Centre-Val de Loire

Centre-Val de Loire

Château Poséidon

A carved sea monster carrying a boat with the face of Poseidon, at the foot of the grand staircase, gave its nickname to the Château de La Borde, long famous among urban explorers. Built between 1860 and 1865 by the architect Alfred Dauvergne, this château in central France lines up a central block…

Centre-Val de Loire

Château de Culan

Few French castles still have their wooden hoardings. Culan, a fortress of the Berry high above the Arnon River, keeps them on its round tower. Remodeled around 1450 for entertaining, on the model of Jacques Coeur's palace in Bourges, it lines up three square towers, three large staircases and…

Centre-Val de Loire

Château d’Ainay-le-Vieil

Bought in 1467 by the Chevenon de Bigny family, Ainay-le-Vieil has never left their descendants, and its salons trace French history through family marriages, from the Colberts to the duchesse de Tourzel. Behind nine towers and water-filled moats, this octagonal fortress in the Cher, never taken,…

Centre-Val de Loire

Château de Sarzay

A fortress in the Berry whose coat of arms George Sand described in her novel The Miller of Angibault, Sarzay once had 38 towers. It keeps a tall main house flanked by towers, its monumental fireplaces and its roof frame. When Richard Hurbain bought it in 1984, the ground floor was a pigsty and the…

Centre-Val de Loire

Château de Montigny-le-Gannelon

Two French kings, Louis XII and Francis I, dined at Montigny-le-Gannelon, and the staircase built to receive them still has a carved ceiling worthy of Blois. Rebuilt in 1495 after the Hundred Years' War, enlarged in the 19th century, this Loire Valley château combines Renaissance towers, a Gothic…

Centre-Val de Loire

Château de Chamerolles

A quadrangular Renaissance château surrounded by moats, the château de Chamerolles was built around 1520 on the site of a medieval stronghold, at the edge of the Orléans forest. Brick and Beauce stone create a decor typical of the Loire Valley.

Centre-Val de Loire

Château de Sully-sur-Loire

At the edge of the Sologne, a region in central France, the château de Sully-sur-Loire rises with its round towers on the riverbank, perfectly mirrored in its water-filled moat. It marks the eastern entrance to the Loire Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its name is tied to one of the great…

Centre-Val de Loire

Château de Meung sur Loire

For almost six centuries, Meung-sur-Loire was the residence of the bishops of Orléans: a fortress of 1209 visited by Joan of Arc and Louis XI, where the poet François Villon was jailed, then made into a little Versailles by an exiled bishop. On the town side, the château keeps its medieval face. On…