Château de Lauzun, a rustic castle in the south-west of France, has actually played host to real royalty, not just the Hollywood variety.
The château was visited by Henry IV, the first Bourbon king of France, and Catherine de Medici, the 16th-century queen, regent and mother of three kings of France. Now it is up for sale for £5.4 million (Dh29.4m) and it has a very unique feature.
"It's very unusual in that it is actually two châteaux put together," says Jelena Cvjetkovic, of the upmarket estate agency Savills. "They are adjacent but you could say there are two wings."
A five-bedroom medieval château, which has been extensively restored, dates from the 15th century and a second château was constructed in 1570 along the property's eastern perimeter. The so-called Renaissance château was designed to be a statement of the owner's power and wealth, according to Savills.
In addition to a great hall, the Renaissance château also features a king and duke's bedchambers, and two bedrooms which have been converted from a chapel.
The property also boasts a swimming pool and a large two-storey barn, which is currently being used to store classic cars.
"The vendor is also prepared to sell one of his vintage cars [a Bentley or a Rolls-Royce] by separate negotiation," says Ms Cvjetkovic, who suggests the château would be ideal for somebody looking to invest into a wedding venue.
"The main château hasn't got a huge number of bedrooms. You have a barn that you could renovate and get more bedrooms in but it's in a village, which means that there are places for guests potentially to stay," she says.
"A reception room means the venue could operate year-round, but a lawn at the front of the château could be used on a good day for the ceremony."
https://www.thenational.ae/business/wedded-bliss-in-a-royal-french-ch%C3%A2teau-1.297699

Château de Lauzun

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Le château de Bouniagues est situé en Périgord pourpre, sur la commune française de Bouniagues dans le département de la Dordogne, en région Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
L'édifice est protégé au titre des monuments historiques pour la porte Renaissance du presbytère, située sur la tour extérieure.
Architecture
La bâtisse dite « La Baume » ou « Labaulme », est datée du xve siècle (1489). De plan rectangulaire, elle comprend des fenêtres Renaissance, avec des croisées à meneaux. La tour polygonal. attenante au château sur la façade sud rappelle la vocation défensive de l'édifice.
Cette tour abrite un escalier à vis en pierres, auquel on accède par la porte d'origine, inscrite au titre des monuments historiques par arrêté du 27 janvier 1948; au-dessus de cette porte est sculpté un blason représentant deux corps de lions aux têtes de créatures difficilement identifiables. Le château ayant appartenu à la famille de Saint Ours, il a été émis l'hypothèse qu'il s'agirait de deux têtes d'ours.
Ce blason fait écho aux armes reproduites sur le linteau de la porte intérieure, menant à la salle du quatrième niveau. Sur les façades sud et nord, l'édifice est percé de fenêtres de style Renaissance, surmontées d'arcatures. Les cheminées présentes à l'intérieur datent du xive siècle.
Le château possédait à l'origine un niveau supérieur, avant d'être abaissé d'un étage. Il reste encore quelques marques de ce niveau aujourd'hui disparu. Aux angles se trouvent les vestiges des deux tours en encorbellement découronnées. C'est sur cette même partie ouest que le château a abrité un presbytère à partir du xixe siècle.
La partie centrale comprend la tour d'escalier polygonale avec un porche en arc brisé rappelant, par sa forme très particulière, le porche de Lanquais. Hormis ces deux sites, il n'existe pas d'autre porche semblable dans le Périgord. Il s'agirait de l’œuvre du même artiste.
Histoire
Au fil des siècles, le château de Bouniagues dévoile certains faits marquants de son histoire.
De la fin du xve siècle et jusqu'après le xviie siècle, les seigneurs du château (Charles, Pierre, Isaac, Louis puis Jean de Solminihac) étaient une branche de la maison de Solminihac (dont le plus ancien de la lignée connu aux Archives nationales fut Mathieu de Solminihac (1165-1195).
Au début du xviiie siècle, à la suite du mariage le 17 août 1701 d'une demoiselle de Solminihac (Marie-Charlotte, fille de Jean de Solminihac) avec Pierre de Saint Ours, seigneur de Clermont, écuyer, capitaine de dragons au régiment de Saint-Sarlin, le château passa aux mains de la famille de Saint Ours5. Cette union donna naissance à trois enfants, dont Henri de Saint Ours en 1703. En 1732, Henri (seigneur de Morin) épousa Marie de Cosson de La Suderie, née en 1716 ; ils eurent un fils en 1738, prénommé Pierre.
En 1793, ce même Pierre de Saint Ours, chevalier de Saint-Louis, seigneur de Bouniagues, la Baume, la Jaubertie..., capitaine au régiment de Beauce, est trahi par un de ses domestiques. Il est bâillonné et garrotté durant son sommeil. Après le pillage du château, les sbires du tribunal révolutionnaire de Bergerac le mettent avant le jour sur une charrette avec Anne de Sirvain, sa femme, et leurs huit enfants. Ils étaient déjà près de Bergerac quand accoururent les paysans de Bouniagues, armés de fusils, de piques et de faux qui les délivrèrent à l'approche du bourg de la Madeleine. Après avoir mis en fuite les agents de la Révolution, ils ramenèrent au château de Bouniagues toute la famille de Saint Ours qu'on n'osa plus inquiéter. Pierre de Saint-Ours décéda en 1806 à l'âge de soixante-huit ans.
En 1875, le maire de Bouniagues, Martial Delpit de Castang, acheta le château et en rétrocéda une moitié (la partie ouest), à la commune de Bouniagues, qui y installa le presbytère.

Château de Bouniagues

The chateau dates back to the 12th century and has an attractive facade with stone walls, deep perigordine roofs, turrets and extensive grounds. Many of the rooms have been renovated and furnished allowing you to step back in history.
The kitchen is a large room with a domed roof and a huge open fireplace once used to cook the meals for the chateau's inhabitants. Now it is often used to make crepes and biscuits that you can buy. Hung on the walls and ceilings are an assortment of copper pans and various other kitchen utensils are on display.
The elegant dining room lined with gleaming wood panneling has its large table set as if ready to entertain at any moment and a large and elegant salon also has lovely wood panneled walls.  Other rooms include a games room, an armour room with a full knight and horse's armour and a bedroom.
Down in the stables is a large games room and outside both in the courtyard and outside the castle there are loads of games to play. These are all traditional games and make the castle a great place to come with children.
Games include giant chess, archery and many games of skill, strength or dexterity.
In July and August there is a restaurant in the courtyard of the chateau with a simple but tasty menu of quiches, sandwiches, salads and cakes, crumble or ice-cream.
A little history
The Chateau de Bridoire dates back to the 12th century and has had 10 diffferent families living here. It was once visited by Henri de Navarre before he became King Henri IV of France.
Fighting has taken place here between the French and the English and between Catholics and Protestants.
In recent years the castle was vandalised and plundered for 22 years before it was eventually protected by the state and bought by the Guyot family who renovated the castle and are the current owners.
https://www.northofthedordogne.com/chateau-de-bridoire.php

Château de Bridoire

Monbazillac is located a short distance to the south of Bergerac.
The castle itself is a listed historical monument, and dates from the 16th century. It is in an early Renaissance style, and is in an attractive wooded setting with far-reaching views across the region. The castle contains some finely decorated rooms and apartments.
But it is for the wine that the Monbazillac region is best known. 3500 hectares of vines produce one of the most widely known (and most highly reputed) dessert (sweet) white wines in the world.
Looking for other excuses to enjoy a glass of the wine - it forms an excellent accompaniment to the local foie gras, and a perfect aperitif if chilled.
Exploring the Chateau de Monbazillac
When you have parked your car in the lovely wooded parking area and set off for the castle the first view of the castle is superb. At the end of a long straight driveway it sits high above the surrounding countryside and its large round turrets and mass of pointy roofs and leaded windows give it something of a fairy tale appearance.
MonbazillacThe chateau was built in 1550 and miraculously has come unscathed through the various wars and revolutions that have followed this period of history.
On visiting the Chateau de Monbazillac there are three floors to explore. Whilst the chateau was built as a defensive chateau with towers, a moat, arrow slits and battlements, it incorporates the early Renaissance styles of architecture with large windows. The rooms, therefore are lovely light and airy rooms.
On the ground floor are the reception rooms with their beautifully polished wooden floors and 17th century furniture.
The main room on the first floor is the Mounet-Sully hall which contains some huge dark pieces of Italien-baroque style furniture which once belonged to Mounet Sully, a famous French actor who was born in Bergerac. Next to this room, in the tower, is a lovely collection of white porcelain from Limoges which also belonged to Sully.
On this floor is also the Viscountess' bedroom, again with 17th century furniture and in the tower next to this are some wooden engravings with scenes of the Apocalypse.
My favourite room on this floor is the SEM hall which is filled with original cartoons drawn by SEM, a famous caricaturist who was born in Perigueux. These are great cartoons of French gentlemen and ladies during the end of the 19th century. For those of you interested in SEM (real name Georges Goursat) there is a little museum of his at La Casssange near Saint Genies. SEM was responsible for the drawing on the menu of Paris' famous Maxims restaurant.
As well as the room of SEM cartoons the 'Rodolph Germain Hall' contains changing displays of modern art by way of temporary exhibitions.
The basement of the chateau gives you a chance to see row upon row of 'liquid gold' - Monbazillac's famous sweet white wine. There is a small museum of wine related tools and you can also see the chateau kitchens and some wonderful huge pottery storage containers.
Not surprisingly after your visit there is a cave where you can sample the wines, and plenty of opportunities to purchase some.
Wandering round the castle from the outside offers some great views over the surrounding countryside.
https://www.northofthedordogne.com/monbazillac.php

Château de Monbazillac

Originally built during the 12th Century, the Castle was turned into an impregnable fortress in the early 14th Century by Bertrand de Got the then owner. He was the nephew and namesake of Pope Clement V who gave his support to the work.
The Durfort family acquired the Castle before the start of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) during which time it was under the control of first, the Duke of Aquitaine, King Henry II of England, and then the French King, Louis VII the younger.
First auction sale, 1961Envied by many noble families, Duras (the Durfort family), was granted the status of a Duchy at the end of the 17th Century. The Castle slowly became a superb country mansion, rather than a fortress with stables, formal gardens, and a huge reception area, the Hall of the “Three Marshals”, and enjoyed all the pomp and circumstance of the Age of Enlightenment.
It was partially destroyed and plundered during the French Revolution (1798) and fell into disrepair. The village people eventually bought the ruins at a public auction in the 1960’s. (Auction by Candle!)
It is now a jewel in the cultural heritage crown of Aquitaine and a very popular tourist attraction which awaits your personal “conquest”!
http://uk.chateau-de-duras.com