Lyon, Rhône 69000

A 1500 m Renaissance chteau, partially listed as a historic monument and converted into a hotel, outbuildings and garden in a medieval village in the Lyon countryside. You can see the chteau at the end of a country road, between the village church and the primary school. Circular towers, topped with conical tiled roofs typical of French seigneurial architecture, frame a parapet walk. The complex runs around a courtyard bordered by fine lines of trees and a stone perimeter wall. The main building, which is rectangular in shape and three storeys high, is topped with a French-style dark slate roof dotted with ornate dormer windows. The white stone faade has tall mullioned windows. A central staircase, flanked by balusters, leads to a huge door in fitting with the grand building. In the immediate vicinity there are a courtyard and outbuildings, with stone walls and brown tiled roofs, once used as farm buildings. The enclosed parkland, covering some 3, 000 m, stretches out behind the chteau, alternating between formal gardens and wilder copses of trees. The fortress has undergone a complete renovation over the last decade.