Azay-le-Rideau, the chateau on an island

The chateau is built on an island in the River Indre and is one of the chateaux of the Loire valley. It is not the largest of the chateaux by any means but to my eye it is the most refined although I don't mean to imply anything derogatory about the others. It was and is not a royal house and is now owned by the Republic of France. A lot of money has obviously been spent in restoring the chateau and work is ongoing. The chateau was a long time in the building and is not finished to its original design with only two of the four intended wings having been built.

There is quite a lot of period furniture on display in the chateau which has been sensitively restored.

There is also a very interesting collection of Victorian type clockwork automatons although they are mostly powered by electricity now. We thouroughly recommend a visit even though the chateau is not on the most popular tourist lists.

The Wiki of the chateau is here.