Château de Maintenon from Chartres

Escape Chartres for a calm half-day at Château de Maintenon, a Renaissance residence perched on the banks of the Eure that became the private retreat of Louis XIV and Madame de Maintenon. Inside, richly furnished rooms — from the King's Salon to galleries lined with Chinese wallpaper and Meissen porcelain — chart centuries of aristocratic life. The formal French gardens, restored to André Le Nôtre's 1676 designs, are punctuated by monumental L monograms honouring the Sun King. Just beyond the grounds stand the dramatic ruins of Vauban's unfinished aqueduct, a colossal engineering venture that never carried a drop of water to Versailles. The château is closed on Mondays (except public holidays), and winter weekday hours are limited to afternoons.