Château de Langeais
Langeais is the Loire’s best medieval castle experience: built fast by Louis XI from 1465 with a working drawbridge, machicolations, and a fortress face to the town, and behind it a furnished late-Gothic royal residence. In its great hall on December 6, 1491, Charles VIII secretly married Anne of Brittany, the wedding that bound Brittany to France.
The short version
- Langeais is a working medieval castle with a drawbridge onto the main street, where Charles VIII married Anne of Brittany on December 6, 1491.
- Our 2-Night Loire Valley Tour stops here on its second afternoon, between Villandry and Ussé, admission included.
- Admission is €11.50; 18 to 25s pay €9.50, children 10 to 17 pay €5.80 and under-10s enter free.
- The château opens every day of the year, 9:30 to 18:30 in season.
- Trains from Tours take 15 minutes and the station is a short walk from the gate.
Two Castles in One
The garden holds something older: the ruined stone keep raised by Fulk Nerra, the Black Falcon of Anjou, around the year 1000, among the oldest stone keeps standing in France. Between the thousand-year keep and the fifteenth-century château, Langeais brackets the entire castle age, and the wedding tableau in the great hall, life-size and lit, stages the 1491 marriage where it happened.
Visiting
Langeais opens year-round, in the middle of its small town with the drawbridge lowering onto the main street; hours and prices are at chateau-de-langeais.com. Trains from Tours take 15 minutes, one of the few châteaux with the station a short walk from the gate. Allow 90 minutes. The LinkParis.com two-night Loire Valley tour visits Langeais on its second afternoon, between Villandry and Ussé, with admission included.
Langeais pairs with Villandry, 15 minutes away; the top ten castles page covers the western pairings.
Planning the day
Langeais is the château to combine with a train day in Tours: 15 minutes by TER, the station a short walk from the drawbridge, and 90 minutes inside, which leaves the afternoon for Villandry, 15 minutes east by car or taxi, or for the old town of Tours. Last admission is an hour before closing.
Children 10 to 17 pay €5.80, 18 to 25s €9.50, and the château opens every day of the year. The great hall, the furnished royal apartments and the ruined keep of Fulk Nerra in the garden are the three things to see, in that order.
Our 2-Night Loire tour stops here on its second afternoon, between Villandry and Ussé, with admission included; the three sit within 25 minutes of each other west of Tours.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened at Langeais in 1491?
Charles VIII of France secretly married Anne, Duchess of Brittany, in the great hall on December 6, 1491, the marriage that led Brittany into the French crown.
How old is the keep at Langeais?
The ruined keep in the garden was raised by Fulk Nerra around the year 1000, making it one of the oldest stone keeps surviving in France, five centuries older than the château in front of it.
Can you reach Langeais by train?
Yes, one of the easiest: 15 minutes from Tours, with the château a short walk from the station and its drawbridge opening onto the town’s main street.
