Jean-François Da Costa speaks on the motte castrale of Châtillon-sur-Indre and on the traces that time has cut into the land around it. His case is that such a site can be reimagined, reinterpreted and revitalized once heritage, landscape and memory are put in conversation. The lecture asks what still ties the present to what came before, and what a well-known monument of the town might yet become. Reservations are required to attend.
Tag: castles-fortresses
Points de vue sur le château de Dinan
The château de Dinan opens for a sensory visit that works on perception instead of chronology. Optical illusions unsettle the eye, hidden places are opened, and exceptional panoramas are reached. Visitors read the château through the eyes of those who crossed it, moving from one point of view to the next. It belongs to Les Minutes Bleues, the Côtes-d’Armor programme that opens the département’s patrimoine in the blue light of dusk.
Taverniers d’un soir au château de la Hunaudaye
The château de la Hunaudaye hands its Taverne over to visitors for one sitting of the festival Les Minutes Bleues. Each team pits its knowledge against the others and calls on creativity, exploration and strategy. Shakers in hand, the players mix the best breuvage sans alcool they can manage. The team that comes out ahead is declared Tavernier du château. The festival opens the hauts-lieux of Côtes d’Armor under the blue light of dawn or dusk.
Pas après pas, son après son at La Hunaudaye
A 3 km walk sets out from the Château de la Hunaudaye at Plédéliac to meet the autumn sunrise. An immersive sound experience runs alongside the route, so the light and the sound arrive together. The group is capped at 20 walkers and the outing is open from the age of 8. It is one rendez-vous of the 5th Minutes Bleues, the Côtes d’Armor festival that opens 24 sites of natural and cultural patrimoine in the blue light of dawn or dusk.
La Nocturne, the château de Châteaugiron by torchlight
Motte castrale, medieval fortress, then a residence of pleasure: a thousand years of lives sit in one building. Ten steps reach the keep, twenty-five the main building, twenty-five more the attic, one hundred and seven the clock tower. A castle chapel turned contemporary art centre stands on the way, and at sunset the walls start telling their stories. Departure is from the Pays de Châteaugiron tourist office, and a hand torch is needed.
Des tours à l’abbaye ?! The Landévennec fortress
In the thirteenth century the abbey of Landévennec became a fortified castle: towers, moats and drawbridges surrounded the church and the monastic buildings. The exhibition traces that change, shaped by power struggles, ambitions and wealth. Archaeological artefacts, games and interactive displays punctuate the tour, and a digital reconstruction in three dimensions puts the abbey back as it stood in the Middle Ages. The monks’ daily lives figure alongside.
Veillée marionnettique at the Château de Quintin
Polichinelle, Guignol, Charlemagne and the trois mousquetaires carry the tales and legends gathered at the Château de Quintin. Designing a puppet, real or imaginary, and bringing it to life follows the telling, for ages six and up, with reservation required. A Monument historique at the heart of the Petite Cité de Caractère de Quintin, the château programmes the veillée within the fifth Minutes Bleues. That festival opens high places of the natural and cultural heritage of the Côtes d’Armor in the blue light of dawn or dusk.
La vie en bleu: cyanotype at the Château de Quintin
Julie Mainguet brings the old cyanotype technique to the Château de Quintin, and each participant leaves with two plant works in shades of blue. The session is built as a creative and sensory workshop, open from the age of five and taken on booking. Plants or objects brought from home can go into the picture. It sits in Les Minutes Bleues, the festival the Côtes d’Armor stages in 24 hauts lieux du patrimoine naturel et culturel, at dawn or dusk.
Madame de Sévigné: décor workshops for children
Vitré’s heritage and museums service invites children from the age of seven into the château for a workshop on ornament. Madame de Sévigné sets the theme, and the group talks through décor, ornementation and orfèvrerie as the marquise’s own century understood them. The newly opened exhibition room supplies the examples to look at closely. Each child then draws, borrows what they like and invents an ornament of their own.
Ma sorcière mal aimée at Château de Montélimar
Ma sorcière mal aimée introduces families to witches and druids in the medieval imagination in Montélimar. Participants make protective amulets inspired by medieval talismans. The guided activity is designed for children aged seven and over with their families, and the ticket also includes an independent visit to the castle.