One of the first castles that we ever went to in France is still one of my favorites. It's called the Chateau de Pierrfonds and it's located in a small village of the same name.
It's only about an hour away from Paris and a short drive from where we live so last weekend we decided to go back for a second visit.
The Chateau was originally built in the 14th century by Louis d'Orleans on top of the foundation of an existing defensive structure.
It remained there on a small hill overlooking the village of Pierrfonds until the year of 1617 when a rival of the area besieged and conquered the Chateau and ordered its destruction.
Though the task of destroying it proved to be too great a challenge, it nonetheless went to ruins over the next few centuries.
In 1857 the castle gained new life though when Napoleon III commissioned its restoration and turned it into mostly what you see today.
I personally find the castle to be very unique among the chateaus in France because its not a palace like many of the others but more of a military fortress. But even despite that, it still has a lot of elegance and detail about it as well as some very serious fairytale vibes. To me its a perfect combination of function and elegance and it's not surprising that it has been used in several films including, The Man in the Iron Mask and more recently the Netflix series Versailles.