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Chateau de Balleroy Review

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Château de Balleroy

Address: Balleroy, 14490
Phone: 02-31-21-60-61
www.chateau-balleroy.com

Category: Castles/Palaces
Location: Bayeux

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Fodor's Review:

About 16 km (10 mi) southwest of Bayeux stands the Château de Balleroy. A connoisseur's favorite, it was begun by architect François Mansart in 1626 and took a decade to complete. The cour d'honneur is marked by two stylish side pavilions—an architectural grace note adapted from Italian Renaissance models—which beautifully frame the small, but very seignorial, central mass of the house. Inside, the salon d'honneur is the very picture of Louis XIV decoration, while other rooms were recast in chic 19th-century style by Malcolm Forbes, who bought the château in 1970. A gallery houses the fascinating Musée des Ballons (Balloon Museum). The companion village to the château was designed by Mansart in one of the first examples of town planning in France. Note that the château itself is closed mid-October to mid-March, but the museum remains open.

Cost: EUR 8
Open: Château and museum mid-Mar.-mid-Oct., Wed.-Mon. 10-6; museum only mid-Oct.-mid-Mar., weekdays 10-noon and 1:30-5.

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