Drawbridges, ramparts, costumes and treasure hunts: these castles and fortresses know how to captivate children, far beyond a simple visit. Here are 30 ideas picked from over 650 places on the Trottimap map.
Castles and heritage
Château de Chantilly · Chantilly (60)
At the Grandes Écuries, a palace built for the horses of the Princes of Condé, a rider explains how a horse is trained during a commented demonstration, and the living Musée du…
Castles and heritage
Château de Pierrefonds · Pierrefonds (60)
Rebuilt by Viollet-le-Duc for Napoleon III, this fortified castle bristling with towers and machicolations overlooks the village and its lake.
Castles and heritage
Château des ducs de Bretagne · Nantes (44)
In the heart of Nantes, the courtyard and wall walk of Anne of Brittany's castle are free to access, and children walk the ramparts looking down over the city.
Castles and heritage
Château de Chambord · Chambord (41)
Children climb the double-helix staircase trying to spot each other from one spiral to the other, then come out onto terraces bristling with chimneys.
Castles and heritage
Château de Chenonceau · Chenonceaux (37)
The château spans the Cher, and its long gallery lets you cross from one bank to the other without getting your feet wet.
Castles and heritage
Château de Cheverny · Cheverny (41)
Hergé drew on Cheverny for Marlinspike Hall, and a permanent eight-room exhibition recreates the world of Tintin.
Castles and heritage
Château de Villandry · Villandry (37)
Villandry owes its fame to its gardens, including an ornamental kitchen garden where vegetables and flowers form geometric patterns.
Castles and heritage
Château royal d'Amboise · Amboise (37)
Perched above the Loire, the royal château is explored with a HistoPad that shows each room as it was in the Renaissance.
Castles and heritage
Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg · Orschwiller (67)
Rebuilt in the early 20th century, this pink sandstone castle overlooks the Alsace plain from more than 750 metres up.
Castles and heritage
Citadelle de Besançon · Besançon (25)
Perched above the Doubs, Vauban's UNESCO-listed citadel houses several museums in its military buildings.
Castles and heritage
Château des Milandes · Castelnaud-la-Chapelle (24)
This Renaissance château was Josephine Baker's home, and its rooms tell of her life as a performer, her work in the Resistance and her family of twelve adopted children.
Castles and heritage
Cité de Carcassonne · Carcassonne (11)
Behind its two rings of walls and 52 towers, the medieval Cité can be explored freely on foot, through the Porte Narbonnaise and along cobbled lanes.
Castles and heritage
Château des Baux-de-Provence · Les Baux-de-Provence (13)
At the top of the hilltop village, the castle ruins cover five hectares of rock.
Castles and heritage
Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte · Maincy (77)
You tour Fouquet's château room by room, then head down to the vast gardens designed by Le Nôtre.
Castles and heritage
Château de Breteuil · Choisel (78)
In this furnished château in the Chevreuse valley, eight of Perrault's tales are staged with life-size characters, sound and lighting, from Puss in Boots to Sleeping Beauty.
Castles and heritage
Château de Versailles · Versailles (78)
You tour Louis XIV's château through the State Apartments and the Hall of Mirrors, then step out into Le Nôtre's vast gardens, with their ornamental pools, groves and Grand Canal.
Castles and heritage
Château de Vincennes · Vincennes (94)
On the edge of Paris, the walls built under Charles V protect a keep more than fifty metres high, one of the tallest in Europe, where you visit the royal apartments and…
Castles and heritage
Montfort-l'Amaury · Montfort-l'Amaury (78)
This medieval village on the edge of the Rambouillet forest is best explored on foot, along cobbled lanes that climb towards the castle ruins and the tower of Anne of Brittany.
Castles and heritage
Château de Fontainebleau · Fontainebleau (77)
Home to French monarchs for eight centuries, the château unfolds its gilded galleries, Napoleon's throne room and the queens' apartments.
Castles and heritage
Château de Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard · Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard (91)
Behind its high walls, the 17th-century flower-filled kitchen garden mixes heritage vegetables, flowers and espaliered fruit trees.
Castles and heritage
Château de Rambouillet · Rambouillet (78)
Around the château where kings, emperors and presidents have stayed, the gardens stretch over 150 hectares of canals and lawns.
Castles and heritage
Château de Monte-Cristo · Le Port-Marly (78)
Alexandre Dumas had this small Renaissance-style château built on the hill at Le Port-Marly, with a Gothic pavilion opposite, the Château d'If, where he wrote.
Castles and heritage
Château de Preisch · Basse-Rentgen (57)
Close to the Luxembourg border, this furnished château is visited with a booklet and an audio guide, including a version for children with games.
Castles and heritage
Château de Goulaine · Haute-Goulaine (44)
A quarter of an hour from Nantes, this Renaissance château surrounded by marshes can be explored freely with a smartphone audio guide.