Surrounded by massive walls, this hilltop castle – offering fabulous views across town, river and countryside – is split into three sections separated by dry moats. The ticket counter and shop are inside the 12th-century Fort St-Georges. Pass under the 14th-century Tour de l’Horloge (Clock Tower) and you'll come to the Château du Milieu (Middle Castle), vestige of a time when the Plantagenet court of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine assembled here. Finally, Fort du Coudray sits on the tip of the promontory.
In the Château du Milieu, the restored south wing of the Logis Royaux (Royal Lodgings) has the reconstructed royal chambers of Charles VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine, scale models of the castle, Joan of Arc memorabilia and archaeological finds. In the garden you can see scale models of a trébuchet and a bricole, used in the Middle Ages to catapult projectiles at the enemy. At the far end, the round, 13th-century Tour du Coudray was used to imprison Knights Templar in the early 1300s (look for their graffiti inside) and hosted Joan of Arc in 1429.
The castle provides visitors with HistoPad virtual reality tablets (in eight languages) that show various rooms as they might have looked in the Middle Ages. Kids get a booklet (in English and French) with activities at a dozen spots around the site. Two dozen audio and video commentaries (in four languages) are scattered around the castle; out-of-doors, look for wooden benches. The ticket counter can also supply you with a map of Chinon.
The château lays on all sorts of special kids' activities during French school holidays – the website has details.
