises above the Loire. One of the most visited monuments in France, on a par with the castles of Chambord, Blois, Chenonceau and Azay-le-Rideau.

Château d'Ussé

The Château d'Ussé overlooks the Indre. It is built halfway up the slope, on the south side of the valley.

Castles · Lot-et-Garonne

Château de Bonaguil

The most beautiful fortress in France: a castle of the thirteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, listed as a Historic Monument.

Château de Brissac

Pays de la LoireMust-see

Taller than all the royal castles, Brissac, with seven storeys and 204 rooms, deserves its nickname of giant of the Loire Valley.

Castles · Dordogne

Château de Castelnaud

Facing the Château de Beynac, whose implacable rival it was in the endless conflicts that punctuate the history of the Middle Ages.

Castles · Loir-et-Cher

Château de Chambord

Chambord, which measures 156 m by 117 m and has 440 rooms, is the largest of the Loire castles.

Castles · Oise

Château de Chantilly

Hauts-de-FranceMust-see

Raised in an unforgettable setting in the middle of the waters, the Château de Chantilly consists of a part built in the sixteenth century, of pure Renaissance architecture.

Château de Chenonceau

In the heart of the Loire valley, Chenonceau is the most visited private castle in the world. The present castle was built from 1513 to 1521 by Thomas Bohier, receiver of finances under Charles VIII, Louis XII and Francis I.

Castles · Côtes-d'Armor

Château de Fort La Latte

BrittanyMust-see

Every castle has its legends, and Fort La Latte is no exception.

Castles · Charente

Château de La Rochefoucauld

Historic home of the La Rochefoucauld family, still present after a thousand years. By the quality, diversity and elegance of its architecture, the Château de La Rochefoucauld deserves to be considered one of the most remarkable in France.

Château de Loches

The Château de Loches is one of the most representative cases of the evolution of feudal architecture.

Castles · Ariège

Château de Montségur

OccitanieMust-see

Before setting off to assault the "Pog", the path passes close to the stele erected in 1960 "to the martyrs of pure Christian love".

Castles · Aude

Château de Peyrepertuse

OccitanieMust-see

"It is to be known that in the Marches, on this side of the Aragon frontier, is the City of Carcassonne, which is the mother and has five sons, namely Puilaurens, Aguilar, Quéribus, Termes and Peyrepertuse".

Castles · Oise

Château de Pierrefonds

Hauts-de-FranceMust-see

The Château de Pierrefonds was built in the fifteenth century by Louis d'Orléans and then dismantled on the orders of Louis XIII.

Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye

From the residence of the Kings of France to the National Archaeology Museum.

Château de Saumur

Pays de la LoireMust-see

Home of the Dukes of Anjou in the fourteenth century, then residence of the town's governors, a prison, and an arms and munitions depot, the Château de Saumur was bought by the town in 1906 to house the municipal museum.

Castles · Indre

Château de Valençay

Built in 1540 by Jacques d'Estampes, the Château de Valençay was bought by Talleyrand in 1803, when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Castles · Seine-et-Marne

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte

This castle, one of the most beautiful in Île-de-France, was built between 1656 and 1661 by Louis Le Vau for Nicolas Fouquet, then Mazarin's superintendent of finances.

Château de Villandry

Castles · Loire-Atlantique

Villandry, completed around 1536, is the last of the great Loire castles built in the Renaissance in the Loire Valley. Villandry was built by a finance minister of Francis I, Jean le Breton.

Château des ducs de Bretagne

Pays de la LoireMust-see

From Charles VIII to Louis XIV, many kings of France stayed at the castle. In the chapel, Louis XII married Anne of Brittany in 1499.

Castles · Bas-Rhin

Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg

Grand EstMust-see

The Haut-Koenigsbourg site, probably one of the most visited of French medieval castles, may put off the lover of unrestored architecture.

Castles · Manche

L'Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel

NormandyMust-see

On a rocky islet in the middle of immense sands subject to the coming and going of powerful tides, on the border between Normandy and Brittany, rise the "Wonder of the West", a Gothic Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel Saint Michael, and the village born in the shelter of its walls.

Castles · Seine-et-Marne

Palais de Fontainebleau

Used by the kings of France since the twelfth century, the hunting lodge of Fontainebleau, in the heart of a great Île-de-France forest, was transformed, enlarged and embellished in the sixteenth century by Francis I, who wanted to make it a "new Rome".

Palais et parc de Versailles

A favoured residence of the French monarchy from Louis XIV to Louis XVI, the Palace of Versailles, embellished by several generations of architects, sculptors, ornamentalists and landscape designers, was for more than a century the model in Europe of what a royal residence should be.

Pays de la LoireOutstanding

Abbaye Royale Fontevraud

Founded in 1101 by Robert d'Arbrissel, heir to a prestigious past, the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud became in 1975, through the combined impetus of the Pays de la Loire Region and the Ministry of Culture, a Cultural Meeting Centre entrusted with heritage management.

Castles · Haute-Savoie

Château d'Annecy

It was built in successive stages from the twelfth to the end of the sixteenth century, then left to decay in the seventeenth and served as barracks until 1947.

Castles · Val-d'Oise

Château d'Ecouen

Castles · Charente-Maritime

The Château d'Écouen, twenty kilometres north of Paris, overlooking the fine expanse of the plain of the Pays de France, running towards the Chantilly forest, today houses the exceptional collections of the National Museum of the Renaissance.

Château d'Usson

Nouvelle-AquitaineOutstanding

The Château d'Usson is original in its history and architecture. It stands today at Les Égreteaux, but only since the end of the nineteenth century!

Castles · Dordogne

Château de Beynac

Nouvelle-AquitaineOutstanding

It is probably from the course of the Dordogne that the fortress looks most impressive.

Castles · Loir-et-Cher

Château de Cheverny

Centre-Val de LoireOutstanding

The Cheverny estate is a lordly property that has belonged to the same family for more than six centuries.

Castles · Saône-et-Loire

Château de Cormatin

Bourgogne-Franche-ComtéOutstanding

Between Tournus and Cluny, in the heart of southern Burgundy, the Château de Cormatin awaits you amid its gardens and ornamental waters.

Castles · Ardèche

Château de Crussol

Even though it is rightly considered one of the high places of Ardèche heritage, the ruins of the Crussol fortress are above all linked to the Rhône valley and the Valence landscape.

Castles · Val-d'Oise

Château de La Roche-Guyon

A true landmark in the landscape, the keep stands as guardian of the Château de La Roche-Guyon and the centuries of history it has seen pass by.

Château de Lespinasse

Castles · Pyrénées-Atlantiques

The fortified castle of Lespinasse existed at the start of the twelfth century. Still inhabited, it has escaped destruction and poor restorations.

Château de Pau

Nouvelle-AquitaineOutstanding

It was probably before the eleventh century that the first wooden fortification was built, on a rocky spur between the Gave de Pau and one of its tributaries, the Hédas.

Château de Rambouillet

The fourteenth-century fortified castle has housed illustrious figures over the centuries who gradually transformed it into a pleasure residence acquired by Louis XVI in 1783.

Château de Rochebaron

From the end of a ridge, the Château de Rochebaron overlooks the Loire gorges. Probably built by the lords of Rochebaron in the eleventh century, the castle was reworked in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, before being abandoned under Louis XIV.

Château de Saint vidal

An imposing fortress in the Borne valley, fief of the La Tour de Saint-Vidal family.

Château de Thoiry

The Château de Thoiry in the Yvelines, 40 km west of Paris and 25 km north of Versailles.

Castles · Val-d'Oise

Château de Vigny

This large Gothic-style castle, flanked by five round towers and surrounded by moats, was acquired on 8 November 1867 by the family of the Counts Vitali, princes of Sant'Eusebio.

Castles · Val-de-Marne

Château de Vincennes

Bourgogne-Franche-ComtéOutstanding

A royal residence from the twelfth to the eighteenth century, the Château de Vincennes has kept its enclosure, medieval towers, the fourteenth-century keep and the Sainte-Chapelle with its sixteenth-century stained glass.

Castles · Côte-d'Or

L'abbaye de Fontenay

Fontenay Abbey is a Cistercian abbey founded in 1118 in the French commune of Marmagne, in the Côte-d'Or département and the Burgundy region.

Pays de la LoireOutstanding

Le château d'Angers

This colossus of tuffeau and slate piles up superlatives: 17 towers, a kilometre of walls, 1,000 years of history, plenty of activities and the largest medieval tapestry in the world.

Le château de Chalencon