Chateau de Balleroy (7-5-2008)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I love castles! I like them all equally: small, big, ruined, medieval, Baroque, sand..they are all great!

Balleroy has a 17th century (1631) castle with an interesting history. You can only visit it with a guide so you'll hear all about it when you do (or just read it at the site http://www.chateau-balleroy.com/).
We almost had a personal guide (just 2 other persons joined) so we had a great tour with loads of information in English and French.

Noteworthy is that the castle was bought by none other than Malcolm S. Forbes and is still owned and visited by the Forbes family nowadays.
The inside is not all original 17th century but combines several periods and styles. It's impressive none the less!

A great extra to this castle is the "Musée des Ballons" which is in one of the old stables. Mister Forbes was fascinated by hot air balloons and therefor this small museum has a great collection!
There is a hot air balloon race / festival too here (not sure what date). And there's also a nice shop with cool gifts and hot air balloon posters ;-)