The 12 most beautiful castles in France

Originally a hunting lodge of Louis XIII, Versailles became Louis XIV's great building project from 1661, and the king moved the court and government there in 1682. The Hall of Mirrors and its 357 mirrors, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, is still the palace's most famous room; the estate has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979.

The visit takes in the King's and Queen's State Apartments, then André Le Nôtre's gardens with their pools and fountains, and the Estate of Trianon: the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon and the Queen's Hamlet. Allow a full day to see the palace, the gardens and Trianon.

Begun in 1519 by François I, Chambord is the largest château in the Loire Valley. Its architect is unknown: Leonardo da Vinci, who died in Amboise in May 1519, may have inspired the plan, without proof, especially the great double-helix staircase, on which two people can climb without meeting.

At the top of the staircase, the terraces reveal the forest of chimneys, lanterns and dormers on the roofs. The château stands at the heart of a forest estate entirely enclosed by walls, home to red deer and wild boar, and its formal gardens were restored in 2017.

Built in the 16th century over the Cher, Chenonceau owes its nickname, the "Ladies' Château", to the women who shaped it: Katherine Briçonnet during its construction, Diane de Poitiers, who had the bridge built across the river, then Catherine de' Medici, who added the two-storey gallery.

The visit passes through the furnished bedrooms, the kitchens set in the bridge piers and the great gallery above the Cher, then the gardens of Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de' Medici, the maze and the kitchen garden. It stands on the Cher, just outside the UNESCO-listed Loire Valley area.

On a hill above the Aude, the Cité of Carcassonne lines up two walls, about 3 km of ramparts and some fifty towers around the Château Comtal, built in the 12th century by the Trencavel viscounts. Restored from 1853 by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997.

Entering the Cité, its lanes and the lists, the space between the two walls, is free. The Centre des monuments nationaux ticket opens the Château Comtal and part of the wall-walk, with views over the Aude valley and the lower town; the Basilica of Saint-Nazaire and its Gothic stained glass are visited separately.

The Chantilly estate combines the Petit Château, built around 1560 for Constable Anne de Montmorency, and the Grand Château, rebuilt in the late 19th century for Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale. He bequeathed the whole estate to the Institut de France, on condition that his collections stay displayed as he had arranged them.

The Musée Condé thus holds France's second collection of old master paintings after the Louvre, with works by Raphael, Poussin and Ingres, and a library rich in illuminated manuscripts. The park designed by André Le Nôtre, the 1774 Hamlet, which inspired Marie-Antoinette's at Versailles, and the Great Stables complete the visit.

Home to French sovereigns for more than seven centuries, from Louis VII to Napoleon III, Fontainebleau has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1981. François I brought Italian artists here, and their decoration, notably in the François I Gallery, gave rise to the School of Fontainebleau.

The visit crosses the State Apartments, the ballroom, the Trinity Chapel and the Napoleon I Museum. It was here that Napoleon signed his abdication in April 1814 before bidding farewell to his Guard in the White Horse Courtyard, known since as the Courtyard of Farewells. The park and gardens open onto the Forest of Fontainebleau.

Perched at 757 m on a spur of the Vosges above the Alsace plain, Haut-Kœnigsbourg is recorded as early as the 12th century. Burnt during the Thirty Years' War, in 1633, it stayed in ruins until the town of Sélestat offered it in 1899 to Emperor Wilhelm II, who had it rebuilt from 1900 to 1908 by the architect Bodo Ebhardt.

The visit follows the layout of a fortified castle: lower court, furnished lord's lodgings, great bastion and medieval garden. On clear days, the view stretches across the Alsace plain, the Rhine and the Black Forest.

Built from 1658 to 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV's Superintendent of Finances, Vaux-le-Vicomte brought together the architect Louis Le Vau, the gardener André Le Nôtre and the painter Charles Le Brun. A few weeks after the party held in the king's honour in August 1661, Fouquet was arrested; Louis XIV took over the Vaux team to build Versailles.

A private estate, the château is visited through its salons, including the great oval salon under the dome, and its apartments, then through the formal gardens that stretch along the Grand Perspective. On some summer Saturday evenings, the candlelit evenings light the château and gardens with thousands of candles.

Set on a spur above the Loire, the Château de Saumur replaced a 10th-century fortress. Its outline of towers and pointed roofs is the one painted in the 15th century in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, and it is part of the Loire Valley UNESCO World Heritage site.

Owned by the town, it houses a Decorative Arts museum (ceramics, tapestries, furniture) and a Horse Museum, echoing the equestrian tradition of Saumur, home of the Cadre Noir. From its surroundings, the view takes in the Loire and the town's rooftops.

Joséphine de Beauharnais bought Malmaison in 1799, and the estate became the Bonapartes' residence during the Consulate. After her divorce in 1809, Joséphine lived there until her death in 1814 and gathered her famous collection of roses and rare plants.

Now a national museum, the château shows the reception rooms, the library and the Empress's bedroom, furnished with furniture, paintings and objects linked to Napoleon and Joséphine. The park keeps a rose garden, a reminder of Joséphine's passion for botany.

In the Lot-et-Garonne, on the edge of Périgord and Quercy, Bonaguil is one of the last fortified castles built in France. In the late 15th century, Bérenger de Roquefeuil turned a 13th-century fortress into a stronghold designed for artillery, with gun ports, a barbican and a keep shaped like a ship's prow.

The visit goes through the moats, casemates and towers, up to the top of the keep overlooking the wooded Lémance valley.

Built of red stone above the Dordogne valley, in the Lot, the fortress of the barons of Castelnau was enlarged throughout the Middle Ages into a vast walled enclosure flanked by towers, one of the most powerful in Quercy.

Bought in 1896 by the tenor Jean Mouliérat, who restored and furnished it, it was bequeathed to the State: the rooms display his collection of furniture, altarpieces and works of art. Run by the Centre des monuments nationaux, it looks over the confluence of the Cère and the Dordogne.