The best traffic-free bike rides around Luçay-Le-Mâle

Small castle away from the crowds in a small sleepy town.

Located in the heart of the Loire Valley, the castle of Fougères-sur-Bièvre built at the end of the 15th century is the image of the ideal fortified castle with its keep, its machicolated entrance curtain and its fortified postern. Built by Pierre de Refuge and modified by Jean de Villebresme around 1520, the castle acquired its definitive appearance in three generations and will retain it. A castle designed for entertaining, its defensive Gothic architecture allows Pierre de Refuge to assert his social status and his belonging to the French nobility. Acquired by the Lambot family in 1738, René Lambot had the idea of creating a spinning mill in the castle from 1813 to 1901. This made it possible to largely preserve it from revolutionary damage and to maintain life and activity there. Classified as a historic monument in 1912, put up for sale after the stock market crash of 1929, the castle of Fougères-sur-Bièvre was acquired by the State in 1932. The castle of Fougères-sur-Bièvre has a double face: an entrance facade with a particularly defensive Gothic appearance and a courtyard facade decorated with Renaissance decorations. Particularly well preserved, the castle today remains very close to that of 1525-1530 with its military exterior facade, the civil and domestic architecture of its interior courtyard and its medieval interior plan with rooms in a row without distribution corridors. The castle of Fougères-sur-Bièvre stands out from the great castles of the Loire by its sober and powerful architecture, very little altered over the centuries. It illustrates the art of building in the region with its walls made of limestone rubble from Beauce and its sculpted parts in tuffeau from the banks of the Cher. Young and old alike will easily find all the military attributes and the interior layout of a particularly well-preserved small castle from the end of the 15th century.

This castle dates from the 11th century. The castle cannot be visited because it is private property, but you can admire it from the outside.

This castle has a rich history. The castle has many historic pieces of furniture, as well as a large park of around 50 hectares, alternating gardens and forests. It also played an important role during the Second World War, as a warehouse for the Louvre's works of art.

This pond is 3 km long. Its water is quite transparent. There is a sandy beach (unsupervised) where you can get into the water and swim.

Pretty village of Saint Aignan, the Domaine de Saint Aignan located on the banks of the Loire, houses a park and a castle dating from the end of the 19th century. This superb private property belongs to the Beaucorps family. The castle is available for rental.

Palluau-sur-Indre is a medieval town at the crossroads of the Route des Dames de Touraine and the Route des Plantagenêts. This village has fewer than 800 inhabitants but is home to a feudal castle from the 11th century and several houses from the 15th.

In the center of the village, Argy Castle is a Pre-Renaissance castle in Louis XII style. The Château d'Argy estate offers a historical and architectural view of a lowland military site dating from the Middle Ages to the development of a bourgeois residence in the 19th century.