Le Château de Fougères-sur-Bièvre

Just 10 miles northeast of Montrichard, 10 miles south of Blois, and twelve miles north of Saint-Aignan". you'll find the village called Fougères-sur-Bièvre and its late 15th-century château — located "amid pine forests and fields of asparagus", the Signpost guidebook says. Fougères means "ferns" and the Bièvre is a small local river, only 15 miles long.

Bièvre is also an old French word meaning "beaver."

The Cadogan guide says that "Fougères looks defensively medieval with its masses turrets, its small irregular stones, and its inner courtyard paranoically enclosed on all four sides." The Cadogan's author describes the courtyard as "wonderfully atmospheric."