chateau de pierrefonds

Great value, historical; trip for all family. Town itself is beautiful and quaint. Easy to get to. Not ideal for less mobile travellers.

NAPOLEON III has order to his favourit architect VIOLET le Duc to repair the castle and the emperor used to stay here for a period of time.

great half day out. good looking castle, impressive walk up the hill. great views. well priced unlike rip off uk prices.

The chateau looks gorgeous from outside. Inside, however, practically nothing is authentic. One should know the building history before visiting this place. If are aware that the castle is rebuilt according to Napoleon's idea (and his contemporaries' conceptions) of the Medieval Ages - then it can be interesting.For us it's been disappointing not to be allowed to walk on the (impressive) walls - something which makes the place truely precious as a film location but not for visitors.

For a castle it's not very old, thus it's in good condition. It's been in several movies and tv shows. We last visited and heard several concerts in various parts of the castle...it was great to wander around and the acoustics were very good. If you like history you can easily spend 2 hours.

The chateau at Pierrefonds dominates the town and is magnificently, and massively, grand. It's also Merlin's castle from the BBC series, although there is very little (if anything) in the chateau itself that plays on this link. We did a self-guided tour. The chateau was pretty much totally rebuilt in the 1800's and the majority of the rooms are unfurnished. But the scale of the place is impressive and it's great to wander around. There's a very interesting (yes, really) exhibition about leadworking, and also a museum explaining the history of the chateau and its renovation. All-in-all we probably spent a good couple of hours here.

Once you get there, it is fantastic. The best way to visit is with the tour group, because it is in the middle of nowhere and is challenging to get to by car. The grandest castle that I have seen in my entire life. You will find magic there, especially if you watched the series Merlin. It is sad that museum of Invalides, Paris, robbed this castle from all of the medieval knights. It features fantastic work of French leadsmiths. Thank you from the heart to Mrs. Pasquier-Monduit for her donations, it was a pleasure to see the creations of dynasty of leadsmiths. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3UUBXPuTqg

Chateau de Peirrefonds is breathtakingly beautiful...just make sure you get there before visiting hours close. We missed it by 30 minutes and could only view it from the outside, but it was still impressive. After you see it, go into town and enjoy the cheese and wine from the local merchants in the out door town center. One of the hightlights of our trip.

If you are in Paris on vacation and have a day I highly recommend the Château Pierrefonds. If you live here it is a must see. It's about an hour and half from Paris by car and well worth the drive. The castle can be reached through a series of trains and buses, but I would highly recommend driving (worth renting a car). After you get off the A1, the main freeway the drive turns into a lot of curves and bends through the beautiful French forest. The ideal way to visit the castle is to get started around 9:30am. If you take your time you will reach the castle just before noon, which is a perfect time. Any latter and you might find yourself spending too much time driving around the castle looking for parking. Since the castle is closed from noon to 2:00pm you will have plenty of time to enjoy a wonderful French lunch before visiting the main attraction. Plan on an hour and a half to two hours to visit the entire castle and all the exhibits it has to offer. The admission price is more than reasonable, so this is not an attraction I would recommend on a free museum day. So put this one on the list, and come see one piece of history from the Hundred Years' War.

Just fabulous, been a couple of times during various holidays in the area. Even traveled here from way over on the west once just to take some friends we were with. Even during renovations last year I wasn't disappointing.

Visited here for a morning with family. I never watched 'Merlin' on BBC so I can't claim to have known anything about the chateau. We parked in the village beneath the chateau (free) and enjoyed the winding walk up to the entrance. €7.50 for adults and free for children. The shop is well worth a look.The tour is via a handout in various languages and takes you through many of the chateau's rooms. Most aren't furnished but you still are able to grasp the history of the place. The kids loved it and we spent a good 90mins taking in the sights before leaving.The village is well worth a look as well. An excellent artisan cake shop to fill up with sweet delights after the visit.We stayed at the Croix du Vieux Pont Campsite. It took us roughly 20 minutes to drive (Easy with the Sat Nav).

Parking is very easy at the base. However, it’s a bit of a climb (round and round the hill with a pretty steep final bit) to get to the entrance, but really well worth it. Some incredible sculptures & exhibits and the chateau itself is remarkable. Never seen Merlin so no idea about that aspect :)

Although this was renovated in the 19th century, has very little furniture and does not take long to look around, my son was very happy to be in the place where the TV series Merlin was shot. The village of Pierrefonds is also a pretty spot (especially if you have come from the more modern, less hilly, war damaged towns to the north).

As a family trip we visited the castle on a nice sunny autumn day. It is beautiful castle and village to spend the day. Don't forget to have a drink at the lake and enjoy the view. The castle it self is worth the visit a nice walk up with nice views. This is all for free. If you have the time and budget it is also worth to visit the castle inside. You walking back in time of knights and Merlin (if you have watched the BBC TV serie)

I am a couple to late posting this, I went to Pierrefords a couple of years ago, I had seen this castle in Merlin the bbc series and as I quite like Historical stuff I really wanted to go and see this castle, So I went to paris and got a train and I had decided to stay in Pierrfords itself, It very small but it is on a lake and the castle was quite amzeing and it takes about an hour to go round maybe more, but It is well worth seeing.