OK, last post on our Swiss trip. This one is actually on the French side of the border, on our way back. Now it is an unwritten policy on all our road trips that we will cover at least one beau village and one chateau on each trip, me being a chateau and beau village freak. The beau village was done (see the second post in this series) , but I had a dissatisfied feeling about the chateau. The one that we saw in Switzerland had been a complete washout (see the post about the Cheesy castle). So what do you know, the moment we crossed the Swiss border, on the outskirts of the village of La Clause et Mijoux, we saw this cute chateau peeping over the hills...
Check it out? You betcher. We took the side road leading to it and discovered that it was the Chateau de Joux. An 11th century castle, that was built in the middle ages and later improved at various times by the famous French military architect Vauban and later by Joffre. As far as I could tell from the info boards, it had not been involved in any major conflict, but it had played a political role and had held a couple of famous prisoners. Check out more photos below of the towers, gunpowder room, prison cell and fortifications:
