The Château de Fère-en-Tardenois is a ruined castle in the commune of Fère-en-Tardenois in the Aisne département of France.
Construction of the original castle bagan in 1206. Little of that remains today. It had seven towers on an enormous artificial motte whose slopes were covered in slabs of sandstone and served as a model for numerous other castles. The connétable Anne de Montmorency, companion of Francis I, transformed the castle in around 1528. In 1555, he enlarged it with the addition of the famous Renaissance Gallery. These works were carried out by the architect Jean Bullant (who constructed the gallery at the Château de Chenonceaux) and, possibly, the sculptor Jean Goujon, which would explain the quality of the sculptures, the stone and the colours.
Ownership of the castle is shared by the département and a private company. It is open to the public. The Château de Fère-en-Tardenois has been listed since 1862 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

Château de Fère

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Septmonts Castle, locally known as Château de Septmonts or Donjon de Septmonts, lies in the village with the same name, in the Aisne department in France.
Septmonts Castle was built in the 13th century by Jacques de Bazoches, bishop of Soissons, as his summer residence.
In the second half of the 14th century the castle was rebuilt on the orders of another bishop of Soissons; Simon de Bucy. The architect came from the royal court of the French king; Charles V. He built the castle in the style of the princely castles of the 14th century; combining elegance with defensive military art and residential comforts. The 43 meters high keep, with 7 floors, dates back to that period.
In the 16th century bishop Symphorien de Bullioud built the Renaissance palace. The bishops of Soissons finally ceased to reside in Septmonts Castle in the late 17th century. Later it was abandoned and fell to ruin.
In 1835 the castle was visited by the famous Victor Hugo who even left a small piece of graffiti on a wall in the keep. In 1864 Septmonts Castle was bought by the painter Jacques Edmond Leman. He set out to restore the castle in 1877 and his work was finished by Antoinette Leininger, Baroness of Ezpeleta.
In 1918, during World War I, Septmonts Castle was bombed which caused a lot of damage and left the Renaissance palace roofless. It again fell to ruin until the 1970's when it was restored.
Septmonts Castle is now owned by the local community and is used for cultural activities. There is an Association of Friends of Septmonts which aims to safeguard and maintain the site. The castle grounds and the keep are freely accessible.
This is a very nice castle with a fantastic keep which you can climb all the way to the very top. When I visited the Renaissance palace was undergoing restoration works and not accessible.
http://www.castles.nl/septmonts-castle

Château de Septmonts

Château de Dormans on the Champagne route, 120 km east of Paris, the Château de Dormans is a public domain. Former residence of the house of La Rochefoucauld, is in the park that was built Memorial of the Battles of the Marne Memorial Chapel of the First World War. At the end of the thirteenth century appears in the acts of one John Dormans, Lord of Dormans. In 1373 John II dies Dormans, lawyer, canon, cardinal and bishop of Beauvais, Chancellor of France. His brother William Dormans succeeded him as lord, and as Chancellor of France, in 1373. This family died in Dormans in the sixteenth century by a person of Renault Dormans, whose daughter married Jacques de Laon. Their daughter married in turn Claude Ancienville, to whom she brought the field. In the seventeenth century, the castle belonged to Michel Larchet of Olisy, chairman of the Accounting Chamber. In 1642, Charles de Bullion became lord, but died shortly after. His widow sold Dormans Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, the first prince of the blood, also neighboring lord, since he owned the Castle of Condé, located a few kilometers from Dormans. In 1646, his son Louis de Bourbon, Duc d'Enghien, inherited it with the rest of the property of his line, and then he went to the younger brother of the latter, the Prince de Conti, Armand de Bourbon.On the initiative of Cardinal Mazarin, an exchange took place in 1660, and the king gave the manor of Dormans (erected in county) to one of the Cardinal faithful Charles de Broglie, then he passes Marshal Victor-Maurice Broglie. The son of the latter, Hyacinthe Line Mouy, became Earl of Dormans, and died in 1724.These are Broglie and the line which gave the castle its present appearance, retaining the old fortress that two of the four corner towers, and giving the central body a face of classic style of the era of Louis XIV . During the eighteenth century, the county and the castle passed to the house line to Boucot family for whom it became a marquisate and then to Rouault of Gamache until 1791.Seized as many emigrated, the castle was sold in 1791 in undivided between Paul and Jean Louis Isaac Thelusson. The family kept it until Pierre-Germain Thelusson Ventimiglia, mayor of the town.Portal Marne Por.
http://www.frenchchateau.net/chateaux-of-champagne-ardenne/chateau-de-dormans.html

Château de Dormans

The Château de Condé is a private estate in Condé-en-Brie, Aisne, France, set in a park on the Champagne route 100 km from Paris.
The Château de Condé is a private estate, listed as a historic monument and inhabited year round. Its sumptuous 17th and 18th century interiors were created by the most prestigious artists (Watteau, Boucher, Oudry, Servandoni and others) at the behest of the Princes of Savoy and then the Marquis de la Faye. This château evokes part of France's history, through illustrious characters like the Condés, the Savoies, Jean de La Fontaine, Cardinal Richelieu, Mazarin, not forgetting Olympe and her suspect "powders". Highlights include the "Watteau" wing and its recently discovered frescoes, Richelieu's bed chamber, the magnificent "trompe-l'œil" effects of Servandoni, the "little private apartments" and the outstanding drawing room decorated by Oudry.
History
Since the time of pre-Roman civilisation, the village of Condé-en-Brie was inhabited. In 500 BC., the Senones fought nearby a battle against the Condrusi. Traces of this presence have been found in the village and in the Château itself, which was probably a Gallo-Roman land estate. As a matter of fact, an ancient pavement of Roman times exist under the present pavement of the Château.
The village derives its name from the confluence of two rivers, the Surmelin and the Dhuys, which merge before feeding the river Marne: Condé derives from the Celtic word condatum, meaning "confluent".
The castle's history during the Middle Ages was closely linked to the Coucy family. The first lord of Condé was Jean de Montmirail, whose son-in-law was Enguerrand III, Lord of Coucy. It was he who constructed, at the end of the 12th century, a "keep", part of which is still to be seen, and which had 2 meters thick walls and towering chimneys.
The last heir of the House of Coucy, Marie I de Coucy, Countess of Soissons, moved into the Château with her husband, Henry of Bar, in the 15th century. Condé was passed down through marriage to the House of Luxembourg, and in 1487, Marie of Luxembourg married Francis de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme. Due to this marriage, the family came into contact with the royal family. Their grandson, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, was the father of King Henry IV of France, and his brother, Louis de Bourbon, was the first Prince of Condé, who frequently came to the Château de Condé to hunt, as a child.
Cardinal Charles de Bourbon rebuilt the castle in Renaissance style in the 16th century. The two gatehouses are the testimony of this time. The gatehouse on the right was inhabited by the Captain of the Castle; it still contains an underground jail with an exceptional locking system. The one on the left (now a barn) was the house-keeper's lodge. The castle was one of the strongholds of the Prince of Condé, who was chief of the Protestant party during the French Wars of Religion. His wife, Eleonore de Roye, and her children often came here to get away from the troubles.
Up to 1624, the date of the marriage of Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons to Thomas, Prince of Carignan (the present Italian royal family), the castle belonged to the House of Condé. Unfortunately, it was badly damaged, from 1711 to 1719, by troops that were sent by King Louis XIV of France, who had it confiscated during the Franco-Austrian War (the owner of the time being a cousin of an Austrian general). It was stayed in by the famous Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert, comtesse de Verrue.
The confiscated castle was bought in 1719 by a private secretary of King Louis XIV, whose name was Jean-François Leriget, Marquis de la Faye. He was councillor to the King and a diplomat. It was he who was in charge of finding a wife to the young King Louis XV of France.
The Marquis was a member of the French Academy, a director of the French India Company, and accordingly, was a very rich man. In his mansion in Paris, he often received such famous people as Voltaire and Crébillon.
Much of the castle's final appearance is due to the Marquis' tastes. He brought to Condé, the talents of the Italian architect Servandoni, a master of the "deception" style, and one of the architects of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. He shut down the southern aisle, to allow the sun to penetrate into the rooms, and gave a symmetrical appearance to the other aisle. To achieve this, he was obliged to paint false windows in the medieval part of the Castle, the walls being 2 meters thick. For the interior decoration, he invited fashionable painters of the time - Lemoyne, his disciple Boucher, Watteau and his disciple Lancret, and last but not least, Jean-Baptiste Oudry.
At a later date, the castle belonged to the Count de la Tour du Pin Lachaux, through his marriage with the niece of the Marquis de la Faye. In 1814, the Countess de Sade, the daughter-in-law of the famous Marquis de Sade, inherited Condé from her cousin, La Tour du Pin. Since this time and up to 1983, the castle has remained the property of the Sade family, who restored it with much care after the two World Wars.
Restoration
In 1983, Alain Pasté de Rochefort purchased the chateau which had been for sale for many years. Here he did not feel a stranger since his ancestor Captain Pasté was in the 16th century one of the two captains of the first Prince of Condé's personal guard. He was restless and, with the help of the Administration of Historical Monuments, started a series of works: the roofs were repaired, including those of dependencies such as "La Porterie" and "La Capitainerie" as well as the 17 fireplaces, gutters and stonework. Restoration of the façades could then begin, along with the grand staircase or the small apartments whose woodwork and parquet needed to be partly dismantled. The Watteau wing, which had suffered in both wars, had its colours restored. Each room evokes Watteau and his followers (Lancret and Pater) who painted landscapes, "fêtes galantes", tales by Jean de la Fontaine painted on the walls. While some paintings were hidden (behind wallpaper or mirrors), they were later discovered after many years of restoration.