Monuments, museums and history

Château d’Amboise

A royal residence overlooking the Loire, linked to the last years of Leonardo da Vinci. Owned by the House of Amboise for more than four centuries, the château passed to the Crown in 1434. During the Renaissance it was home…

Le Clos Lucé

Leonardo da Vinci’s last home, with gardens and models of his inventions. In the centre of Amboise, the former manor of Le Cloux was a residence of the kings of France before Francis I placed it at Leonardo’s disposal in…

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres

Gothic masterpiece famous for its 13th-century stained-glass windows. Largely rebuilt in some thirty years in the early 13th century, after the fire of 1194, Chartres Cathedral is considered one of the best-preserved Gothic cathedrals, thanks to its sculptures, stained glass…

Château royal de Blois

The royal château of Blois spans five centuries of French architecture and was a residence of kings. Located in the heart of the town, on the right bank of the Loire, it was the favourite residence of the kings of…

Village of Locronan

Listed among the Most Beautiful Villages of France, Locronan has preserved its granite architecture from the 17th and 18th centuries. This village in Finistère, between Quimper and Douarnenez, owes its past prosperity to the making of sailcloth, which equipped in…

Château et jardins de Villandry

Famous for its terraced Renaissance gardens and its ornamental kitchen garden. The last of the great châteaux built along the Loire in the 16th century, Villandry lies about fifteen kilometres west of Tours. Its gardens were recreated from 1906 onwards…

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes

Collections ranging from Egyptian antiquity to contemporary art. The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes was formed from the revolutionary seizures of 1794 and owes much of its wealth to the cabinet of curiosities of the Marquis de Robien, a president…

Château d’Azay-le-Rideau

A Renaissance château built partly on piles in the bed of the Indre, surrounded by water. It was built from 1518 to 1524, during the reign of Francis I, for Gilles Berthelot, treasurer of France, and his wife Philippe Lesbahy,…

Ramparts and Corsair City of Saint-Malo

Ramparts largely remodelled in the 17th and 18th centuries, offering a panoramic view over the bay. Begun in the 12th century, the walls of Saint-Malo were strengthened in Vauban’s time by the engineer Siméon Garangeau, who replaced three quarters of…

Château de Valençay

Château once owned by Talleyrand, with fine Empire-period furniture. Located in Valençay, in the Indre, in the Berry region, its architecture links it to the châteaux of the Loire, Chambord in particular. Its rebuilding was begun in the 16th century…

Château de Cormatin

An early 17th-century château with exceptional interior decoration, Cormatin stands on an island in the Grosne river, in Saône-et-Loire. Its construction was begun in 1606 by Antoine du Blé d’Uxelles. It retains rare original features, in particular its open-well staircase,…

MuséoParc Alésia

An interpretation centre devoted to the Battle of Alesia, in which Julius Caesar’s army faced Vercingetorix’s Gallic coalition in 52 BC. Located in Alise-Sainte-Reine, in the Côte-d’Or, it occupies a circular building designed by Bernard Tschumi, clad in a wooden…

Château de Tanlay

A Renaissance château surrounded by moats, Tanlay is one of the finest in Burgundy. Built on the foundations of an older fortress, it was begun in the 16th century by François de Coligny d’Andelot and completed in the 17th century…

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

One of the oldest museums in France, housed in the former ducal palace of Dijon. Seat of the Burgundian State in the 15th century, the palace later became the king’s residence, then the palace of the States of Burgundy in…

Château de Josselin

A feudal castle of the Dukes of Rohan on the banks of the Oust, Josselin overlooks the river from a rocky plateau. A fortress as early as the 11th century, heavily reinforced by Olivier de Clisson in the 14th century,…

Alignements de Carnac

The world’s largest group of aligned menhirs, with nearly 3,000 standing stones. The Carnac alignments comprise four megalithic sites, Kermario, Le Ménec, Kerlescan and Le Petit Ménec, in the municipalities of Carnac and La Trinité-sur-Mer. Erected around 4,500 BC, these…

Citadelle de Port-Louis – Musée de la Compagnie des Indes

A citadel housing the collections of the Musée de la Compagnie des Indes (East India Company Museum). Built in the 16th century by the Spanish and altered in the 17th century by the French, the Citadelle de Port-Louis guards the…

Musée de l’Aventure Peugeot

A retrospective of Peugeot’s industrial and automotive history. Opened in 1988 at the initiative of the Peugeot family, the Musée de l’Aventure Peugeot is located in Sochaux, in the Doubs, close to the historic Sochaux-Montbéliard industrial site. It displays a…