Photo : Wikimedia Commons
In the heart of the cradle of Acadia, in the Vienne, the Château de la Bonnetière reached its height in the 17th century, when Richelieu set out to settle the lands of New France.
It has a fine octagonal 14th-century dovecote. Standing in the cereal plains of Poitou, it brings seigneurial life and feudalism to life, far from the clichés about life in a château.
Built around 1040 by Fulk Nerra, the keep of Moncontour saw many sieges; its top offers a wide view.
A 14th-century castle entirely rebuilt in the early Renaissance by Henri Bohier, brother of the builder of Chenonceau.
A listed private château, furnished and lived in, bearing witness to the centuries since the Hundred Years' War, with a keep and Flamboyant chapel.
Amid a large mass of woods stands the château of La Mothe-Chandeniers, a former fief held from the king.
A 15th- and 16th-century château in a large park surrounded by moats of running water.
A 16th-century château that depended on the old marquisate of Clairvaux, whose château is so close it can be seen from Les Robinières.