DORDOGNE - Château de Hautefort

According to Legend, there are 1001 castle in the Dordogne, but Hautefort was easily the most impressive that I have seen, if only for the sheer size – it was enormous!!

This is another one where photos are not allowed and very annoyingly they had guides on both floors so I wasn’t able to do my normal French type thing and ignore the huge drawings of cameras with red lines through them. Drats! The rooms reminded me of Hampton Court with the wooden parquet floors, huge tapestries and opulent furnishings, but I was actually more intrigued by the outside.

The château is surrounded by gardens; box hedges and formal gardens at the front, decorative designs at the side and flower gardens and a type of labyrinth at the back.



The inner courtyard leads to both the chapel which is actually more the size of a small church, and also the underground tunnels. This is a network of tunnels leading to the former kitchens. At the start of the Second World War, the secretary of fine arts organised the safe keeping of a number of cultural treasures such as the windows from the Cathedrals of Strasbourg, Nancy, Mulhouse and Colmar, and well as ancient chests and manuscripts, which were hidden in the château of the south west of France, including Hautefort.

It is also worth taking a few minutes to walk through the little village of Hautefort. Passing through the archway bellow the château, the pathway down is quite steep, but there is a marked walk through the old town where there are cafés, restaurants and little brocante/antique shops.



I also came across an unusual painted garage where each panel is different scene.

I was feeling very lazy and couldn’t be bothered to walk back up the steep hill to the château (particularly as I was wearing unsuitable sandals!), so I carried on in the same general direction hoping that I’d end up at the car park below the château where I’d left the car…