Château de Chaumont
France > Loire > Cities > Chaumont

The original fortress was destroyed by Louis XI in the mid-fifteenth century in revenge for the part its owner, Pierre d'Amboise, played in the "League of Public Weal", an alliance of powerful nobles against the ever-increasing power of the monarch. But Pierre found his way back into the king's favour, and with his son Charles I, built much of the quintessentially medieval castle that stands today. Proto-Renaissance design is more obvious in the courtyard, which today forms three sides of a square, the fourth side having been demolished in 1739 to improve views over the river, which are spectacular. Inside, the heavy nineteenth-century decor of the ground floor rooms dates from the ownership of the Broglie family, but a few rooms on the first floor have been remodelled in Renaissance style. The large council chamber is particularly fine, with seventeenth-century majolica tiles on the floor and its walls adorned with wonderfully busy sixteenth-century tapestries showing the gods of each of the seven planets known at the time.

The Broglie family also transformed the 21-hectare landscaped park into the fashionable English style and built the remarkable Belle Époque stables, with their porcelain troughs and elegant electric lamps for the benefit of the horses at a time before the Château itself was wired – let alone the rest of the country. A corner of the Château grounds now plays host to an annual Festival des Jardins (June to mid-Oct 9.30am–8.30pm; €8), which shows off the extravagant efforts of contemporary garden designers.

On weekends in summer, you can secure the best view of the Château from the deck of a traditional Loire boat. Contact the Association Millière Raboton (tel 06.88.76.57.14; [email protected]), whose scheduled boat trips (March–June & Oct 2.30pm; July–Sept dawn, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; €10–15) leave from the quay immediately below the Château, and last roughly an hour and a half.