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This cool, handsome hotel has a contemporary feel, sympathetically blending modern comforts with its 18th-century surroundings. The restaurant has a Michelin star.

This handsome château hotel has the finest restaurant in the area. In the grand dining room, with its chandeliers and panelled walls, the freshest local produce is served in elegant and tempting ways.

This 17th-century house of rosy brick and stone has a large garden with a hornbeam maze by Le Nôtre’s leading gardener, Colinet.

This small but perfectly formed 13th-century château looks down on the Vire Valley. The bedrooms are finely furnished and the flagged dining hall offers excellent regional cuisine.

Diane de Poitiers’ once-fabulous château is now but a glimmer of its former glory, yet still impresses – especially the gatehouse with its amazing clock.

Within easy reach of Bayeux, Caen and the D-Day beaches, this 18th-century château was the family home of the owners until it became a hotel in 1976. Bedrooms are particularly elegant.

A striking example of the 15th-century Flamboyant Gothic, this château – in two parts linked by a magnificent stone staircase – has a jewel of a chapel.

Queen Victoria came to stay in Louis Philippe’s 16th-century holiday home, now the Musée Louis-Philippe, newly restored and crammed with antiques.

Its fairy-tale turrets, ornately carved pediments and steep-sloping roofs reflected in the limpid, green waters of its rectangular moat, this dainty early-Renaissance château is as enchanting as the family name is curious. It was built mainly during the 15th and 16th centuries, with a west wing – now the living quarters – added in the 18th. You can wander in the grounds or take a short tour of the interior, furnished in predominantly 18th-century style.