Les châteaux de la Drôme (route nb11)

Unmissable : Montélimar, capital of nougat. Château des Adhémar (Centre for Contemporary Art), museums (nougat, miniature and fighter planes), ‘Maison Diane de Poitiers’, ‘Collégiale St Croix’, ‘Porte St Martin’, Protestant chuch, ‘allées provençales’, ‘espace St Martin’… Grignan (château made famous by the visits of Mme de Sévigné, typography workshop and museum), ‘Terres d’Ecriture’, miniature provençal village). Suze-la-Rousse (château, home of ‘l’université du vin’), La Garde-Adhémar, listed amongst the hundred most attractive French villages : church, ‘jardin des Herbes’, lavoir [wash house] and ‘Val des Nymphes’*.

The + of this circuit : the villages : Roussas then Valaurie (old restored village and 12th century church), Montségur-sur-Lauzon, la Baume-de-Transit, Bouchet, St-Restitut et Clansayes (Romanesque churches in these 5 villages). St-Paul-Trois-Châteaux : old town, Romanesque cathedral, ramparts, Ste-Juste chapel, ‘musée de la Truffe et du Tricastin’. Allan (remains of the Romanesque Barbara chapel), ‘la Trappe d’Aiguebelle’ monastery at Montjoyer et Chamaret (Tower keep of medieval castle).