There are a mind-boggling 40,000 castles in France. Go to one a day and it might take you a staggering 110 years to see all of them. Right here we have a look at probably the most unbelievable castles of France – the oldest, the largest, probably the most haunted and different chateaux in France which have superb tales to inform. In addition to castles that make you cease in your tracks with their dazzling magnificence.
Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte is in Ile de France, about 55km from the centre of Paris. It’s the largest personal residence in France, owned by the de Vogüé household. Not solely is it exquisitely stunning but it surely has probably the most superb story of ardour, betrayal, corruption, and tragedy. It’s a narrative which formed the historical past of France. You are feeling it within the kitchens with their gleaming copper pans, within the superbly furnished rooms with their work and tapestries and gilded this and that, within the gardens which look as that they had when Le Notre, later Louis XIV’s favorite gardener designed them. There’s an echo of the previous right here and you’ll’t keep away from it.
Enter these grand gates and climb the steps in entrance of the large courtyard, and there 352 years in the past stood the proud creator of the fort, a person known as Nicolas Fouquet, ready to welcome his King on a go to. It was 17 August 1661, a sweltering scorching day. Fouquet had served Louis XIV nicely and loyally as Minister of Funds, and that evening he hoped to wow his King by entertaining him in nice fashion.
Fouquet had introduced collectively three greats from French historical past, Le Vau – the architect, le Brun – the painter, and le Notre the gardener. For the primary time, a property was constructed when each the look of the house and the backyard had been thought-about as an entire package deal. It wasn’t simply fabulous, it was dazzling.
The chateau that made a king jealous
The chateau took 20 years to create. And we now realize it just about bankrupted Fouquet, however he was a person obsessed, the whole lot needed to be proper. The evening the King got here, it wasn’t fairly completed. Painters of ceilings and partitions downed instruments, masons carving statues swept up and made the whole lot look pretty much as good because it might and acquired out of the way in which earlier than the king arrived. Even unfinished, the end result was stupendous.
The King’s carriage swept into the courtyard, he alighted and stood on the backside of the steps trying up at Fouquet above him on the steps beaming, happy with his achievement, fairly presumably probably the most stunning fort in all of France. The destiny of the minister and the chateau was sealed in that second. By no means once more would anybody stand greater than Louis XIV or have a chateau extra stunning than his.
As a substitute of staying the evening within the suite of rooms designed particularly for him, with a view of an enormous crown in a lake, which he was speculated to see upon waking subsequent morning, the king minimize quick his go to. Although he loved dinner cooked by the nice French cook dinner Vatel, he then travelled to his personal chateau of Fontainebleau, a journey of three hours by horse and carriage.
Resentful of Fouquet’s opulent show of wealth, incensed at being left on the backside of the steps, listening to the whispers of those that sought to take away Fouquet from his place of trusted advisor, the 21-year-old king had his minister arrested simply two weeks later, 5 September 1661.
Louis took the whole lot within the Chateau. The furnishings, work, tapestries, ornaments, beds and even the orange bushes of their pots within the backyard. He additionally took Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre and commanded them to assist him flip Versailles, then a glorified searching lodge, into one thing much more opulent than Vaux-le-Vicomte.
In the meantime poor Fouquet went by a present trial, accused of swindling his royal grasp. Crooked witnesses and faux paperwork fuelled by jealous ministers who wished the King’s allegiance for themselves meant Fouquet spent the remainder of his life in Jail, dying 19 years later. From that day no king ever slept at Vaux-le-Vicomte. It took Mrs Fouquet 10 years to get the fort again and he or she lived there till 1705. After that it was offered and resold a number of instances then left deserted and in ruins till a sugar baron, Alfred Sommier purchased it. He and his descendants the Vogüé household have spent the final 140 years restoring and preserving this magnificent fort.
Fontainebleau – probably the most unbelievable castles of France
The Chateau de Fontainebleau that Louis XIV went to from Vaux-le-Vicomte just isn’t far-off. And it too has an astounding historical past. 500 years older than Versailles. The unique chapel was consecrated by Thomas Becket, AKA Saint Thomas of Canterbury and Thomas à Becket. This unbelievable place has greater than 1500 rooms and is the one royal and imperial chateau in France that has been constantly inhabited for eight centuries. From the 12th Century, when it was a royal searching lodge in an unlimited forest, the constructing was renovated, prolonged, and embellished by numerous Kings, Queens Emperors, and Empresses till it turned the extraordinary, huge fort you’ll be able to go to and ogle at at present.
The fort was a favorite of the royals together with Francois 1er, the Renaissance King, Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette. In one of many rooms is a mattress commissioned by her, however she by no means acquired to sleep on it, she misplaced her head earlier than she had the prospect. It was additionally a favorite of Napoleon Bonaparte and there are many reminiscences of the Common, his hats, garments and private belongs, his son’s cradle, toys, and books – you get a way of Napoleon the person. Certain, he cherished bling and energy and cash, however he cherished his son, he was a doting dad. And it’s right here that Napoleon mentioned au revoir to his private guard when he was exiled from France. It’s an impressive fort filled with really beautiful artwork, carpets, furnishings, work, tapestries, attractive gardens.
Chateau de Guédelon, Burgundy
You might know this fort from a UK TV sequence which adopted its creation and progress. The Chateau de Guédelon just isn’t your common French chateau. A crew of about 50 builders, making a medieval fort from scratch, in a center of a forest, with the methodology and the instruments used within the thirteenth century. Each craft wanted to construct a medieval fort is there: stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths, tilers, weavers, dyers, rope-makers, and plenty of extra, all working to revive the 800-year-old crafts and expertise required to construct such a fort.
It even has a flour mill that has additionally been constructed from scratch, with the purpose of manufacturing the identical kind of flour as within the Center Ages. And that bit relies on the stays of a twelfth century water mill discovered within the Jura area not very far-off. They bake bread constructed from the Guédelon-ground flour and baked within the fort’s oven!
It’s a folie, a loopy however incredible venture. It began in 1997, the thought of native French chateau restorer and proprietor Michel Guyot. He and his brother Jacques have a ardour for historic buildings and for restoring them. The work impressed in them a ardour to study extra about constructing a fort. It must be completed in 2025. You’ll be able to go to it after all and you can even “apporter votre pierre à l’édifice” which accurately interprets to “deliver your individual stone to the constructing” which implies play your half, do your bit to assist.
Enjoyable truth: Among the strategies which have been rediscovered listed below are getting used within the reconstruction of Notre dame in Paris.
Tallest Citadel in France
The Chateau de Brissac within the Loire, is a whopping seven-storeys excessive! It’s 48 metres, 157 toes excessive and is called the “big of the Loire Valley.” It was first constructed within the 11th century and up to date and prolonged over time. Information present the household of the Dukes of Brissac moved in on Might 26 . Their descendants nonetheless reside on this 200-roomed dwelling to today. They hire out a few unbelievable rooms with 4 poster beds, tapestries, and antiques galore. The Duke advised me that he nips into the close by city to choose up your croissants for breakfast! It’s additionally mentioned that Brissac is haunted! A ugly double homicide came about right here within the 15th century. The proprietor at the moment, one Jacques de Brézé caught his spouse along with her lover. He ran them each by together with his sword, pinning their souls eternally between the fort partitions, it’s mentioned you’ll be able to hear their sighs on a darkish evening…
Most haunted fort in France
However Brissac just isn’t probably the most haunted fort. That accolade goes to the fairy story fairly Chateau de Puymartin, between the beautiful medieval cities of Sarlat and Les Eyzies in Dordogne is claimed to be France’s most haunted chateau. Individuals generally declare to see “La Dame Blanche” (“The White Woman”) working in direction of the chateau’s North Tower, the spirit of the proprietor’s spouse Thérèse de Saint-Clar, who died after 15 years of being locked in a tiny room within the chateau’s tower within the Sixteenth-century. The story goes that her husband locked her up after he discovered she had a lover. She paces the tower at evening…
The Oldest fort in France
The oldest fort in France is the Château de Thil in Burgundy. Constructing was began within the yr 850, virtually 1300 years in the past! It’s truly a little bit of a wreck, however you’ll be able to nonetheless see its stunning form, an impressive wreck. You’ll be able to go to totally free – it’s within the city of Vic-Sous-Thil, not removed from Beaune, Dijon or Vezelay. France is filled with historic castles, like Montbazon, within the Loire Valley. It was constructed between 991 and 996 A. D., and its maintain, a fortified tower is 92 toes excessive. It was commissioned by Foulque Nerra, Rely of Anjou, a area within the Loire Valley. He was well-known for his many castles and his dangerous mood. He was a part of the household line of the English home of Windsor in addition to the French monarchs.
And one other outdated fort, not too far-off within the Loire Valley is Le Chateau d’Angers within the city of the identical identify. Its outer partitions are 10 toes thick, and it was thought-about impregnable in its day. It has uncommon “stripes” of limestone and a darker stone known as schist, and 17 towers. Inside, you’ll be able to see the oldest medieval tapestry on the planet, La Tenture de l’Apocalypse, from the 14th century, depicting the Biblical e-book of Revelation.
There are additionally some fabulous tapestries on the close by Hôpital Saint-Jean, itself a masterpiece of Plantagenet Gothic structure. These tapestries are extra trendy, by an artist known as Jean artist Jean Lurçat (born 1892) known as Le Chant du Monde – a poetic and symbolic imaginative and prescient of the world by which the artist defines Man’s place throughout the universe. They’re extraordinary.
The biggest fort in France
One of many largest chateaux in France is Chambord within the Loire Valley. Teeming with turrets and towers, gleaming white stone contrasts with its pointy black slate roof, it’s a magnificent show of energy and good style. Constructed by Francois 1er, generally known as the Renaissance King, as he constructed castles within the French Renaissance fashion and invited Leonardo da Vinci to return and keep in his fort Clos Luce within the Loire. Leonardo mentioned sure, left Italy on a donkey carrying his belongings together with the Mona Lisa portray which Francois put in his lavatory, and lived the remainder of his life in France.
Francois constructed Chambord as a logo of his energy, 426 rooms, 282 fireplaces and 83 staircases together with a double helix spiral staircase mentioned to be designed by Leonardo. It’s so huge, and it was so costly to construct with its ornate ceilings and partitions that it was by no means completed in Francois lifetime but it surely’s completely wonderful – simply as he supposed.
Perched castles in France
We’re staying in Dordogne for one of many highest castles in France – the beautiful chateau de Beynac. Not fairly nosebleed excessive, however when you don’t like heights, don’t hang around over the ramparts at this one! The fort rises lots of of toes above the Dordogne River. It’s inside eyesight of its adversary, Castelnaud which is even greater up and simply minutes up the river. Each fortresses had been focal factors of the Hundred Years Struggle. You’ll see indicators to achieve the fort by climbing a twisting, cobblestone path flanked by dreamy stone cottages. What they don’t let you know is that you just don’t have to stroll up the steep path. There’s a street going as much as a car parking zone close to the fort entrance!
A papal palace in France
There’s one palace in France that’s not just like the others – it’s the Palais des Papes, the Popes Palace in Avignon. There was a time within the early 1300’s when the seat of the Catholic Church was in Provence, not Rome. And the Popes constructed themselves a palace – In reality it’s the largest Gothic Palace on earth, breathtakingly stunning with ceremonial halls, chapels, papal flats, and a kitchen so huge you possibly can roast as much as 50 oxen without delay in there!
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All the pieces you need to know in regards to the Palace of Versailles
Janine Marsh is the creator of a number of internationally best-selling books about France. Her newest e-book The right way to be French – a celebration of the French way of life and artwork de vivre, is out now – a have a look at the French lifestyle. Discover all books on her web site janinemarsh.com
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