Château de Fontaine-Henry

Often compared to a Loire château lost in Normandy, Fontaine-Henry owes its fame to its carved façades in the Louis XII and Renaissance styles and to the dizzying roof of its 'Gros pavillon', almost 15 metres high and among the tallest in France. Built on the foundations of an 11th-century fortress, it keeps a chapel and vaulted rooms from the medieval period.

The estate has never been sold: it has passed down by inheritance for nearly ten centuries, from the Tilly family to the Harcourts, who rebuilt it after the Hundred Years' War, and on to the d'Oilliamson family, who still own it. Listed as a historic monument, it can be visited with its furnished salons, its collections of paintings and its park, a few kilometres from Caen and the D-Day beaches.

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