Our Blog - Normandy 2023 - Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, France

The first stop on our trip to Normandy this year was Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, a little village of less than 500 people with a castle at the top of a rocky outcrop. I'll start with a few general pictures from the bottom of the hill, before we headed up. If you peek under the bridge, you can see some colorful canoes ... there seem to be a couple different canoeing companies and the river looked quite nice to canoe on with no rapids. The town seems to survive pretty much on tourism and some farming in the surrounding area.

About 1/2 way up the hill is the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel. It seems to have been built around the 17th century in a Romanesque style but then had fallen into ruin by the 19th century, when it was remodeled. A large part of the roof was destroyed in the Allied bombardment in June 1944. Inside, it is very clean and bright, with a nice altarpiece with St. Michael. Like with most parish churches, there is a memorial to the combatants who died during WWI here, with statues of Notre-Dame of Lourdes and Joan of Arc.

Tom and Lucy heading through one of the gates into the old town where the castle is.

A little bit on the castle although we didn't go inside as we had Lucy with us and dogs weren't allowed. A castle was built here in the 12th century but it was burned in 1215 after being seized by Simon de Montfort, who led a crusade against the Cathars. A new castle was started in the 13th century by the Caumont family. However, during the Hundred Years War (in which the family sided with the English), it went back and forth between the English and the French until the end of the war, when the Caumont family regained the castle and kept it until the French Revolution. It was used as a stone quarry after the Revolution with some of the buildings being lost or partially lost. It was bought in 1965 and renovated, and then opened to the public in 1985. In addition to the castle, there is also a Museum of War in the Middle Ages, with life-size reconstructions of various different catapults.