Josselin

The mediaeval castle of Josselin, in Morbihan, Brittany viewed from the bank of the river Oust.

It is entered from the opposite side, over an old bridge where the drawbridge once was.

The old moat...

... now guarded by stone lions.

The French garden - formal.

The "English" garden.

The castle from the other side looks completely different because the original structure was largely destroyed and rebuilt in a Renaissance style but retaining four of the old towers and the walls on the river side. During World War II, it was requisitioned and occupied by Germans.

The granite facade is fantastically carved.

Some of the stone work has been restored and replaced, but there is quite a lot remaining to be done. All the balustrades between the windows are different.

This one has the words "à plus", the owner's family motto, meaning none better. Nowadays à plus is a casual abbreviation of "à plus tard" or "until later"/ "see you later", further abbreviated in text messaging and emails to a+. The first time I saw it I thought I was being awarded a grade :)

The isolated tower, with the church tower in the background. It looks exactly as I imagined Rapunzel's tower when I was a child. In fact it has often been used to imprison people, including English prisoners in 1758, and if my memory is right, 79 members of the French resistance were held and executed there during WWII.