We parked our car down in the middle of the town and hiked up the hill to get to the chateau. Like many of the castles in Europe, it has a long history of construction and destruction and reconstruction. This one had a decent display showing the various parts of the fortress and when they were added or removed. Most of the buildings were empty and you could walk through them and explore at your leisure. There was a neat display featuring Jean of Arc artifacts while we were there (she visited this castle once upon a time).
I learned shortly before taking this trip that I had French ancestors, including a couple of Huguenots. The Huguenots were French Protestants who spoke out against the Catholic church. Eventually both sides got angry enough with each other that it turned into a religious war. Anyway, the Huguenots tended to be a bit destructive, and this is one of the sites that they did some damage to during the wars in the late 1500s. It wasn't the last site we'd see in this area that my zealous ancestors destroyed. I was a bit conflicted about whether to be excited when I found something that my ancestors were involved in, or to be disappointed that I never got to see the amazing things they destroyed in their original condition.
We went back down into the town center to have lunch. We found a nice little restaurant and watched the school kids walking home for lunch, and then back to school again. After lunch, we got back in the car and headed down the road to our next stop for the day.
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