There are many chateaux in the Loire Valley that are open to visitors, so we narrowed our list down to visit three. The first was Chateau d'Usse. Wikipedia was not very clear, but it looks like the Chateau was originally built in the 11th century, but the current version was more from the 16th-17th centuries. Similar to the B&B, the back part of the Chateau was built into the hillside and there were tunnels underneath used for safe escapes into the forest several kilometers behind the Chateau!
Finally, Usse is renowned for being the inspiration behind the story of The Sleeping Beauty, written by French author Charles Perrault. It does have a certain Disney-ish quality!
We were able to climb one of the towers...
And tour a portion of the interior.
This was the view down to the nearby Village of Usse. I was sorry it was so overcast, but at least it wasn't raining and you get an idea of how charming it was!
The courtyard of the Chateau...
And the gardens down in front.
There was also a small chapel to the left of the Chateau and some caves used for wine storage. We were there about 2 hours and the rain held off until we got back into the car. Onto the next stop!
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