Castelnaud Castle, Dordogne

The Chateau de Castelnaud is located in the small town of Castelnaud and rises up above the tight cobbled streets to look over the slowly meandering River Dordogne and a beautiful lush green landscape stretching as far as the eye can see off to the distant hills of the Dordogne region of France. Earlier in the week we had viewed it while canoeing down the Dordogne and decided that it was definitely worth a visit. We were based in Sarlat and so it ...
...get there although the last couple of kilometres certainly make you glad of power steering as you negotiate the steep and twisting roads leading to the chateau entrance, much kudos to those hardy souls who were either cycling or walking to it, I would not have wanted to swap places with them.

The chateau (we would call it a castle) is open all year round although the opening times do vary dependant upon the time of year, during the ... more

The Chateau de Castelnaud is located in the small town of Castelnaud and rises up above the tight cobbled streets to look over the slowly meandering River Dordogne and a beautiful lush green landscape stretching as far as the eye can see off to the distant hills of the Dordogne region of France. Earlier in the week we had viewed it while canoeing down the Dordogne and decided that it was definitely worth a visit. We were based in Sarlat and so it was a really enjoyable and scenic thirty minute drive to get there although the last couple of kilometres certainly make you glad of power steering as you negotiate the steep and twisting roads leading to the chateau entrance, much kudos to those hardy souls who were either cycling or walking to it, I would not have wanted to swap places with them.

The chateau (we would call it a castle) is open all year round although the opening times do vary dependant upon the time of year, during the peak summer months it is open from 09.00 to 20.00 and I would say that you need to allow at least three to four hours visiting time so that you are able to enjoy all that it has to offer. The full list of opening times can be found on the website. One of the most pleasing aspects of visiting this site is the fact that the entry fee is very reasonable. Adults pay 7,20 euros whilst children 10 - 17 pay 3,60, euro under tens go for free. Personally I would consider this site to be comparable to Warwick Castle in terms of interest and entertainment value and a whole family of four can gain entrance for less than the price of one adult entry to Warwick (Taussauds owned so no surprise on the inflated price). Parking was an extra 2,50 euro if I remember right and this is located a short, but steep walk, through some tightly packed streets made up mostly of a mixture of ice-creams bars and restaurants with a few small tourist shops, nothing too tacky and there are a couple of quaint stores to check out and some drop dead scrummy ice cream concoctions as well. Personally I found these great as ensuring the kids behaved o the visit otherwise they were told they would not get one but would have to watch me eat the largest one on the menu.

Built at the times of the crusades the castle fluctuated between French and English control during the 100 years war until we finally gave up on ever bringing civilisation to the French and left them to it. Nowadays the castle has undergone an extensive redevelopment to bring it back to its former glory and whilst this means that some parts of it are a bit too well built to be authentic there is plenty to see within the walls and surrounding grounds to provide an entertaining day out.

Guided tours are available in English however we preferred to wander around at our leisure and the maps provided are really informative, in fact we were given quite a few leaflets but the pink flyer in English was the most useful and negated the need to buy any other guide book from the shop. We started by exploring the artillery tower which has a number of floors with cannon pointing out at various stages. There is a big museum of war contained within the chateau so if your thing is weapons then it is very interesting site to visit. The armoury is located off the staircase on the second floor and there is a very impressive display of weapons including swords and pikes as well as some rather frightening looking weapons festooned with blades and spikes, I did think many would be useful to have on a Saturday night out in Northampton.

On the third floor there some what are termed more modern artillery pieces and some of these were really interesting, there was a huge giant cross bow and also a twelve gun "organ" set on wheels which was pretty impressive. All the displays are nicely set out and well spaced which is important as some of the rooms are quite small and this helps reduce crowding however some waiting and queuing is unavoidable especially when we visited in August. There are also a few interactive touch screen terminals which my kids enjoyed especially the one that takes you on a mission to rescue a princess where you have to apply some of the knowledge you have gained to advance, at the end you are given a password which you can use to get a small prize from the gift shop.

As well as weapons there is also an impressive collection of 14th and 15th century furniture which is housed in the upper chamber of the keep. The whole route through the chateau is well signed and takes you through the main building, there are also a number of audio visual displays to watch which are mostly subtitled into English and are very interesting as well as giving you the chance to rest your feet for a short while. The kitchen area was really interesting as was a separate room which housed small models of a number of projectile launchers including a number of trebuchet whilst outside on one of the walls the real things can be found and you are free to walk around them close up. Having seen one in operation on a visit to Warwick Castle we were familiar with their operation but here there are four or fie different versions showing the different types and how they developed over time.

The views from the chateau walls are beautiful and you get a wonderful vista laid out in front of you of the Perigord region, the river below is often full of people on canoes and the temptation to lob something down at them like the defenders of olden times would have done is a passing urge best ignored. Within the castle grounds there are also a number of displays to keep the kids amused, a blacksmith demonstrates his skills and there are fairly regular displays of sword fighting as well.

In terms of other facilities there are a couple of gift shops within the chateau building however I only found one set of toilets which are located in one corner of the castle so go at the start of your visit. There is a larger library boutique at the exit however you have to leave the chateau if you want to sit down and eat or drink as all of the food outlets are within the old town on the walk from the car park. This is definitely a suitable family location even for smaller children as there is plenty to do and see although there is a lot of climbing and uneven paths so you do have to be pretty good on your feet.

Definitely somewhere to consider visiting if you are in the region, there is lots to see and you are ideally located to also combine it with a visit to either Beynac or La Roque-Gageac to the west or east respectively.

To see some images check out
http://www.castelnaud.com/castelnaud/htmgb/sommaire.html

Thanks for reading and rating my review 

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