Royal Château of BloisChâteau royal de Blois

Royal Château of Blois rises above the town as a condensed history of the French court, built and rebuilt from the 13th–17th cc. Its courtyard brings together a Gothic great hall, the flamboyant Louis XII wing, the early 16th c. Francis I wing with its open spiral staircase, and a sober classical façade—architecture turned dynasty. Power was staged and contested here: the Estates-General met in 1588, and Catherine de Médicis died in 1589, leaving Blois one of the Loire’s most legible royal palimpsests.