A palace looming surreally out of the mist across a lake, a crenellated keep emerging from fog, impressive ruins now overgrown and stately home still lived in by a noble family – the châteaux of the Loire in the ‘Garden of France’ offer up a host of images, memories and sensations straight from one of the most prestigious periods in France’s history. Exploring the châteaux is to imagine dining on haunch of roe deer with François I, to walk in the inspired footsteps of Joan of Arc and to listen, like Flaubert, for the “laughter of pages and the rustle of dresses”. Sumptuous Châteaux of the Loire, illustrated with magnificent photographs by Jean-Baptiste Leroux, extols the art of their setting and their timelessness.