Azay le Ferron: The Chateau

The castle of AZAY-le-FERRON looks like a typical example of the beautiful Loire castles. Located in the Indre department in France, in the village of Azay le Ferron, the Chateau is an exquisite building with a rich architecture from the XV to the XVIII century. Visiting this building is like travelling through history. From the outside you can easily see all the different types of architecture that make up the present building. Each owner added something to this Chateau, a tower (built during the 15th century), a garden, an entire wing, or just internal corridors.

Closed during winter, the Chateau opens its doors to visitors at the start of spring every year.

This year, the opening coincided with the Easter holiday so we took our little princess and the hooligan to do their Easter egg hunt in the Chateau's gardens. But before hunting for the Easter eggs we had an educational visit to the Chateau. For me and my little princess it was like entering into a magic world of fairytales, from the mediaeval hall with its enormously long table for its knights, to the delicately decorated bedrooms fitted for royalty. Unfortunately, our little hooligan was only interested in the stuffed crocodile, turtles and other animals scattered in the building!

We visited the 18 rooms opened to the public. Each of them sumptuously decorated from different periods (Louis XVI, Romantic, etc.). Our tour guide was a fantastic lady who made our visit very interesting for the children. We visited halls, kitchens, bedrooms, libraries, dining rooms. The children were prompted by the tour guide to discover secret doors that lead to secret passages joining rooms, and they were encouraged to touch the stuffed animals and measure them.

The history of the Chateau dates back to 1250 with the name of its first owner, Le Chevalier Banneret, Nicolas de Turpin de Crisse. The successive owners remained Barons until 1789. After that, the Chateau was bought by a businessman and later by a banker for Napoleon. In 1833, the Chateau was bought by the Luzarche family; master blacksmiths who had to donate the Chateau to the village of Tours in 1951 because they had run out of inheritors.

The Chateau has 1000 Hectares of woods. There are around 20 hectares of gardens made up into various "scenes", like the French style garden, the English style garden, the vegetable garden, the rose garden (with roses going back as far as the XIX century), topiaries, vineyards, orchards and so on.

There are different activities all year round in the Chateau. This year for example, there is a Rose conference about the evolution of the rose bush, advice on how to care for your roses and how to choose between all the varieties. The Chateau also organizes producers' markets and in their shop you can find local liqueurs, honey and other local specialities.

You can picnic in the gardens and take walks around the woods. There is a path of 4Km. that crosses the park and returns through the village of Azay le Ferron.

April, May, June, September : 10:00 a.m./12:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m./6:00 p.m. (Everyday except Tuesday)

July 1 through August 31 : 10:00 a.m./6:00 p.m.

Oct. 1 through Nov. 2 : every week-end 10:00 a.m./12:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m./5:30 p.m.

Nearby attractions:

Espace animalier de la Haute-Touche (AZAY-le-FERRON) You'll discover more than 1,000 animals from five continents in a 500 hectarea wooded park.

Maison du Parc Naturel Régional de la Brenne (Le Bouchet). This is a tourist information centre which also sells local produce like honey, goat's cheese with quality control labels and other specialities of the area like lentils and carp products.

The Anglin and Creuse Rivers, both slow moving rivers are a paradise for anglers and canoeists. There are many itineraries that allow for a safe descent going past castles, picturesque villages and watermills.