The château in Montrésor

Montrésor made for a really nice first stop on our brief tour with Chris and Barbara from California last week. We were able to park and walk along the river trail below the château, enjoying the views. Montrésor is one of the 150 or so « plus beaux villages de France ».

These two photos are really the same one. I just cut it into two halves, top and bottom. In the one above, you see the château reflected in the still waters of the Indrois River — a stream, really; in French, a rivière or tributary of a larger river.

In the second photo, you see the château itself, standing high over the river and the landscape.

Here's the original photo.

The first fortifications were built on the site of present-day Montrésor over a thousand years ago, but almost all those structures were torn down in the 19th century. Most of the existing buildings, including the village church, date from the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries.