Yèvre-le-Châtel, France 🇫🇷 2023

Date: 22nd June 2023

Travelled: 220 kms from Lavardin to Melun via Yèvre-le-Châtel  

Visited: Châteaudun and Yèvre-le-Châtel  

Stayed: Port Du Roy Aire. €11, N48.53550, E02.55410  

Budget: 31 days @ €100 per day

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It seems to have drizzled lightly all night and it continues into this morning. Pam’s plan for a 6 kms walk this morning dissolved like disprin. So after coffee and some fruit we made for the road early.

We didn’t have any plans to visit Châteaudun, but it looked interesting in Google and it’s on our way. As usual our GPS found an interesting route through the old town to the motorhome parking area.

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The is a designated motorhome parking place for 6 directly below the Château de Châteaudun. It looks like a defensive stronghold more so than your classic French château. The original keep dates from 1170 being continually expanded until the 15th century.

As where early and the Château doesn’t open for another hour we saved €12.

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Found a nice door as we walked up the hill.

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Our savings from not visiting the museum are soon spent in the market on a roast chicken and baguettes. The drizzle continues as we make our way back to the Hymer.

Our next hour or so spent driving the country D roads to Yèvre-le-Châtel. It’s a slow and relatively relaxed drive through wheat and maize fields.

From our guide book the Most Beautiful Villages in France you’ll find Yèvre-le-Châtel on page 55. It’s situated in the Central Loire or Loiret area of France.

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Yèvre-le-Châtel, Yèvre-la-Ville, Pithiviers, Loiret, Centre-Val de Loire, Metropolitan France, 45300, France

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We arrive in Yèvre-le-Châtel finding plenty of room in a small car-park on the edge of the village. We soon discover it’s perhaps 200 metres from the edge of the village to the centre.

Finding the 12th century Yèvre Castle we pay our €6 pp just as the drizzle stops. Nearly everything is in French and the old man in the office tells us they get very few English speaking tourists.

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The ramparts provide some wonderful views across the valley and the village. Pam loves a steep spiral staircase, well the first three, maybe not the forth.

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After the castle we walk the village, there are a couple of artist places but generally it’s just a quiet place, with little lanes that lead to other little laneways.

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What we found most interesting was the ruins of Église Saint-Lubin and its graveyard. During the 13th century the village had grown to a size where a second church was warranted and work on Saint-Lubin commenced but the 100 year war meant the church was never completed and today it’s a majestic ruin.

Saint-Lubin was once visited by Victor Hugo and he often referred to the ruin in his writings, not that I’m name dropping.

The village graveyard stands in the grounds surrounding the ruin of a church that never was.

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So our visit to Yèvre-le-Châtel is complete. We could spend the night in the car-park as I doubt anyone would care but we travel on to Melun and a small aire de CC, just off the Seine. It has electricity and the Hymer needs vacuuming and a few things need charging.

Apart from that Melun is less than 20 minutes on to our next adventure.

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Michael + Pam