Chateau De Singes aka Castle of Monkeys

Visited with: PG UE, Carl Hartley, Nick Whitworth & Scott Chadwick.

Visit Date: September 2014

History

Château De Singes was built in the 17th century in a very quite rural area of France. There are a few stories about the history of this place but how solid or true they are I am unsure.

One of the main stories of this Château was that the last known owner was an elderly gentleman who was known to be a little recluse and very hard to deal with. One account of this behaviour was when a fire broke out at the Château. Smoke could be seen from the village and when the pompiers (fire department) arrived the elderly gentleman hurled abuse at them and threatened to shoot them if they did not leave his land. Luckily the fire did not spread and most of the château survived the fire.

I also read that the owner lost his fortune betting on horses. This overtime meant that he could not afford the upkeep of the château and ended up living in one the upstairs rooms whilst the rest of the château started to crumble around him. There are papers in one of the rooms with horse racing information on and a few horse related items such as a riding helmet and saddle. Also on the grounds is a stable.

Sadly the owner had to leave his castle for a retirement home (date unknown possibly early 1990’s) but he did not leave easily as he loved his home. I also read that he had refused to sell the property on many occasions to people interested in purchasing the property and land.

As I said earlier the information above is only what I have read on other websites and if any of this is true I am unsure.

My Visit

After a long journey which started at midnight in the UK we finally arrived at the first location in France at 09:30. We was just about to enter the château when we spotted a car parked in the tree line right outside the building. One of the group took a quick look inside to see who or if anyone was inside, within seconds we knew there was and who it was, it was a local photographer with a model doing a photoshoot. We announced we was in the building, said hello and started to get the gear ready and within minutes we was all happily taking photos.

This place is really nice and airy, I say that because the building is basically one big rectangle with windows and doors on both sides which allows the light to stream in. The floors, walls & ceilings are mostly light colours which bounces the light around and gives this place a calm feeling.

Signs of damage are there and a little graffiti but not much. Considering this château has been empty for this long it really is in good condition, well, better than i was expecting anyway.

Lets get on with the photos… Please note, You can click on any image for a larger view.

Now we all knew that the main feature in this chateau is the staircase so a few of the group headed off to photograph it straight away and I decided to head to a different area as to not get in the way. The first photo I took was of a bath tub placed in front of a window. Seems a little weird why it would be here but it makes for a good picture.

Just to the right of where the bath is located was a room with a nice size fireplace. Placed on top of the fireplace is a horse riding helmet which made sense to me later when I found the stables as we was leaving.

After taking the above images I decided to go and see if I could get a shot of the stairs. My luck was in as the lads was just finishing up so after a couple of minutes wait I was snapping away.

After grabbing some images of the stairs I headed to the left hand side of the building, this side is not in as good a condition as the other but none the less it has some interesting decor.

You are probably thinking well is that it! The answer is yes. Upstairs there was nothing of major interest or décor so I focused my time on the ground floor.

More images available on flickr

The images above are just a small selection of the images I have edited. I will be adding lots more photos of Chateau De Singes on my Flickr page which can be found here.

Final thoughts

This small French chateau was a great way to start out the tour. I found this place to be very calming and a nice relaxed & safe explore. I highly recommend visiting this one if you are planning a trip.

To read more location reports of the places we visited on the tour please click here.

If you would like to purchase a print of any of the above photos or any photos on this website you can contact me via the email form on my contact page for more information.

Thanks for reading,