Harcourt Castle, Harcourt

Château d'Harcourt is a remarkably preserved medieval fortress dating from the 12th-14th centuries, ancestral home of the illustrious Harcourt family - one of France's most ancient noble houses traced back to 1094. The castle features a polygonal layout with five round towers, impressive defensive walls, and a double moat system that once made it nearly impregnable. Surrounding the castle is France's oldest arboretum, established in 1802, which houses an extraordinary collection of nearly 3,000 trees representing 500 species from around the world, including rare specimens of giant sequoias, metasequoias, and centuries-old cedars of Lebanon.