Châteaudun and its surroundings

Come and visit the 1st castle of the Loire Valley for visitors coming from Paris, that of Jehan de Dunois, companion in arms of Joan of Arc. From the entrance of the castle, at a glance you will perceive all its architectural variety: feudal dungeon with a magnificent scratch frame and at the top of which you can climb, holy chapel, remarkable staircase, treasures of Gothic and then Renaissance architecture. The view of the region is breathtaking from the site.

The most beautiful detour in France, the town of Châteaudun also offers many other historical curiosities. All eras meet there from the Middle Ages to the present day: churches, the mall, the Place du 18 octobre, the Hôtel-Dieu... The collection of the Museum of Fine Arts and Natural History will take you from Egypt to the Far East and will make you discover the richness of the animal world, life in Beauce as well as the war of 1870.

The Grottes du Foulon is a remarkable geological site. The cavities were naturally dug by water at a time when the country was submerged under the sea and when man had not yet appeared. An interesting concentration of quartz and blue chalcedony geodes can be admired along the underground route.

The Conie is a river with a pure and wild appearance that feeds marshes covered with reeds. Several small villages of character await you along its course. The thatched cottages with "rouche" roofs, the local name for reed, will catch your attention. The classified site of the Marais at Donnemain-Saint-Mamès offers a singular natural landscape in the middle of the cultivated plain of Beauce. In Moléans, the castle and the mill of Vucennes, in Conie-Molitard the thatched cottages and the water mill of the Nays, in Nottonville, the old fortified abbey of Le Bois, the church of St Pierre and the megaliths, are as many goals of visits.

Following the high valley of the Loir River towards its source, visit Bonneval, a small medieval town called "the Little Venice of Beauce", and go to Illiers-Combray known by Marcel Proust.