• No strollers or scooters inside: strollers are fine in the park and can be parked in the main courtyard, so bring a carrier for babies
• Dim, eerie cellars with changing lights and whispered voices around the royal effigies, which can spook some younger kids
• About 90 minutes by car from Paris on the A1 (exit 9), with free parking on rue Sabatier, a 10-minute walk from the castle

A medieval fortress, wrecked in 1617 and rebuilt from 1857 by Viollet-le-Duc for Napoleon III as a storybook castle.

Kids cross the bridges into the courtyard, then go down a lit staircase to the cellars, where about 100 plaster effigies of French kings and queens lie under shifting lights and whispered poems. A 5-hectare wooded park wraps around the walls, with cannonballs still stuck in one tower.