Last week's holiday in the Charente (3) - Château de la Roche Courbon

As Bordeaux with its many châteaux in the region is about 2 hours' drive south of Fouras, I was surprised when JL told me we're going to visit a château much closer, not realising there are some.  As the weather was still not great, it was a welcome escape to hop in the car to go and do sightseeing.  It is a small château, a third of its original size after a fire destroyed the rest.  And a château that was never attacked.  And didn't belong to the Royalty, but to a seigneur (a lord).  As JL said, a château without a story.  Despite that, the garden reminded me very much of a garden my mom and I saw in Italy (and should look very pretty in summer, it was designed before the garden of Versailles and one of the first examples of a French garden), the basement of the château had an exhibition of old games (with the rules next to it) available to the tourists to play and the interior had some beautiful painted ceilings and walls, painted in 1662.  So not a bad visit at all!
The walk to the caves where people lived centuries ago we didn't do, as it started raining when we left the castle.  The castle and its forest was classified as an archeological site in 1924 (traces of a gallo-roman village and 11th century wall are found in the forest) and a historical monument in 1946.  More recently it got the acknowledgement of jardin remarquable (remarkable garden for those of you having real difficulty with French that is sometimes so close to English - and many times even closer to Afrikaans).
The château was built on a rocky outcrop with the marshland as natural defence.  This area was not only affected by the conflict between Catholic and Protestant but also at war with England for 3 centuries! The marshes led to serious deterioration over the years and major renovations including piling of up to 13 m were done during the last 20 years.
So yes, if you are in the Charente and have half a day to spare, you can definitely consider to visit the château.

Just before the entrance gate, nowadays hosting the toilettes (one place in France I still try to avoid where possible, but at least here it was fine)

The château seen from the gate

The inside of the gate has some statues for decoration

The entrance to the garden

Above: extensive piling had to rescue the garden during the renovation phase

Below: the staircase very much like the one in Florence that we've seen, but this one looks much older due to the type of rock

Above: the castle has many apple and pear trees

Below: the staircase from closer

We had quite a bit of fun in the game room, but had to rush off to be in time for the guided tour.  Unfortunately I couldn't take photos inside.  And to our surprise we didn't have to exit through the shop - a first in France!