Mont Saint Michel is certainly a fantastic place, however I must admit that I got a bit bored of walking around the cathedral after about the 20th empty room of pillars ;)
Unfortunately a lot of monuments/castles in France suffer from that feeling of emptiness; I assume they were cleared out during the revolution. Your best chance of seeing interesting things as well as interesting buildings seems to be to look for privately-owned/smaller castles that are open to the public. I went to a particularly nice one a couple of years ago where I believe the tour guide was a member of the family who owned it, and they had a fantastic collection of old furniture, art, weapons etc. And the biggest holly tree I have ever seen (we're talking castle-wall height).
It's something we kinda take for granted in the UK. We have a lot of ruined castles that are obviously pretty empty, but if it's got a roof it probably has lots of old stuff to see inside too.
I do like the number of castles in France though; there's always something to see nearby. It's fun to be in a place with so many historic buildings, like here in Wales (~600 castles)!
The great thing is that, since you have them everywhere, you can go on visiting one great castel and one great church. Then do something else.
See the giant mechanical elephant in Nantes, hire a guide for "la vallée des merveilles" in the Mercantour park, play petanque and try pastis with old persons in Marseilles, kayak in "les gorges du verdon", bath naked in Saint Selon or break a leg in a the snow of Auron.
It's a really cool country once you forget the stereotypes of food, sex and strikes. I mean, I do have food while having sex during strikes, but frankly you can do that anywhere.
> I mean, I do have food while having sex during strikes, but frankly you can do that anywhere.
Bonus points for irony! Of course, where I live the strikes happen almost never, not to mention my partner‘s apparent willingness for sex as „almost never“ too.
Actually I go to France for traditional music events and festivals in Berry/Auvergne (I play diatonic accordion), I just happen to particularly like going to castles and my partner is an archaeologist :)
Thank you for these examples. I visited the links but I am not entirely sure what I’m looking at (sorry, this may also have to do with being a non-French speaker). Would you be so kind as to provide your thoughts on what’s the interesting bit about these places?
Trip Advisor hasn't failed me, nor have the Lonely Planet region guides. You do see tourist traps high up in the list, but you also see high-rated, low-total-votes entries which can be gems. You'll have more luck if you focus the search as much as possible; "castles in france" won't be as good as "Renaissance France exhibits with disabled access in Aude"
> Your best chance of seeing interesting things as well as interesting buildings seems to be to look for privately-owned/smaller castles that are open to the public.
Unfortunately a lot of monuments/castles in France suffer from that feeling of emptiness; I assume they were cleared out during the revolution. Your best chance of seeing interesting things as well as interesting buildings seems to be to look for privately-owned/smaller castles that are open to the public. I went to a particularly nice one a couple of years ago where I believe the tour guide was a member of the family who owned it, and they had a fantastic collection of old furniture, art, weapons etc. And the biggest holly tree I have ever seen (we're talking castle-wall height).
It's something we kinda take for granted in the UK. We have a lot of ruined castles that are obviously pretty empty, but if it's got a roof it probably has lots of old stuff to see inside too.
I do like the number of castles in France though; there's always something to see nearby. It's fun to be in a place with so many historic buildings, like here in Wales (~600 castles)!