Château du Rivau

The history of Château du Rivau began in the 13th century, when the site held a fortified house. Brought as a dowry by Anne de Fontenay upon her marriage to Pierre de Beauvau, first chamberlain to Charles VII, the medieval building was reinforced in the 15th century under royal authorization. It is famous for the visit of Joan of Arc, who passed through here on her way to Orléans to find horses for her troops, shortly before the city's liberation in 1429. In 1992, the château was acquired by its current owners, Éric and Patricia Laigneau, who transformed it into a fairy-tale château, celebrated today above all for its "Notable" gardens — 15 themed gardens with extraordinary collections of bulbs, irises, peonies, roses, lavender, dahlias and more.

Guests here do not sleep inside the historic château. The hotel's 12 luxury rooms are entirely within the former royal stables, built in 1550 in Second Renaissance style — a genuinely old building on the same historic grounds, but a separate structure from the château Joan of Arc visited. Breakfast is served in the stables' own "salon of honor," decorated in a Renaissance style that echoes the château's interior.

The stables' 1550 construction date, more than a century after Joan of Arc's 1429 visit to the château, means guests sleeping there are in a building with its own genuine Renaissance-era history, distinct from — and younger than — the medieval and 15th-century château itself.

The château's role today as a daytime monument, visited for its architecture and its "Notable" gardens, sits alongside but separate from its role as a hotel, since overnight guests never sleep within the château's walls.

The estate's position in Lémeré, between Chinon and Richelieu, gives guests staying at Rivau easy access to Chinon and its own historic château.