Towering above the mountain stream, this castle built by Gaston Fébus in the 14C was transformed into a Renaissance palace by Marguerite d’Angoulême and took on its current appearance during the 19C, in the time of Louis-Philippe and Napoléon III. The apartments consist of a series of richly decorated rooms with beautiful tapestries. The tortoise shell said to have been used as Henry IV’s crib is displayed in the room where he was born; portraits are in the dressing room. The apartment of Empress Eugénie has been restored to its Second-Empire splendour.