The Château de Tours is a castle located in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France.
Built in the 11th century, the building displayed an architecture of the Carolingian period, and was the residence of the Lords of France.
Until the 2000s, the Royal Castle of Tours was used as an aquarium where about 1,500 fish of 200 different species could be seen. It also served as Grévin museum. The castle was classified as monument historique on 20 August 1913.
Currently, the building houses contemporary exhibitions of paintings and photographs, including works by Joan Miró, Daniel Buren, Nadar, and the workshop of Tours history where archeological and historical documents, models, audio-visual films on the history of Tours, etc., are shown.

Château de Tours

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The Château de Luynes is a castle located in Luynes, Indre-et-Loire, France.
History
Built as a medieval fortress in the 13th century, The castle is today a grand manor house on a rocky promontory overlooking the val de Loire, and has been subject to registration as an historical monument since July 17, 1926.
The entry in the Monuments historiques register, describes the castle as a quadrangular surface at the edge of a spur. The most important part of the defences is located on the West... four cylindrical towers which ... date from the 13th century and 15th century.
The castle was substanitially rebuilt in the 15th century, the current windows replaced primitive arrow slits and the wall between the towers was perforated by mullioned windows, evidence then of building next to this part of the enclosure. The South curtain wall is today replaced by a terrace and an outer defensive wall with two small round towers can still be discerned. In the 17th Century a pavilion, was constructed at the back of the Southeast Tower.

Château de Luynes

The Château de la Bourdaisière is a 19th-century county house in the Commune of Montlouis-sur-Loire, in the Indre-et-Loire département of France.
The site of the present house dates back to the 14th century when it was a fortress belonging to Jean Meingre. Over the next few generations, the property changed hands several times, until 1520 when King Francis I arranged for construction of a new castle on the site. Built for his mistress, Marie Gaudin, the wife of Philibert Babou, Superintendent of Finances for France, after her death, the property would remain in the family's hands.
Marie Gaudin's granddaughter, Gabrielle d'Estrées, was born in the château and would herself grow up to become mistress to another king, Henry IV of France.
In 1775, the château was partially destroyed by order of King Louis XV's most powerful Minister, Étienne François, Duc de Choiseul. Étienne François wanted to use the stones from Château de la Bourdaisière for the construction of his Pagoda at his estate in Chanteloup, near Amboise.
Lying in ruins, in 1786 the land was sold to Louise Adélaïde of Penthièvre Bourbon. In 1802 the property was acquired by Baron Joseph Angelier who undertook a massive reconstruction of Château Bourdaisière. The interior work would be completed by his son, Gustave Angelier. Although a small château, when compared to the great châteaux of the Kings and some of those built by other wealthy nobles, it is a magnificent Renaissance construction fronted by traditional French gardens.
The Castle was sold in 1923 to a wealthy American, Mrs. de Mérinville who sold it in 1938. During World War II, the château was occupied by the Nazis. After the war, a lack of funds by its owner saw it become severely run down. In 1959, its contents were auctioned off and government turned the château into a home for the elderly.
It was sold again in 1988 to an attorney, François Michaud, who owned it until 1991 when it was acquired by its current owners, the Princes of Broglie who undertook significant improvements and modernization. In 2003, Château de la Bourdaisière gained considerable attention in North America, as the primary site for the television show Joe Millionaire. In 2011, the chateaus gardens were finalist for the European Garden Award bestowed by the European Garden Heritage Network
The château was listed as a monument historique in 1947.

Château de la Bourdaisière

The Château de Candé is a castle located in the commune of Monts, Indre-et-Loire, 10 km (6 mi) to the south of Tours on the border of the Indre River in France.
History
The first known Lord of Candé was Macé de Larçay, in 1313. François Briçonnet, the mayor of Tours and state treasurer, purchased the fief in 1499 and built a Renaissance house on the site of the old fortress. He died before the building was finished, and it was completed by his daughter, Jeanne, in 1508.
Several owners succeeded to the estate, but none brought major transformations to the castle. According to terms of a sale contract dated 28 June 1715 between Georges-François de Guénand, seigneur de l'Étang and Pierre Anguille de la Niverdière, the land consisted of a château-fort, enclosed walls, ditches, drawbridge, barns, gardens, orchards, vines, mature wood of standing timbers and coppice, wild rabbits, and many other things.
On 24 June 1853, Santiago Drake del Castillo, heir of a wealthy plantation owner, acquired the castle. At this time the northern wing was added, in the neo-gothic style; this tripled the living space. M. Drake del Castllo also founded a free school for some sixty young girls, in the valley between the château and the railway right-of-way.
Charles E. Bedaux and the royal wedding
In 1927, Charles Bedaux, a Franco-American industrial millionaire, and his wife Fern, purchased the castle from Jean Drake del Castillo, the grandson of Santiago. They carried out substantial work to modernise the castle, such as adding a plumbing system, improving the electrical system and installing central heating in all parts of the building, with 60 tons of pipes installed in the walls. The eight bedrooms are each equipped with a bathroom in the art déco style; all have baths equipped with an American system, making it possible to fill and empty a bathtub in less than one minute. Indoor toilets were also added. Bedaux installed a telephone, which at the time was unique in a French residence; it was directly connected to the exchange in Tours, and therefore required an operator to be present in the castle.
A golf course with 18 holes, a tennis court, a gymnasium and a solarium were also built at this time.
In 1937, the marriage of the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII), and Wallis Simpson took place here. Cecil Beaton took their wedding photos here as well.
On the death of Fern Bedaux in 1972, the castle was bequeathed to the State, which reassigned it to the council of Indre-et-Loire in 1974.

Château de Candé

2016
Opening of a new group gîte for 10/14 people to add to our range of accommodation (bed & breakfast, dormitory and appartments)
2013
Massive storm and hailstones in June 2013 which damage Jallanges
1999
The north wing of the Château is restored
1984
The Ferry-Balin family, the current owners, buy the ruins
1465
Château de Jallanges built by the King Louis XI
1213
A medieval fortress was built by René du Perray, one of the 50 "King's Knights" named by King Philippe Auguste
http://www.jallanges.com

Château de Jallanges

The Château d'Artigny was built between 1919 and 1928 in the Commune of Montbazon, in the department of Indre-et-Loire, France.
The First Castles
Having originally been constructed around the keep of Montbazon, an advanced bastion, during the Hundred Years' War, the Château d'Artigny was incorporated into the line of defences established along the Indre River. It was subsequently demolished in 1769 by its owner, Joseph Testard de Bouranis, the king's treasurer, who replaced it with his private residence. This survived the Revolution and was modified in the 19th Century.
François Coty
It was on 30 July 1912 when Joseph Spoturno, also known as François Coty, bought the château. Born on 3 May 1874 in Ajaccio, he was a wealthy and renowned perfumer and media magnate, as well as politician. Later dubbed "The French Mussolini", he was the councillor for Bastia and mayor of his native town in 1931.
On a journey around Touraine he was captivated by the location but, feeling the building to be badly placed on the cliff overlooking the Indre, he had the château demolished and rebuilt 12 metres further away on foundations different from the current ones. Measuring 60 metres by 18 metres and 27 tall, it was a mirror image, except for two windows fewer on each floor, of the château at Épinay-Champlâtreux which was constructed by the architect Jean-Michel Chevotet between 1751 and 1757. There was also a chapel which was a copy of the one at the Palace of Versailles, albeit a quarter of the size. The chapel was connected by an underground passage to a crypt made for François Coty and his descendants.
The period from 1919 to 1928 marked the partial end of this major project. Coty, "wanting to show that modern France was capable of performing just as well as royal France", employed 150 people – architects, master builders, sculptors, carvers, tile setters, painters, craftsmen and labourers. Denys Puech, the official sculptor (a receiver of the Prix de Rome) constructed an 18th-century style allegory on the tympanum of the pediment of the central front section overlooking the Indre valley.
This magnificently decorated, marble covered residence included four master apartments, its own generating station, air conditioning, a tailor’s and a bootmaker’s, a barber’s, cold storage for the lady of the house’s furs, as well as a walk-in dressing room containing 78 closets, to name but a few of the luxuries.
From 1929 up until Coty’s death in 1934 at his residence at Louveciennes (acquired in 1923), he lived for half of the year at Artigny with his family. During this time, he was waited on by 40 servants, employed several guards to watch his 1,300 hectare estate, which in one fell swoop included seven kilometres of river, French gardens, orchard greenhouses, several farms, three mills, a hunting lodge, a rectory and abandoned school buildings.
The office of the "Monsieur de Montbazon" was located on the first floor and had pride of place in a circular room topped with a dome. The dome was painted with a trompe l’oeil fresco by Charles Hoffbauer, a receiver of the Grand Prix de Rome 1924, and depicted a costume ball with friends and family at the château, in which it was possible to recognise Coty’s son-in-law, Paul Dubonnet as a sparrow with a glass in his hand. It was also possible to see the actresses Mary Marquet, Edwige Feuillère and Cécile Sorel, the ballet masters Serge Lifar and Serge Diaghilev, the painter Foujita, and the Aga Khan.
After Coty
Following the Crash of 1929, a luxurious lifestyle, a disastrous divorce, and the expense of his political magazine L’Ami du Peuple, his fortune had been heavily eaten into. The perfumer’s art collections were therefore sold at auction in 124 lots at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris on 30 November and 1 December 1936. After his death, the château was confiscated on the order of his numerous creditors.
In 1940, at the time when the French capital was relocated to Tours, the château had been identified as a potential shelter by a local aide-de-camp of Admiral Darlan and was subsequently occupied by the Department of the Navy. In 1941 it lay empty for a few months before being occupied by German troops until 1942, who in the meantime had painted the château brown to act as camouflage. Finally, it served as an annexe of Tours hospital, catering for the seriously wounded.
Coty’s family once again took possession of the château in 1947 and were made several offers. The projects to convert it into the head office of Indre-et-Loire’s general council or into a holiday park were not followed up so the heirs began to carve up the enormous estate.
After two years, in the course of which the library was converted into a lounge bar offering a unique collection of cognac, armagnac, port and whisky, it was opened at the end of 1961, under the name of the "Relais d'Artigny", becoming the first hotel company in Centre-Val de Loire. The wine cellar holds around 45,000 bottles of French wine, the finest collection in the world of Touraine wines. Since opening, Artigny has welcomed a number of personalities such as the Queen Mother and in 1963 Haile Selassie I, the last emperor of Ethiopia.
On 24–25 November 1973, under the guise of the establishment's annual closing, the finance ministers of the G5 countries met in the château for the International Monetary Conference, with Valéry Giscard d'Estaing presiding for France.
In April 1976, an inconspicuous meeting took place between the French President and his future successor, François Mitterrand at the château.
Artigny still belongs to the family hotel group, “Grandes Étapes Françaises”, whose president is Pierre Traversac. The château-hotel has 65 bedrooms, two dining rooms and a spa.

Château d'Artigny

The Château de Villandry is a grand country house located in Villandry, in the département of Indre-et-Loire, France. It is especially known for its beautiful gardens.
History
The lands where an ancient fortress once stood were known as Columbine until the 17th century. They were acquired in the early 16th century by Jean Le Breton, France's Controller-General for War under King Francis I, and a new château was constructed around the original 14th-century keep where King Philip II of France once met Richard I of England to discuss peace.
The château remained in the Le Breton family for more than two centuries until it was acquired by the Marquis de Castellane. During the French Revolution the property was confiscated and in the early 19th century, Emperor Napoleon acquired it for his brother Jérôme Bonaparte.
In 1906, Joachim Carvallo purchased the property and poured an enormous amount of time, money and devotion into repairing it and creating extremely beautiful gardens. Its famous Renaissance gardens include a water garden, ornamental flower gardens, and vegetable gardens. The gardens are laid out in formal patterns created with low box hedges. In 1934, Château de Villandry was designated a Monument historique. Like all the other châteaux of the Loire Valley, it is a World Heritage Site.
Recent times
Still owned by the Carvallo family, the Château de Villandry is open to the public and is one of the most visited châteaux in France; in 2007 the château received about 330,000 visitors.

Château de Villandry

The château de Nitray was built in the XVIth century to replace an older castle, probably dating back the XIIIth century.
« In 1250, this feud belonged to knight William du Plessis; in 1263, to Pierre de la Brosse to whom it was given by his uncle, Jean de la Brosse, Canon of Le Mans; in 1453, to Jean Lopin, who, by Act of March 11th, gave the “high Justice” of this feud to Aymar de la Rochefoucauld, Lord of Montbazon; in 1516, to Emery Lopin, master of requests of the Queen Mother, Mayor of Tours; in 1531, to Jean Binet; in 1560, to Emery Binet; in 1580, to Marie Binet, wife of Charles Daen; in 1600, to Pierre Binet; in 1642, to François Daen; in 1680, to César Daen; in 1728, to Mathieu Duchamp; in 1789, to Philippe-Jean-Baptiste Mignon, Crown prosecutor at the Tours finance office; in 1807, to General of Empire Jean-Jacques Liébert. »
Excerpts from “Nitray à Athée-sur-Cher” by André MONTOUX.
Its development is linked to the history of France since Aimery Lopin, Mayor of Tours and Master of requests of Louise de Savoie, mother of François 1st, decided the building of this castle.
Seventeen families have owned the castle since the building of the castle, in particular the family of General of Empire Jean-Jacques Liébert from 1807 to 1922.
On October 1st, 1955, the estate was sold on execution at the request of Mr. Georges-Marie Dermy who pursued Mr. Taillandier, industrial residing in Cameroon, who seems not to have paid the whole price settled in 1953. The starting price was made at 14,500,000 old French francs by public auction. As no purchaser stood, the estate was purchased on October 17th, 1955 by the family Brebart d’Halluin. Etienne d’Halluin implemented the first renovations: roof of the castle, the dovecote and the hunting lodge and then reorganized the vineyard to bring it to 15 hectares.
Since 1989, Earl Hubert de l’Espinay, son-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. d’Halluin, has been pursuing the work of his father-in-law transforming the sale of wine from bulk to bottle, improving vinification and creating two other activities to improve the estate returns on income: a tourist activity and room rental activity.
Today the château de Nitray welcomes 8 000 visitors a year, including many French and foreign tourists as well as business seminars, wedding type family receptions, birthdays, family meetings, etc.
http://www.chateau-nitray.fr

Château de Nitray

The Château de Cinq-Mars is a castle in the commune of Cinq-Mars-la-Pile in the Indre-et-Loire département of France.
The castle was built in the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations from the 13th, 15th and 16th centuries.
History
The first known feudal seigneur was living in 1050. Following the execution of the owner, Henri de Ruzé d'Effiat, Grand Écuyer (squire) and favourite of the King, in 1642 the fortress was rased by order of Cardinal Richelieu.
The 15th century guard house, whose façades were modified in the 18th and 19th centuries, developed between two round towers; the northern tower has an attached staircase tower. The fortress is surrounded by moats, rebuilt in the 16th century. The drawbridge was replaced by a fixed three-arched bridge. Of the four towers linked to the buildings or the curtain wall, only the East Tower, the South Tower (13th century) and the base of the North Tower (the end-of-12th century keep) remain.
The upper floors have been destroyed. The towers are crowned with a modern fantasy crenelation. A triangular construction, called the Eperon, extends from the south east of the fortress. The salient angle is occupied by a bartizan. It was constructed or remodelled in the 16th century, at the same time as the moats. In the corresponding corner of the wall above the moat is a cylindrical tower dating from the 15th century which contained a stone spiral staircase which allowed the lords to descend from the castle to the priory joined to the church.
The castle is privately owned. It has been listed since 1976 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

Château de Cinq-Mars la Pile

The Château de Saché is a writer's house museum located in a home built from the converted remains of a feudal castle. Located in Saché, Indre-et-Loire, between 1830 and 1837, it is where French writer Honoré de Balzac wrote many of his novels in the series La Comédie Humaine in which he attempted to reflect every aspect of French society at that time.
The château was owned by Balzac's friend, Jean de Margonne, his mother's lover and the father of her youngest child. The writer would often spend long periods staying here, away from his turbulent life in Paris, writing 14 to 16 hours a day. After supper he would sleep a few hours, wake around midnight and write until morning, sustained by large amounts of coffee.
Since 1951, the château has been open as an evocative museum dedicated to Balzac. His small second-floor bedroom has a simple bed and writing desk where so many of his often tormented characters were conceived.
The château was built upon the foundations of a twelfth-century fortified house, of which a cylindrical tower and dry moats remain. The building was successively transformed in the 16th through 18th centuries. It has been listed as a monument historique since June 1983 by the French Ministry of Culture.

Château de Saché

Château Gaillard has a long history. In 1496, King Charles VIII returned from Italy and wanted to create gardens such as he had seen in Naples. Enlisting Dom Pacello de Mercoliano, sometimes called the inventer of the art of gardens, Charles created the first Renaissance gardens in France. The château later passed to King Louis XII, and ultimately to King François I.
The Gaillard gardens included the first orange trees in France. Think of the Orangerie in Paris and the Orangerie at Versailles. They both came later.
Dom Pacello also created the variety of plums that are known today as Reine Claude (Queen Claude), named for Claude, daughter of Louis XII and wife of King François I. (In English these plums have the much less romantic name of greengage.)
Today, Château Gaillard is still known for its gardens. It is lovely to wander through the gardens, and you can even bring a picnic. The visit may include the gardens, the Orangerie (with 50 varieties of citrus), an "olfactory cave," a large-scale model of the royal domain in 1500, a bar offering organic "bio" orange juice; and the 16th century château. The château has been restored and includes period furnishings, stained glass windows, Renaissance fire places, and frescoes of citrus trees and fruit.
Permanent exhibitis focus on the history of the first Renaissance gardens, the history of citrus, and information on the restoration of the Royal Domaine.
A map at the entrance shows the various walkways and paths that you might want to explore.
While many of the more famous châteaux of the Loire valley will be crowded and buzzing with energy, Château Gaillard offers respite from lots of activity. Many visitors comment on the peace and relaxation they enjoyed there.
https://francetravelplanner.com/go/loire/amboise/see/gaillard.html