Photo : Petit Angevin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Château de Serrant
The château de Serrant, at Saint-Georges-sur-Loire, about fifteen kilometres west of Angers, is surrounded by wide water-filled moats. Its brown schist contrasts with the white tuffeau of the dressed stone.
The Walsh family had the interiors redone and created an English-style park, pavilions and a monumental gate. Louise de Vaudreuil, wife of Antoine Walsh, had wood panelling installed and the castle furnished around 1755; she later became lady-in-waiting to Empress Josephine. The castle was fitted out for a short visit by the imperial couple in 1806, during which Napoleon admired the grand staircase. It passed out of the Walsh family in 1830 through the marriage of Valentine Walsh de Serrant to the duke of La Trémoïlle.
Still a private home, it is open to visitors: you see notably the library of about 12,000 volumes, the great drawing room, the Empire bedroom, the dining room and the kitchens.
