At the end of my second week studying in Angers, our program took an excursion to look at three famous châteaux of the Loire Valley, and I am still wondering how they could pick three out of the more than 300 châteaux of the region! As we began our tour, we started with Château d’Azay-le-Rideau. The château is pictured below:
This appeared to be a very old and very large house that we assumed to belong to a wealthy family in French history. As we continued on our journey, we traveled to Château de Chenonceau (my personal favorite) which is pictured below:
It was larger and grander than the first, and it actually spans an entire river! It had impressive gardens and had a long driveway bordered in trees making it appear even grander. The final château of the day was the Château de Chenonceau and it was so impressively large it was no surprise to learn it had been built and used by French royalty.
These were three very different buildings, but one strong commonality between them is their designation as a château. More than the comparison between these three, the comparison of the three to the Château of Angers had me wondering what exactly is a château, and how is it different than a palais (Palace)? The Château of Angers was built as a fortification and clearly looks like a castle built for the purpose of protections:
After coming in to contact with this word describing such different buildings I decided to do some research. I found a lot of information on the internet, but there were multiple answers given as to the difference between château and palais. One source recommended that the difference was an urban/rural differentiation. Urban buildings of this nature are called a palais, while buildings in the country are referred to as a château. Another source was claiming that the difference is based on reinforcements. A palais is an unfortified building and a fortified building, no matter its use, is a château.
As I reflected on this information, I reached out to my main resource with native French speakers: my host family. I asked my host father what he believed to be the distinction of a château and palais. His answer supports the idea that a château is a fortified building and he used the Château of Angers as an example. It was built for defense, and although people did live in it and it has been used for many other purposes, it is qualified as a château because it was fortified. A palais can also have different purposes, but it does not have the same fortification. While this is what he said, I do not feel that this is necessarily excluding the idea of urban and rural. A house that was built in town would probably not need the same level or protection that a house in the country would need. It may be that a house in the country is a fortified house and one in the city would be left without such measures.
The distinction between château and palais was certainly not something I thought about before I journeyed over to France, but understanding these differences is an important part of learning a language and culture. The Loire Valley is well known for the hundreds of châteaux that span its reaches and I am excited to discover what else it has to offer.
2 weeks left in Angers!
Maggie
A lovely, informative post. Thank you. You totally grasp the concept of DIVE–describe, investigate, verify, and explain. I had not thought about the difference between a chateau and a palace, and I learned so much from your post. You are inquisitive, reflective, and articulate. I look forward to future posts. Michele
The chateaux are beautiful! I’m jealous. On the third chateau, do you know what those things on the top are and what they’re for (if anything)? All I can think is that they look like mini water towers or giant metal octopi.
It’s interesting how one word, like chateau, can encompass a lot of different concepts and be hard to define exactly. It’s more complicated than you’d think from looking in a French-English dictionary.